Vatican City:
The future Pope Benedict XVI once had some prescient words about what it's like to be pontiff: You're not doing your job unless you're being criticized.
The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano on Thursday published an unknown homily by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, delivered Aug. 10, 1978, days after Pope Paul VI died.
Ratzinger eulogized Paul by saying he had accepted being pope as a sign of "faith in suffering." Ratzinger said Paul had been criticized "sometimes in bad taste" for being both firm and flexible.
Ratziner then said: "But a pope who isn't being criticized today fails in his job."
Benedict, who suffered criticism for gaffes and scandals under his watch, in February became the first pontiff in 600 years to resign. Now 86, he is living in a Vatican monastery.
The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano on Thursday published an unknown homily by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, delivered Aug. 10, 1978, days after Pope Paul VI died.
Ratzinger eulogized Paul by saying he had accepted being pope as a sign of "faith in suffering." Ratzinger said Paul had been criticized "sometimes in bad taste" for being both firm and flexible.
Ratziner then said: "But a pope who isn't being criticized today fails in his job."
Benedict, who suffered criticism for gaffes and scandals under his watch, in February became the first pontiff in 600 years to resign. Now 86, he is living in a Vatican monastery.
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