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30 April, 2005
Episode XVI: A New Pope

So there’s a new pope.

As the world is increasingly gripped by fear­which is breeding prejudice, hatred, and violence­the attitudes and actions of the new Pope will be significant.

At first, I was alarmed by the Church’s choice. Benedict XVI (the pontiff formerly known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) was formerly head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Where I hang out, the word “doctrine” has a negative connotation, almost synonymous with “dictatorship”.

Benedict XVI used to be known as "the enforcer". And yet his new name evokes the concept of “benevolence”. It’s hard to imagine a benevolent enforcer. Indeed, he has consistently thwarted attempts by liberals to reform the church. He has even disciplined dissidents.

Cbc.ca reported that a fan site devoted to Ratzinger boasted the slogan "Putting the smackdown on heresy since 1981." To be sure, he has rejected the inclusion of women in the priesthood and forbids marriage for priests. He is also on record as opposing Buddhism, homosexuality, and rock music. One can see, after reading this, why I was slow to like the man.

I visited the aforementioned fan site (www.ratzingerfanclub.com); it is a huge repository of information on stances held by various Catholic authorities. What I read there confused me all to… well, let’s just say it confused me.

The man is an intellectual. He is extremely intelligent and eloquent. This site reproduces many of his writings, many of which are quite long. Some titles of his writings include “Unity of the Church's Mission Involves Diversity of Ministries”, “Peace and Justice in Crisis: The Task of Religion”, and “Interreligious Dialogue and Jewish-Christian Relations”.

Here’s an example of the vast amount of Ratzinger’s writing reproduced at the fan site: “The deepest poverty is the inability of joy, the tediousness of a life considered absurd and contradictory. This poverty is widespread today, in very different forms in the materially rich as well as the poor countries. The inability of joy presupposes and produces the inability to love, produces jealousy, avarice­all defects that devastate the life of individuals and of the world.”

In one particularly fascinating paper, entitled “Truth and Freedom”, he writes “The number of those… who are losing every freedom altogether, is too great: unemployment is once again becoming a mass phenomenon, and the feeling of not being needed, of superfluity, tortures men no less than material poverty. Unscrupulous exploitation is spreading; organized crime takes advantage of the opportunities of the free and democratic world, and in the midst of all this we are haunted by the specter of meaninglessness.”

I was shocked to see that Ratzinger and I appear to share many beliefs and views of the world. While Bush II pounds his war drums and hypnotizes Americans by repeating “freedom” as his mantra, Benedict XVI writes “Freedom to destroy oneself or to destroy another is not freedom, but its demonic parody. Man's freedom is shared freedom, freedom in the conjoint existence of liberties which limit and thus sustain one another.”

I admit, Bush II pushed my caution about Christianity toward disgust, and made me think “Jesus, save me from your followers.” But I am moved by Benedict’s writings back to caution.

I have seen no proof that he is not homophobic, sexist, or anti-Buddhist. But I have seen proof that he is running toward the opposite end zone that Bush is running toward. In fact, I think Benedict should be upset with Bush for perverting the messages of Christianity to gain power, oppress others, make his family obscenely rich.

It’s amazing what a little research can reveal.

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