Rabbi Shmuley Boteach told Newsmax Thursday that the late Pope Benedict XVI "was one of the most underestimated popes" and was also "a phenomenal friend of the Jewish community."
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died on Saturday in a secluded monastery in the Vatican, where he had lived since resigning as the leader of the Catholic Church in 2013. He was 95.
"I met Pope Benedict," Boteach said during an appearance on Newsmax's "The Chris Salcedo Show." "He was a man of great shyness, gentility, humility and incredible warmth. I remember being on New York Radio as a host, and I'm Jewish and a Catholic's attacking Benedict at the time when he was pontiff, and [I'm] a rabbi defending him.
"All the rapprochement that took place between world Jewry in the state of Israel and the Catholic Church during the time of John Paul II would have been impossible without Benedict," he continued. "St. John Paul was a very charismatic leader, but he wasn't a theologian. It was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI, who wrote the position papers that allowed for theological bridges to be built between the Jews and the Catholics."
Boteach also said that, for a long time, the Catholic Church embraced replacement theology: "that the church had replaced the Jews, grafted onto the seat of Abraham."
"Benedict rejected that," he said. "He was a phenomenal friend of the Jewish community. He has been treated shabbily, in my opinion, and it's time for the Catholic Church to embrace him for the great mind and the amazing heart he was."
Jared Staudt, author and visiting associate professor at the Augustine Institute, agreed with Boteach's description of the late pope.
"I definitely think that Benedict has been caricatured as some kind of enemy, but I agree completely with the characterization of him as being very gentle and humble," he said.
Both the pope emeritus and the Vatican requested that President Joe Biden not attend Benedict's funeral, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. Benedict made the request prior to his death.
When asked about Biden's absence at Benedict's funeral, Staudt said, "I think it's clear that he would not want a kind of fake Catholic at his funeral causing scandal.
"Pope Benedict has always been about the primacy of God, even in politics," he continued. "He would see the problematic element of the secular West pushing God out and really distorting politics and justice, as we see happening with the Democratic Party in the United States."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.