What Is Pope Benedict’s Legacy in America?
At The New Republic, Michael Sean Winters ponders the legacy that Pope Benedict XVI will leave behind when he steps down from the papacy at the end of this month. The United States, Winters writes, often views Benedict as, “a doctrinaire conservative, clamping down on dissent and yearning for more traditional liturgical styles.” Winters notes, “That analysis isn’t wrong, just incomplete: It leaves out the pope’s progressive politics.”