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Published December 31, 2023, 5:28 PM ET
VATICAN CITY (Portal) – The Vatican marked the first anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI's death on Sunday, with one of his closest aides saying he would never have agreed to a recent declaration allowing Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who was the church's doctrinal leader under Benedict, and Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Benedict's private secretary, both Germans, were two headliners at an event marking the anniversary organized by the conservative U.S.-based Catholic television station EWTN.
“This would never have happened (under Benedict) because it was so ambiguous,” Mueller said on the sidelines of the event when asked by Portal about the landmark Dec. 18 statement.
While the December statement said such blessings do not resemble the sacrament of marriage between one man and one woman and cannot be part of any rituals or liturgies, some advocates for greater inclusion of LGBT people saw them as a possible precursor to same-sex ones Marriage in the church.
“There is no gay marriage. It does not exist, it cannot exist, despite the ideologies we have (today),” said Müller, whom Francis removed as head of the Vatican’s teaching department after Benedict resigned in 2013.
Pope Benedict XVI at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Vatican City on December 31, 2022. ZUMA Press
Francis briefly mentioned the anniversary in his Sunday blessing to the crowds in St. Peter's Square, saying Benedict “served the Church with love and wisdom” and that “we feel so much affection, so much gratitude, so much admiration for him.”
Francis then asked the crowd to applaud for Benedict, who became the first pope in 700 years to resign rather than reign for life.
Mueller said that while his personal relationship with Francis is “very good,” he does not hesitate to publicly disagree with him on doctrinal issues because “we are not in the Soviet Union, where only one leader has a say.”
Müller said: “The best thing we can do for the Pope is to always be close to Catholic truth and the Catholic faith and not to be here as admirers.”
Previously, Gänswein, Benedict's secretary, held a memorial mass for Benedict in St. Peter's Basilica. Gaenswein's voice broke twice with emotion as he read his sermon.
“That would never have happened (under Benedict) because it was so ambiguous,” Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller told Portal. AP
Benedict's surprise resignation divided the church and many said he should not have resigned.
His 10-year stay as “pope emeritus” at the Vatican deepened the conservative-progressive divide, with some die-hard traditionalists not recognizing Francis as a leader.
“I think that many polemics are forgotten,” said Gänswein on the sidelines of the television event. “What remains is the substance, and as to the substance of his papacy, history will judge.”
Gaenswein, whom Francis sent back to Germany after Benedict's death, said that when Benedict decided to resign, the former pope was convinced he only had at most a year left to live.
“I pray he becomes a saint. I wish he was a saint. And I am convinced that he will be a saint,” he said.
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