Benedict XVI: Defender of the Faith

by Joseph Pearce

Pope Benedict XVI will go down in Church history as one of the greatest popes. In this heartfelt defense of Pope Benedict’s words and works, a tribute to his life and legacy and a homage to his sanity and sanctity, Joseph Pearce’s biography provides an unforgettable encounter with this great historical figure. 

As the defender of the Faith, Pope Benedict XVI fought tirelessly and largely successfully against the forces of secularism first as the indomitable Ratzinger and then as the incomparable supreme pontiff. As an uncompromising defender of the dignity of the human person, he fought the wickedness of the world in his unremitting battle against the dictatorship of relativism and its culture of death. Within the Church, he fought against the spirit of the world in his war on modernism and its worship of the spirit of the age, restoring the splendor of truth in his defense of orthodoxy and the splendor of the liturgy in his defense of tradition. Years from now, Catholics will still look back on Pope Benedict’s enduring legacy with enormous gratitude. For he successfully steered the barque of Peter in charity and truth against the evil tides that sought to engulf the Church. 
 

Genres: Catholic, Nonfiction, Biography, Religion, Christian, Christianity

200 pages, Hardcover

Published January 4, 2022

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author with this name on GR

Joseph Pearce (born 1961) is an English-born writer, and as of 2004 Writer in Residence and Professor of Literature at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida; previously he had a comparable position, from 2001, at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He is known for a number of literary biographies, many of Catholic figures. Formerly aligned with the National Front, a white nationalist political party, he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1989, repudiated his earlier views, and now writes from a Catholic perspective. He is a co-editor of the St. Austin Review and editor-in-chief of Sapientia Press.

Reviews

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

ENGLISH: A brief biography of Benedict XVI, divided into two parts: the first, referring to his life before being elected Pope. The second, to his role while he was the Pope, ending with his abdication.

Rather than a biography, this book is a reasoned compilation of texts by Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), whose best consequence is to direct the reader's attention to these texts, and awaken the desire to read or reread them.

ESPAÑOL: Breve biografía de Benedicto XVI, dividida en dos partes: la primera, referida a su vida antes de ser elegido Papa. La segunda, a su papel mientras fue Papa, terminando con su abdicación.

Más que una biografía, este libro es una recopilación razonada de textos de Joseph Ratzinger (Benedicto XVI), cuya mejor consecuencia es dirigir la atención del lector hacia dichos textos, y despertar el deseo de leerlos o releerlos.

[Mariangel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short sketch of Pope Benedict’s life and main interests, as evidenced by some of his public addresses and his three encyclicals. As with other books by Pearce, it whetted my desire to go directly to the sources and read the Pope’s own words.

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is only the third book by Joseph Pierce that I have read, after reading the second I added almost a dozen of his book to my wish list. This book has also inspired me to add several other books both by and about Pope Benedict XVI to my reading list. One of my childhood memories is the year of three popes. As a revert it was the mass, the liturgy, confessions, and Mary that drew me back. I was never a John Paul II fan boy, but over time I have had a growing appreciation for Benedict XVI. The more I read by and about this man the more I am impressed. And this book by Pearce is an excellent volume. The description of this book is:

“Pope Benedict XVI will go down in Church history as one of the greatest popes. In this heartfelt defense of Pope Benedict’s words and works, a tribute to his life and legacy and a homage to his sanity and sanctity, Joseph Pearce’s biography provides an unforgettable encounter with this great historical figure.

As the defender of the Faith, Pope Benedict XVI fought tirelessly and largely successfully against the forces of secularism first as the indomitable Ratzinger and then as the incomparable supreme pontiff. As an uncompromising defender of the dignity of the human person, he fought the wickedness of the world in his unremitting battle against the dictatorship of relativism and its culture of death. Within the Church, he fought against the spirit of the world in his war on modernism and its worship of the spirit of the age, restoring the splendor of truth in his defense of orthodoxy and the splendor of the liturgy in his defense of tradition. Years from now, Catholics will still look back on Pope Benedict’s enduring legacy with enormous gratitude. For he successfully steered the barque of Peter in charity and truth against the evil tides that sought to engulf the Church.”

The chapters in this volume are:

In Gratitude
Foreword
Prologue: An Apology
1. Living with Big Brother
2. Heilige Geist or Zeitgeist?
3. Weapons of Mass Destruction
4. The Rise of Ratzinger and the Fall of Man
5. Being Human
6. The Spirit and Antispirit of Vatican II
7. Sex, Slavery, and False Liberation
8. The Spirit of the Liturgy
9. Habemus Papam!
10. Young People and the Love of God
11. Faith and Reason
12. Restoring Tradition
13. Faith, Hope, and Clarity
14. God and Globalism
15. A Pilgrimage to England
16. Defender of the Faith
About the Author
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

This book was an absolutely fascinating read. I started reading it and worked my way through. Once I was done I used adaptive technology to listen to it a second time through. In the acclaim for this book George Cardinal Pell states:

““Joseph Pearce’s biography demonstrates the immense devotion and enthusiasm Pope Benedict evoked among the young disciples of Jesus around the world. Pope Benedict is probably the best theologian among all the popes and he should become a Doctor of the Church. Joseph Pearce’s work will help further this cause.”

It echo’s the sentiments I have from this volume and my ever growing love and appreciation for Pope Benedict XVI. Scott Hahn captures that sentiment even more so in the forward, for he states:

“This book is surprising. This book is unique.

But it earns those adjectives not because it is about the man we knew as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and know today as Pope Emeritus Benedict. Books about that man constitute a genre by themselves—and I love those books, because I love the man.

There are thick volumes that situate him in history, that summarize his writings on the liturgy, that synthesize his theology of the Church, that place him in relation to one or another thinker, that trace the development of his thought on faith and culture.

This book touches on all those things, but only in a subordinate way.
Joseph Pearce did not write this book to analyze anything, or advance an agenda, or incite responses from excitable academics or pundits.

What he did was produce a portrait of a beautiful man—a shy, kind, Christian man who received many gifts from God in the course of his life. And, as we see in these pages, he labored to use all those gifts in loving service of the Giver.”


And his forward ends with these words:

“At the end of the book, the response of my heart rose with words from the Roman Missal: Deo gratias! Thanks be to God!

Thanks, too, to my friend, Mr. Pearce.”

And that is how I feel. And writing this review early in 2022 I believe this is a volume that will put to rest rumours and attacks against Pope Benedict XVI, as a way of distracting the faithful, the media, and the world from what is happing under the current pontiff. From the prologue and the opening chapter ‘An Apology’ Pearce used his keen insight and deep reading of history to bring this work to life. It is a vibrant and penetrating work. One that will stir the hearts and spirit of the faithful, and one that will cause angst and hand writing by others. For Pearce captures the reactions to Benedict XVI in those two camps clearly:

“One imagines that similar scenes of joy erupted throughout the world wherever two or three faithful Catholics gathered together. In contrast, the election of Ratzinger was greeted with grief and horror by those heretical theologians and cafeteria Catholics whose heresies and backsliding equivocations had been condemned by the new Pope during his many years as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. As usual, these wolves in sheep’s clothing howled in unison with the wolves in the secular media, uniting themselves with the avowed enemies of the Church in their hatred of the hero of orthodoxy who had forced them into retreat during his years as John Paul II’s faithful and fearless servant. In the war of words that followed the Pope’s election, the enemies of orthodoxy decried the new German shepherd as “God’s Rottweiler.” Although the gentle and saintly Ratzinger did not deserve such an epithet, it is ironically apt that the wolves who would devour the flock should hate the Rottweiler who had courageously stopped them from doing so!”

He concludes that section with these words:

“The ultimate justification for this book is that it is an apology in the other and better sense of the word. It is an apologia: a spirited and heartfelt defense of Pope Benedict’s words and works, a tribute to his life and legacy, an homage to his sanity and sanctity. It is a vigorous defense of a rigorous and vigorous defender of the Faith. For this, at least, I make no apology because no apology is necessary.”

This book is a volume I am certain will rouse some controversy. But it is also one I believe will inspire, encourage and challenge all who approach it with an open heard, mind, and spirit. When I was younger, I did not appreciate Pope Benedict XVI’s heart and mind, as I have grown older and engaged more and more with his works and works about him, there is a sense of lost years. I appreciate that Pearce has written this book with devotion and passion. I highly recommend it!

Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2022 Catholic Reading Plan!

[Sherri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading the 2nd time

I love this book. The very fact that it is written in non-academic lingo makes it incredibly easy to read and understand.

[Seth Ball · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and concise biography of a great Supreme Pontiff and a true defender of the Church.

[Ben Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a book about Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI. It is a book Pearce’s/the right’s caricature of Benedict. You will learn more about the right’s preoccupations than you will learn about Benedict’s life. This is the worst book on Ratzinger I have read. Entirely avoidable.

[Prince Cad Ali Cad · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 Stars.
Overall, an enjoyable read, but more of a hagiography than detailed work on the man. In Pearce’s book, one would have thought that Ratzinger was an ardent traditionalist his whole life, and he is very selective in the writings he chooses to shore up his point. This is a shame, because rather than see Cardinal Ratzinger making a true progression towards the orthodoxy he displayed as Pope, and the development of the man through experience and effort, he pops into the picture always on the same straight path. As the heterodox liturgist (and believed architect of Traditionis Custodes) Andrea Grillo said, “Until the Second Vatican Council there was a different Ratzinger, whom the very postconciliar experience from '68 onward profoundly changed.” While Pearce notes in passing Cardinal Ratzinger’s revulsion at these post VII deviations, he stops short of showing how these may have moved Cardinal Ratzinger from a position of liturgical and theological liberalism to the Traditional view. That, I believe, is a terrible missed opportunity.

While Pearce is mainly concerned with promulgating the orthodox views of Cardinal Ratzinger/BXVI, he does the reader a disservice and misses an opportunity when it comes to the Cardinal’s views regarding human origins. While Cardinal Ratzinger was addressing modernist materialism when it came to Scriptures, the repeated condemnations of “literalness” should have been qualified; for both Augustine (referenced by both Cardinal Ratzinger and by Pearce) noted the primacy of the literal meaning (not necessarily to the exclusion of the others), but Pope Leo XIII in Providentissimus Deus actually stated that it is to be adhered to unless reason dictates or circumstance requires that it cannot be held. Here, Pearce (interpreting Ratzinger) seems to suggest that the only reasonable view would be the hybrid proposed by so many Catholic evolutionists - that Catholics can claim to be reasonable by adopting evolutionary theory into our understanding of origins. Beyond the basic problems of scientism and the philosophical underpinnings of evolutionary theory (its reach into history and matters beyond the purview of science) we are met with the issue that the Fathers, as well as all Catholics until the late twentieth Century, held to the Traditional view regarding origins. This is not merely due to a lack of theories at odds with the Traditional understanding - in St Basil's day, the Atomists proposed a view of origins startlingly similar to the evolutionists of today, and it was soundly rejected. Pearce could have qualified or offered the critiques of the view proposed, but as such leaves us to follow the “reasonableness of science” (a reasonableness, it should be added, which allowed to progress would discount every miracle, every historical event as odds with the profferings of experts, and even Divine Revelation itself - the very thing that Cardinal Ratzinger was writing against). And Pearce is not opposed to addressing Cardinal Ratzinger’s mis-statements or mis-steps; for he critiques Cardinal Ratzinger’s linking of the origins of environmental destruction with Marxism.

The last portion, on Celestine V, was very touching. Given the passing of the great Pope, perhaps Pearce will add another chapter one day.

Santo Subito!

[Jennice Mckillop · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rather difficult book to read. Not bc I disagree with the Pope’s theology, or position on the liturgy, but bc of the grandiose nature of his writings. It required me to borrow the book x2 to get through it. Wherever a simpler word would convey the message, our dear Pope, (may he rest in peace), would use a major multisyllabic word or two. Granted, he was a scholar and reveled in that role, and very passionate about Catholicism, he obviously wasn’t addressing someone of lesser learning. Worship doesn’t have to be rocket science. Why make it so?
And so I can only give 3 generous stars.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Benedict XVI: Defender of the Faith” is an outstanding introduction and overview of Pope Benedict XVI (Cardinal Ratzinger) and his life long journey as a Catholic Priest. This book highlight’s Pope Benedict’s many contributions to providing faithfully reliable resources for Catholics to better understand the Catholic Church in their journey with the Lord. Highly recommend as a starting pint to begin an in-depth understanding of this true “Defender of the Faith”. Experienced as an Audio Book

[Finn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Really good overview of Benedict as man, as Christian, and as Pope.
The focus on this book(as in the title) is on his defense of the faith, not so much on Benedict's life. However this doesn't impact the readability and enjoyment of the book, and actually has a bigger impact on me because of it.
I also learned a lot about the faith, and some of the modern day attacks on the church, and good defenses by them. Who better to learn from, than Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI!

[Jorge Gaete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good summary of Benedict the XVI’ works

Joseph Pearce reviewed the life and works of Benedict the XVI, clearly and easy to follow. There are great comments and insightful thoughts about of this Pope’s legacy. I specially recommend the comments on the visit to the UK.

[John Tanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short but great biography of Benedict XVI. His faith and love for the church and the defense of Christianity from secular foes. Very well written. The first book by Joseph Pearce I’ve read, I will definitely read more of his works.

[Morgan Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Pope Benedict XVI and I love Joseph Pearce, so obviously I loved this book. It doesn’t go super in depth, but it is a great introduction/overview of many of Benedict’s main themes and interests as a theologian and as pope.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pope Benedict has a gift for clear teaching. This book focuses on his teachings and helped me better understand opposing views within the Catholic Church.

[Ben Geiger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent brief journey of Benedict and the events surrounding his life.

[Pippasmom1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, I have read. Very good and not like most books you get a much broader and in depth of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. I recommend.

[Rinstinkt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short intellectual biography of Benedetto XVI.

[Rino Deschênes · Rating 5 out of 5]

deep thought

A good theologian, deep thought. I learn a lot of things and I was surprised how our faith and our daily routine can affect the world.

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pearce is, as usual, aggressively Catholic and so is not always quite fair in discussing Protestantism, but despite this, the book remains a helpful overview of the work of Joseph Ratzinger as Cardinal and then Pope.