In the media’s perennial case of Not Getting It, pundits are speculating that Benedict XVI’s papacy is tilting more to the left than to the right, something not expected from someone they presumed to be the spiritual incarnation of Torquemada.
"[Pope Benedict XVI’s] crowds are far larger than those of Pope John Paul II at the same time last year. Sunday addresses from his apartment window have drawn up to 100,000 people. And so far, to the surprise of many, the new pope’s words and deeds have drawn sharper criticism from the Catholic far right than from the left.
"John Allen, Vatican analyst of the liberal National Catholic Reporter, analyzed nearly 45,000 words that Benedict spoke in his first 45 days. They proved mostly positive, not the attacks on secularism and heresy many expected from Ratzinger, Allen said.
"’There is an obvious sense of alarm from the right that this pontificate will not deliver the strong conservative agenda that that wing of the church was expecting,’ said Allen, who just completed his second biography of Ratzinger/Benedict."
While it is true that so far I have seen far sharper attacks on Pope Benedict since his election coming from Rad Trads than from Rad Progs®, this is once more a case of pitting pastoral care against doctrinal clarity.
What many on both sides seem to be missing is that Joseph Ratzinger has a different job now as Pope Benedict than he had as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. It’s not that he can be expected to neglect doctrinal clarity; only that he will approach it in a different manner as pope than he did as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. And, in addition, he has far greater opportunity and visibility as pope to show pastoral sensitivity than he did as head of the CDF.
The truly Rad Trad Catholics, with a few exceptions, never expected much from Pope Benedict XVI because they more or less dismissed him as a "Novus Ordo Pope." The Rad Progs have not expected much from him either, and are a bit surprised that he has not yet put anyone in a Jedi death grip. (Even in the case of Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J., former editor of America, the article notes that his story is mainly considered to be the last act of Cardinal Ratzinger rather than the first of Pope Benedict.)
Those truly in danger of disappointment are those orthodox Catholics who expected Pope Benedict to be SuperPope. And, not only SuperPope, but a SuperPope made in their own image and likeness of what they believe a SuperPope should be and do.
SuperPope. Wasn’t that a song by Rick James? 😉
What this reporter seems to be missing, in the declaration that B16 “tilts left”, is that Ratzinger has not reversed course on anythng he had proclaimed when he was still head of the CDF. In other words, the stuff they hated about him isn’t going away. So it is absolutely stupefying to think that anybody can conclude that this Pope (with his first political victory coming AGAINST stem cell research in Italy) will “tilt left”. The Left has no monopoly on pastoral care and sensitivity.
I’m looking forward to Allen’s new, obviously more considered, biography. The last one was a bit of an unfortunate last clarion of partisanship from Allen, but if he’s written something new, I’m sure it’ll be interesting.
Of course I don’t expect B16 to be Super Pope. For one thing Super Pope is an anime character and can fly and force chokes demons. I’ll be happy to see Benedict send a couple of American bishops into retirement.
“He’s a super pope
super pope
he’s super Popey!”
Wait… what?? lol
Brian and Philip, since reading this post, I have had that silly Rick James tune stuck in my head. With, of course, the alternate lyrics:
That pope is pretty Catholic.
That pope’s a superpope!
The kind of pope you read about
In CRISIS magazine!
I thought superpope was at http://www.planetnintendo.com/superpope/spep1.html
did I miss something?
I can’t help feeling that there was something of the super-jedi grip in the first Curial proclamation after Papa Ratzi’s induction. It required registry officers in Spain to refuse, in conscience, to officiate at homosexual “marriages” even at the cost of their jobs. I wonder if they would be required to do the same thing if asked to officiate at the civil wedding of a couple of whom one was a married Catholic without an annulment (that at least would only have imposed Catholic discipline on Catholics).
What does a registry officer do? Surely nothing more than provide a civil stamp to a relationship. It doesn’t create the relationship, which would exist even if the civil action didn’t take place. One can ask what role a Church wedding has in bringing a relationship into existence, rather than celebrating it – but there is no suggestion that a civil wedding whether between homosexuals of heterosexuals does any celebration, it is merely a legal formality whose major purpose is to ensure a cheaper handling of the problems which will ensue if the relationship ends.
My concern is, though, that this publication only confirms the old Ratzinger which many of us have, over many years learnt to love, as commanded, but with distrust. (I leave it to the reader to discuss whether the commandment refers to love of a brother or of an enemy).