• The appointment in 2007, followed by the swift fall from grace, of a new Archbishop of Warsaw who had an ambiguous relationship with the Soviet-era secret police.
• The eerily similar appointment in 2009 of an Austrian bishop who had suggested Hurricane Katrina was a punishment for the wickedness of New Orleans, and who was likewise gone within days.
  Lifting the excommunications of four traditionalist Catholic bishops in 2009, including one who denied that the Nazis used gas chambers, with little apparent regard for how that move would be perceived.
• The surreal "Boffo case" from 2010, pivoting on the former editor of the official newspaper of the Italian bishops. (If you don't know the story, it would take too long to explain, but trust me … Hollywood screenwriters couldn't make this stuff up.)
• The Vatileaks scandal of 2011-12, which featured revelations of financial corruption and cronyism, and which ended with the conviction and pardon of the pope's own former butler for stealing confidential documents.

Less spectacularly, there was a chronic sense during the Benedict years that the pope's administrative team, led by Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, was occasionally out of its depth. Decisions were delayed, and when they came, the logic for how things shook out was sometimes opaque.

Frustration over a perceived "management deficit" helped pave the way for election of a new pope in March 2013, with a reputation as someone who could clean out the stables and get the Vatican under control. (Whether or not that's actually happening today is an utterly different conversation.)

Australia's George Pell, today Pope Francis' finance chief, was among those calling for a house-cleaning three years ago. Continue reading

• John L. Allen Jr is the editor of Crux.

My wife and I had already moved back to the United States from Rome, but on that date I had returned to give a talk on religious freedom at the Italian Foreign Ministry, which is why I happened to be in town when the announcement of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation was made.

Here's how I became aware of it: I was standing at a coffee break talking to other speakers when my mobile phone rang, with a BBC reporter asking if I could confirm the pope was about to quit.

Because I had received countless calls over the years asking me to run down bogus pope stories, I snapped, "This is probably total BS, and I don't have time for it!"

After hanging up, I walked back into the main conference room where I saw my good friend Phil Pullella, Rome bureau chief for Reuters, who had the same look on his face that people who've survived car accidents often project.

It turns out he had just got off the phone with a Vatican official confirming the pope's resignation, and he turned to me and said, "We have to leave now!"

The weeks that followed are a blur (except for my clear memory that Pullella still owes me cab fare for our ride to the Vatican), but with the distance of three years from that historic moment, one thing seems abundantly clear.

While Pope Francis is rightly celebrated for his personal humility and simplicity, the single greatest of act of papal humility the world has witnessed in at least the last 700 years, and arguably forever, came three years ago today from Benedict XVI. Continue reading

• John L. Allen is associate editor of Crux, from which this article is taken.

That event, called the Pallium Mass, traditionally was a highlight of the Roman summer.

Francis has now taken himself out of the equation, stipulating that the pallium, a woolen cloth symbolizing service, will be presented to each archbishop individually by the papal ambassador in his country.

Most people likely will see it as another way in which Francis is breaking with tradition, playing down the trappings of a royal court in the Vatican and emphasizing the importance of the local church.

Those who paid careful attention during the Benedict XVI years probably would agree, expect for the "breaking with tradition" part.

In truth, Francis' latest reform is not a departure from Benedict, but yet another instance in which the two pontiffs seem to be singing from the same songbook.

One of Benedict's own first decisions after he took office in 2005 was that he would no longer preside personally at beatification Masses, and that those services would no longer be held in Rome. (Beatification is the last step before sainthood, allowing someone to be called "Blessed.")

That choice, too, was about the importance of the local Church, since beatification authorizes veneration of a figure for a local community, while canonization is for the entire Church.

Benedict XVI was also sending a signal that the pope doesn't have to be the center of attention — the same point Francis is making about the pallium.

That's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of continuity. Consider these other examples:

Climate change/the environment: As the world awaits Francis' forthcoming encyclical letter on ecology, it's worth remembering that Benedict XVI devoted so much attention to the environment that he was dubbed the "Green Pope."

Among other measures on his watch, the Vatican signed an agreement to become Europe's first carbon-neutral state (albeit a tiny one) by replanting a stretch of Hungarian forest to offset its carbon use, and installing solar panels atop the Paul VI Audience Hall. Continue reading

Sources

• Crux
• Image: The Guardian