It is something of a truism to say Pope Benedict XVI will be most remembered as the first pope to resign in over 600 years.
That is to greatly diminish the enormous influence Joseph Ratzinger had in the Catholic Church for over 40 years, since Pope John Paul II appointed him in 1981 as prefect at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).
Throughout the long 36-year papacy of John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger supplied the theological heft that allowed the pope to row back on the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, reaffirming many pre-Council verities.
Indeed, the eight-year papacy of Pope Benedict was a continuation of that of John Paul in this retreat from the work of that council, which concluded in 1965.
His was also a controversial papacy, beset by allegations of corruption, leaked documents and the building worldwide revelations of sexual abuse by clergy.
On election as pope in 1978, John Paul II was determined to assert papal authority and that of the magisterium as the sole teaching voice in the church, and in 1981 he installed Cardinal Ratzinger at the CDF as his right-hand man in doing so.
They soon had total control, with dissenting theologians, whether on Humanae Vitae, liberation theology in South and Central America, or other issues, silenced or suspended.
Cardinal Ratzinger reasserted traditional church teaching on sex within marriage, on homosexuality, divorce, and women’s ordination with no concession to a deepening understanding of sexuality in the wider world or of the role of women, even as these came to apply within other Christian denominations.
As pope he will be remembered for his resignation but also as the first pope to seriously address the clerical child sex abuse scandal in the church.
As part of its investigations into abuse in Ireland, he was heavily critical of the response of Irish bishops, summoning them on one occasion to the Vatican.However, during his papacy the Vatican failed to acknowledge its own responsibility for what had occurred, sticking to its policy that clergy abusers should not be reported to the civil authorities.
Its failure to co-operate with Irish abuse investigation led to tensions with the Irish government. Subsequently, German investigators were heavily critical of his own role as Bishop of Munich in relation to four priests guilty of abuse.
His time as pope showed the church starting to face up to this terrible part of its history – but while Pope Benedict recognised action was needed, the first instinct of the Vatican remained to protect the church.
His latter years saw him holding to his conservative views, illustrating that some of the more progressive instincts of Pope Francis continue to be opposed by many in the church.