Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in Rome at 9.34am local time yesterday, aged 95, will ironically be long remembered as one of the most controversial pontiffs of modern times. We say ‘ironically’, because at first glance Bavarian cardinal Joseph Ratzinger seemed anything other than a man of worldly affairs, destined for the cut and thrust of bitter political debate. I well recall the first time I sat in a Vatican press conference with Cardinal Ratzinger, more than 30 years ago. Here he was, the Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the...