Hanged, Drawn and Quartered

200 Words: Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI has died (1927-2022).

His legacy is the relationship between faith and reason.

Faith without reason becomes fundamentalism. Reason without faith becomes introverted.

He visited the United Kingdom in 2010 to beatify John Henry Newman (1801-1890), an Anglican convert to Catholicism (1845).

Queen Elizabeth II was present at one of Benedict’s speeches. She turned to one of her aids and said, ‘Why can’t our bishops talk like that?’

Newman reminds us:

That as men and women made in the image and likeness of God, we are created to know the truth, to find in that truth our ultimate freedom and the fulfilment of our deepest human aspirations (2010).

Aristotle, the great philosopher:

All men and women by nature desire to know (Metaphysics).

Indeed, no one likes secrets, especially when it comes to the truth:

The truth that sets us free cannot be kept to ourselves. It calls for testimony. It begs to be heard (2010).

But everything has a price:

In our time, the price to be paid for fidelity to the Gospel is no longer being hanged, drawn and quartered, but it often involves being dismissed out of hand, ridiculed or parodied.

Amen.