History may well judge that the most important contribution Joseph Ratzinger made in his 50 years as a key figure in the Catholic Church was to resign as pope.
That may sound a perverse judgement on a man who did so much else. In his youth he was one of the key radicals who helped shape the Second Vatican Council, which redefined the relationship between the Church and the modern world. Later in life he was, for two decades, Rome’s doctrinal watchdog – “God’s rottweiler”, as he was dubbed – cracking down on any deviation from conservative orthodoxy.
