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He has been a disappointment for conservatives expecting a clampdown on dissent, liberals are appreciating his departure from John Paul II’s theatrics, and despite lacking his charisma, thousands still flock to listen to his homilies in St Peter Square. What lies behind the metamorphosis of the man, JAMES DEBONO asks
James Debono
Upon the election of German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a cartoon on the left-wing newspaper L’Unità captured the mood of many in the secular west by publishing a cartoon showing an austere Pope Benedict XVI saying to the crowd, “tonight, when you go home, I want you to give your children a spanking, and tell them that this spanking comes from the pope.”
The cartoon was meant to highlight the contrast between Ratzinger and Pope John XXIII, the so-called “papa bouno”, a benevolent Pope who touched the hearts of many with his smile: “When you go home, you’ll find your children. Give them a kiss, and tell them that this kiss comes from the pope,” the good Pope had told the faithful four decades before Ratzinger’s election.
Ironically Cardinal Roncalli, like Ratzinger, had a reputation of being a conservative before emerging from the conclave as the reformist Pope John XXIII.
Surprisingly he turned out to be the church’s greatest reformer in the last century. And yet, harbouring such illusions on Ratzinger could be a case of asking too much from the former guardian of the Catholic doctrine as head of the institution which originally started off as the Inquisition. So far most observers are still judging Ratzinger on the basis of what he is not doing rather than on what he has done.
When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected on April 19, 2005, he was hailed by the media as “God’s Rottweiler” the “Panzer Cardinal” and the “German Shepherd”. Theologian Hans Küng, one of the victims of Ratzinger’s inquisition, did not mince his words in describing the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as an enormous disappointment for all those who hoped for a reformist and pastoral Pope. On that occasion one could only give him the benefit of the doubt. “Let’s judge him on what he actually does,” Küng said a few days after the election.
Küng and Ratzinger were old friends at Tubingen University in Germany. The relationship between the two intellectuals soured as Ratzinger rose to the top of the Catholic establishment while Küng remained a critical voice in an increasingly dictatorial Church led by the absolutist John Paul II.
As guardian of Vatican orthodoxy in his role as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger banned his old friend from lecturing in Catholic universities. Five months later Pope Benedict XVI was to surprise the world by hosting Küng at the pontiff’s summer residence.
Küng told the German newspaper Die Sueddeutsche Zeitung that his meeting with Benedict was a “sign of hope” – Küng’s efforts to arrange a meeting with Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, had all been unsuccessful.
Significantly Benedict praised Küng’s efforts “to contribute to a renewed recognition of the essential values of humanity through the dialogue of religions and the encounter with secular reason.”
The new Pontiff’s policy of engagement with dissidents was not restricted to dialogue with the progressive wing of the church. In August, the pope met with Bishop Bernard Fellay, a leader of the Catholic traditionalist movement founded by the French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who opposed the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and was excommunicated in 1976 by Pope John Paul II.
The Pope’s meetings with Bernard Fellay and Hans Küng may have not resolved any issues, but they did serve to break the ice over which John Paul II had frozen contacts with dissident sections of Catholicism for a quarter of a century.
According to Vatican observer John L. Allen, Benedict is turning out to be more of a consulter than an enforcer, more a teacher than a star. So far Benedict has stuck to what he had said in his first speech on 24 April 2005 when he outlined his style of leadership. In fact if there is anything revolutionary about Benedict, it’s his emphasis on collegiality.
“My real programme of governance is not to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen, together with the whole church, to the word and the will of the Lord.”
But the Pope’s openness to dialogue should not be mistaken for any willingness to compromise with liberalism. In November the Vatican, with Benedict’s approval, released its long-awaited document barring men with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” from the priesthood.
Clearly, Benedict has not switched sides. He is not a born-again progressive. He still wants to affirm a strong and unambiguous Catholic identity in a world marked by pluralist moral and religious values.
In terms of content, Benedict XVI’s most important concern remains that of contrasting the “dictatorship of relativism” in the developed West. But rather than issuing edicts of condemnation, the new Pope armed with intellectual prowess has embarked on a mission of persuasion. His first encyclical Deus Caritas Est came as a surprise. Writing without anathema or interdict, Benedict argued that no one is more committed to human love than the Christian, but that the church wants people to love so deeply and so eternally that it pushes them to a deeper kind of love, a lasting love, expressed in caritas.
The underlying message was that of a compassionate conservative who is willing to discriminate against gays and lesbians in the name of an abstract and what he perceives a higher notion of love. Rather than contrasting modernity by becoming one of its pop icons as his predecessor did, Benedict uses his intellectual prowess to engage with liberalism without succumbing one inch of territory in doctrinal matters.
The same tough love approach has also characterised the Pope’s dealings with Islam. In reaching out to Islam by expressing outrage on cartoons depicting the prophet as a suicide bomber, the Pope made it clear that he expects Muslims in Islamic countries to respect Christians by allowing them full freedom to worship. You cannot have a Saudi-funded mosque next to the Vatican while you do not allow a Christian church in Saudi Arabia, the Pope said.
Yet debate in the church has not been stifled. On Friday Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini did not hesitate to declare that condoms are a lesser evil when compared to the AIDS epidemic and that implanting a zygote in a single parent is a lesser evil than destroying it.
Definitely Benedict is not as telegenic of John Paul II. He has not aped the approach of his predecessor, instead adopting a more low-key, more cerebral approach, with fewer grand events and less elaborate shows. But he has proved to be a surprisingly accomplished public figure, projecting an air of gentleness that followers tend to find charming.
But so far the Pope has not revealed much on where he’s trying to lead the church. Benedict’s determination to “go positive” has also left the media, which thrives on controversy, at a loss about how to deal with this figure. So at the end of Benedict’s first year, the Catholic Church faces a communications problem.
For 26 years, the church hit the media headlines through the theatrical acts of John Paul II. Now, the church can no longer assume the world will pay attention simply because the pope says or does something. But Ratzinger might well be a pause after a period of loud music, and a refreshing silence after John Paul II’s media spectacle.
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
Links: http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2006b/042106/042106a.php
http://www.thetablet.co.uk/thepope/
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