Pope Benedict XVI

About Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI (born Joseph Ratzinger) served as the 265th Pope from 2005 until his historic resignation in 2013. His immense historical importance, reflected in his #30 ranking by MIT's Pantheon project, stems from his long tenure as a leading Catholic theologian before his papacy, his central role in the Catholic Church during a period of significant global change, and his status as the first Pope to resign in nearly 600 years. His intellectual contributions to theology and his actions in managing the challenges facing the modern Church cemented his influence across religious and political spheres.

Despite this high historical ranking, Benedict XVI's 2025 annualized Wikipedia attention-5.5 million views-suggests an attention gap exists. To put this in perspective, he receives only about one-third of the attention given to Pope Leo XIV (#127 importance), who garnered 17.6 million views in the same year. While his view count is substantial, the comparison with Leo XIV, who is ranked significantly lower in historical importance but captures over three times the online traffic, highlights an overattention phenomenon relative to his historical rank, with an attention gap calculated at +6x overattention.

The data further indicates a notable, albeit fading, recent interest. His Wikipedia views saw a massive year-over-year increase of +245.1%, likely influenced by his death in 2022 and subsequent coverage. However, this spike is rapidly receding, as evidenced by the sharp -78% drop in momentum between Q1 and Q3 of 2025.