Leadership

Introduction |

I have selected my current episode with global impact to be the resignation of Pope Benedict. I would like to start out the first section of the assignment by map reading of Pope's history and his achievements moving onto map testing – which is basically to assess the degree of his successfulness ending the first section up with map making to summarize one's own thoughts of the Pope's leadership style before moving into second part to discuss leadership theories/concepts and dilemmas in church to reach conclusion and may be prediction on successor leadership style needed by the church.

Part 1 – Map Reading, Testing and Making |

The resignation of Pope Benedict was a surprise for the world. He was elected at the age of 78 in 2005. His priorities were not those of a politician, and, an academic by training, he set out to epitomize his thought in four encyclicals: on charity, hope, social justice and (still to come) faith. He also succeeded in finishing a trilogy of books on the life of the central figure of Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth – written, surprisingly, in his private capacity, not as pope.
Pope Benedict XVI was born on April 16th 1927 in Germany and grew up under war reparations from World War I and as the Nazi regime was gaining power. He was briefly a member of the Hitler Youth in his early teens, after membership became mandatory in 1941. He turned to theological studies after the war, helping found the influential journal Communion which became one of the most important journals of Catholic thought.
Regarded as among the most accomplished Catholic theologians of his generation, Benedict XVI was what church historians call a "teaching pope" as opposed to a governor. His passion was invested in his teaching documents, his speeches on foreign trips, his regular catechesis at the Vatican, and the three books on the life of Christ he published. This teaching often struck people as profound and surprisingly free of ideological...