Den amerikanske – delvis engelske, tidligere anglikanske og (fortsatt) gifte – presten Fr. Longenecker skriver på sin blogg i 10 punkter om hvorfor pave Benedikt har vært så viktig for ham. Her er det tre første:
1. He granted the dispensation from the vow of celibacy that opened the door for my ordination as a Catholic priest.
2. He established the Anglican Ordinariate. While I am not a priest in the Ordinariate, I have great interest in the ordinariate and its progress. I believe history will show Benedict XVI to have been a revolutionary pope when it comes to ecumenism–showing new ways for Christians to come into full communion with the Holy See.
3. He showed the way of truly Christian Biblical scholarship. He did not reject the findings of modern Biblical critics as fundamentalists do, nor did he adopt modernism and promote it. Instead was truly Catholic in his approach. He gleaned from all Biblical scholars what was true and good, and he also rejected that which was inconsistent, heretical, merely theoretical and unsubstantiated. His Biblical scholarship was thorough and erudite, yet fully within the magisterium of the church. …
Også i mitt tilfelle var pave Benedikt viktig da det ble søkt om dispensasjons fra sølibatskravet for meg. Selv om det var pave Johannes Paul II som formelt sett ga tillatelsen, var det Troskongregasjonen som gjorde alt arbeidet, dvs. forberedte saken. Og da mine papirer i ca 8 mnd hadde ligget nederst i bunker av papir, var det biskop Schwenzers brev direkte til kardinal Ratzinger som sørget for at prosessen kom i gang, og dispensasjonen endelig ble sendt til Oslo i juni 1999.