Former Pope Benedict Writes Against Gay Marriage

Former Pope Benedict XVI accuses opponents of wanting to ‘silence’ him while attacking gay marriage in a new authorised biography published Monday in Germany according to a report by The Daily Mail.

Despite leaving office in 2013, the 93-year-old, whose original name is Joseph Ratzinger, has not given up contributing to social debates, and he offers a fresh attack against gay marriage in the new biography.

According to the biography:

A century ago, anyone would have thought it absurd to talk about homosexual marriage. Today those who oppose it are excommunicated from society. It’s the same thing with abortion and creating human life in the laboratory…The spectacle of reactions coming from German theology is so misguided and ill-willed that I would prefer not to speak of it. I would rather not analyse the actual reasons why people want to silence my voice.

He went on to say that he has fallen victim to a ‘malignant distortion of reality’ in reactions to his interventions in theological debates.

While he was in office from 2005-13, he has frequently been criticised for his attitudes to Islam or to social questions and he is accused of attempting to undermine the modernisation drive of his successor Pope Francis.

Ratzinger attempts to counter such claims in the biography, saying his ‘personal friendship with Pope Francis has not only endured but grown’.

Benedict’s replacement Pope Francis has widely been seen as a more unconventional pope during his time since becoming the global leader of the Catholic Church in 2013.

When he was first elected, he chose his own Papal name ‘Francis’ and has also been a more modern and public-facing Pope with his use of social media and stances on social issues.

On 11 February 2013, Benedict unexpectedly announced his resignation in a speech in Latin before the cardinals, citing a “lack of strength of mind and body” due to his advanced age.

His resignation became effective on 28 February 2013. He is the first pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415 and the first to do so on his own initiative since Celestine V in 1294.