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A welcome change of topic, and an item I failed to notice ye4sterday...
The reality of Pope Benedict, 2010
by Elizabeth Scalia
July 14, 2010
The other day I was chatting with a friend about how the reality of Pope Benedict the XVI been nothing like the “petrifying” whip-cracking reactionary that so many talking heads had predicted back in 2005. Yes, E.J. Dionne had actually said he was “petrified” over what the dreaded Joseph Ratzinger–the caricature of the media’s own creation–would do to the Church.
That made me go look up and dust off a link-heavy piece where I’d looked back at some of those paranoid predictions of 2005. Since it wasn’t much seen, I’ve dusted it off, updated it a little bit and racked it up over at Patheos.com. [The following is the full article.]
"I have known this man for a very long time, and what I am seeing, frankly, is the man I have always known."
- George Weigel to the New York Times, on Pope Benedict XVI
In 2005, while awaiting the peal of bells and the white smoke signifying the election of the successor to Pope John Paul II, chattering gasbags of the pundit class killed time by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the "papabile frontrunners."
The news media and their analysts seemed to agree on one point: the election of Joseph Ratzinger -- who as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had been characterized for years in the press as the "ruthless enforcer" of Catholic orthodoxy -- would be a catastrophe.
Ratzinger's "ruthlessness" consisted mostly of discouraging the "liberation theology" that too-often runs hand-in-hand with socialist enterprises, and insisting that Catholic theologians -- particularly those teaching at Vatican-sponsored Catholic colleges and universities -- either present the faith as something more than a relativistic intellectual playground, or (as in the case of Hans Küng) give up the title of "professor." Or teach somewhere else.
To some it might seem reasonable that a man of the church would expect those teaching it to do so with a measure of fidelity.
For the chatty media, however, the idea of "God's Rottweiler" as pope meant the continuation of the seemingly objectionable notion (insisted upon by his stubborn predecessor) that a pope might uphold actual Church teachings on abortion, euthanasia, divorce, etc.
Presumably none of the cardinals entering the papal conclave would have -- upon ascending the Chair of Peter -- simply declared that "everything we taught before is canceled" and signed on with the progressives, but for sure, Ratzinger would not be the man to do it.
What was needed and desired, the talking heads informed us in ceaseless litany, was a Pope who would "bring the church into the 21st century" and reconcile it to abortion, divorce, gay marriage, women priests, celibacy, and condoms.
The press seemed willing to pretend that Joseph Ratzinger was the sole stumbling block to progressive ambitions. Then, preaching to his fellow cardinals just before the conclave, Ratzinger further annoyed many of the chatterers by warning against "building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires."
Not much liking that, Notre Dame's Fr. Richard McBrien sniffed: "If Cardinal Ratzinger were really campaigning for pope, he would have given a far more conciliatory homily. . . . He's too much of a polarizing figure."
In fact, Benedict is less "polarizing" than simply consistent in his faith and his philosophy; having experienced a life with which few of his critics could ever identify, he dares to stand for more than "whatever . . . ":
Günter Grass, in his memoirs, recalls an encounter with the young Joseph Ratzinger while both were held in an American prisoner-of-war camp in 1945.
The young Grass, a Nazi who had been proud to serve in the Waffen-SS, was taken aback by this soft-spoken, gentle young Catholic. Unlike God, the future pope played dice, quoting St. Augustine in the original while he did so; he even dreamt in Latin. His only desire was to return to the seminary from which he had been drafted.
"I said, there are many truths," wrote Grass. "He said, there is only one." (Daniel Johnson, New York Sun, September 18, 2006) [NB: It turns out that Grass had imagined this episode, but even if it was fiction, it is entirely plausible and not improbable.]
When the bells pealed for Ratzinger, there did commence some howling and not a little drama-queening. As Archbishop Chaput of Denver noted, Benedict was given no honeymoon.
Live-blogging her coverage at National Review, Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote: "Moments into his papacy, a seemingly annoyed Cokie Roberts [daughter, by the way, of a Democratic former US ambassador to teh Vatican Lindy Boggs], calls him an ‘extremely controversial' Pope."
Writer Andrew Sullivan said, "The culture wars in America are already aflame, his elevation as Benedict XVI amounts to a barrel-full of petrol on the fire."
E.J. Dionne described himself as "petrified" of what a Pope Ratzinger might bring.
Sr. Joan Chittister suggested that Benedict was so retrograde he represented the theology of the 13th century, and predicted, "[if women are not allowed ordination] . . . we're going to lose an entire generation of young women and we're going to lose them quickly."
Tina Brown got insulting: "Oh no! Cardinal Ratzinger!" wrote Brown, "His very name was ominous," while Maureen Dowd went into a predictable meltdown: "The white smoke yesterday signaled that the Vatican thinks what it needs to bring it into modernity is the oldest pope since the 18th century . . . a 78-year-old hidebound archconservative who ran the office that used to be called the Inquisition and who once belonged to Hitler Youth."
As Benedict XVI's papacy has unfolded quite differently than was predicted, we can look back upon these and other dire predictions and report that -- thus far, anyway -- Benedict has not thrown his head back to bare his fangs. No iron maidens have been commissioned for the new inquisition. He has poured no kerosene on the teeming bonfires of American culture.
The soft-spoken, multilingual, piano-playing, book-loving octogenarian has proved himself to be a peaceable and pastoral shepherd, one who likes to talk and to listen, but to do both while resolutely teaching the faith throughout the ages, rather than spreading the age throughout the faith.
Pope Benedict's encyclicals have been Christ-centered exhortations to love, to hope, and to truth. There has been no bull whip cracking down, only a gentle issuing of an invitation to ponder the Eternal and to fit ourselves into the plan God has for each of us in our spheres.
Because the current age prefers God to fit into its plans rather than the reverse, Benedict is preaching a radical message that he knows many -- blessed with free will and beholden to the age -- will reject.
Far from displaying an "enforcer" mentality, the Pope accepts that rejection with pragmatism and ultimately with trust.
"The Church," he said as Joseph Ratzinger, "will become small, and will to a great extent have to start over again. But after a time of testing, an internalized and simplified Church will radiate great power and influence; for the population of an entirely planned and controlled world are going to be inexpressibly lonely . . . and they will then discover the little community of believers as something quite new. As a hope that is there for them, as the answer they have secretly always been asking for."
Papa Ratzi must find it heartening that, contrary to Sr. Chittister's doomsaying, vocations to the priesthood and religious life are on the increase, worldwide, as a new generation looks for the radical turn away from "whatever . . ."
During his brief stay in the United States in 2008, Benedict's schedule was full. He met the President and the press; he conferred with Catholic educators and met with representatives from other religions - and with injured members of his own. He celebrated Masses, prayed at Ground Zero, and spoke to the United Nations.
Aside from reaching out to his own flock, one constant of Benedict's papacy has been his willingness to engage Islam and to challenge it, too. He will likely do that again.
Nothing in his pontificate thus far suggests that Benedict will be doing any of that while banging a shoe on a desk, burning witches, or wrapping a woman in a burqa against her will.
The press has mostly has softened its tone [???? We wish!] on this "interim Pope" who, presumably, will not reign for decades. [Do not forget Leo XIII!]
Still, for the remainder of his pontificate we will undoubtedly continue to hear the continuing narrative and tired clichés about "hard-liner" Benedict's failure to unite his "divided flock," and stale laments about "what the Church needs to do if it is to survive" from the usual corners.
As Benedict, who is all right with sustained narratives, might say, "whatever . . ."
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/07/2010 20:25] |