He defined a conservative course for the Roman Catholic Church, but his papacy was noted for his struggle with the clergy sexual abuse scandal and for his unexpected resignation.
legacy in his writings and his discussions about faith and the importance of keeping faith in god in the world. in terms of his legacy as pope, one of the outstanding things of course is he was pope when much of the sex abuse crisis came to light. he had to deal with that. he had to deal with it for a few years under john paul ii, working under him at the congregation for the doctrine of the faith. and he was the one who set up the first sex abuse office to handle those cases here at the vatican. he worked towards a zero tolerance policy and indeed over 400 or so priests during his tenure as pope. he, by his own admission, said that he wasn t a very good manager. he didn t like those kinds of things. i think his larger legacy is this one of being a theologian. all the books and articles he wrote to shore up christianity in the world. in terms of reaction, of course,
brilliant theologian who was active in the church and circles in the 1960s. obviously the congregation for the doctrine of the faith as pope of course. but his most historic act was his resignation, a move i think could change the papacy going forward. tell us about the significance of him resigning, why that was such a big deal? for one thing it hasn t happened for 600 years i think many people thought it was off the table. his predecessor continued on during his parakin son s disease and continued when he was very ill. but i think pope benedict showed great humility and freedom and as a result you have pope francis now saying that, you know, he s not going to resign any time soon but that could be in the cards if he doesn t feel, like benedict, that he can carry