Elected to reassure those in the Church who were in search of authority and identity, the German Pope has unsettled the part of the Catholic flock which takes its inspiration from the Second Vatican Council. His damning quote on Prophet Mohammed unleashed a violent clash with Islam, his praise of World War II Pope Pius XII and lifting of the excommunication ban on Bishop Richard Williamson (a stubborn Holocaust denier) created repeated tensions with Jewish religious and secular leaders, his statements on AIDS and condoms stirred worldwide reaction; the return to old Latin Mass and the concessions to the anti-Vatican II movement of the schismatic Marcel Lefebvre have split Catholic bishops and faithful. On top of this, the devastating sex abuse scandals showed Ratzinger, although setting stricter rules and requiring more transparency, lacking the courage to open the Vatican archives where decades of cover-ups are hidden…..

With a critical and sophisticated insider approach, one of the most established Vatican expert traces the less known profile of Benedict XVI, a lonely intellectual Pope, and the deadlock of his papacy.

Marco Politi with Christiane Amanpour CNN