Pope Benedict XVI's resignation is an act of desperation in the face of the "moral disaster" that has swamped the Roman Catholic Church and the "internal intrigues" in the Roman curia, Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff told dpa in an interview.
According to Boff, a leading exponent of Liberation Theology, which holds that the church should be closer to the poor, Benedict XVI is to leave to his successor a negative legacy. The outgoing pontiff has been "a pope with no charisma who was unable to lead the Church."
"He resigned out of desperation, because he could no longer control the Roman curia and bear the moral disaster of pedophilia and of cardinals' internal intrigues," said Boff, a former Franciscan friar.
Boff met Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI in the 1960s as they both enjoyed discussing theological issues with each other in Germany.
The friendly relations between them ended in 1985, when Ratzinger, then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, silenced Boff for a year for his critical book Church, Charism and Power. Boff left the Roman Catholic Church altogether in 1992.
For Boff, the pope's resignation was the "right" thing to do, and it paves the way for major reform in the church.
With his exit, Benedict XVI "demystified the figure of a life pontificate and sent a serious message to members of the curia: 'get ready, because deep reform will come that will affect you directly'," in Boff's interpretation.
In this respect, the Brazilian theologian noted that "the first task for the new pope is to reform the curia, which has become a den of people who are avid for power, full of intrigues and slander" and to rescue the church from a time of "great demoralization" caused by corruption and child abuse scandals.
"The issue of pedophiles and the scandals in the Vatican Bank reached what was the heart of the Christian message: morals, transparency and the trust of the faithful."
"There are criminals in the top tiers of the Chruch who must be brought to court, because they raped innocent people. Cases can be counted by the thousands," Boff stressed.
Vatileaks, the leaked documents scandal that affected the Vatican, "unmasked what is happening there," he said
"It has always been like that. That is why many popes in history were poisoned, murdered, deported. It takes an ethical purification of the curia and a lot of decentralization," he said.
For Boff, it is necessary to share power because "it is not possible for just one person and his team to lead a whole China of Christians, that is, 1.2 billion faithful."
"Not even the Holy Spirit would manage that feat," said Boff.
In this day and age, he claimed, the Church "has stopped being a spiritual home" for most Roman Catholics.
"There are groups that are too conservative, always sponsored by the popes," he said.
Boff said that Benedict XVI's successor will need to devote a lot of effort to the task of "talking to the modern world without later demonizing it and blaming on it all sorts of risks and relativism."
"That dialogue is to give and to take, and mainly to learn. The Church has fallen behind in many things, because it holds on too hard to its traditions, most of them medieval," he said.
Boff further said that the new pontiff will need to take a stand on the "really strong threats" that endanger "the future of life, of the Earth and of the poor."
"The pope must continually awaken the consciousness of all with relation to these risks and to point to new opportunities, redeeming exits that are born of Christian hope. This time there is no Noah's Ark that saves some and lets the rest die: either we are all saved or we are all lost," he warned.
When asked about the ideal profile that Benedict XVI's successor should have in his opinion, Boff said the next pope "should be someone who loves life, the people and does not become hostage to outdated doctrine that were once formulated, particularly regarding sexual and family morals."
"He must be a pastor, and not an indoctrinator and a moralizer. Someone who does not come from bureaucracy but from the pastoral exercise with the people. A pope who can learn and who gives up the arrogance of being Christ's representative," Boff stressed.