As thousands of Roman Catholics flowed into St. Peter’s Basilica this week to see Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI lie in state and pay their last respects, bereft conservatives mourned the loss of a leader who championed the traditions, doctrines, and church law and order they cherished.

“He was the sun that illuminated all of us,” says Cardinal Angelo Amato, a former secretary of the church office on doctrine, which Benedict ran before becoming pope, and leader of the Vatican office that makes saints. He refers to Benedict as “the Holy Father” and calls him a “saint”, adding, “When there is no sun, there is only fog.”