ROME—It says much about the Vatican that in the age of wireless communication it uses smoke signals to announce the election of a pope.
The primitive technology caused mass confusion five years ago. The belching from the Sistine Chapel’s stovepipe went from black — meaning no pope — to sort of white, the colour that signalled the conclave of cardinals had picked the new spiritual leader for a billion Roman Catholics.
There was jubilation. The long pontificate of John Paul II, the most charismatic pope of modern times, would be a tough act to follow. The sense of expectation in St. Peter’s Square was electric.
Then, on the balcony of the basilica, the chosen one emerged — Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The sight of him subdued the crowd in an instant.
He took the name Benedict XVI and called himself a “humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord.” Many knew him better as the hard-line theologian whose years at the doctrinal department once responsible for the Inquisition attracted labels like “Cardinal No” and “God’s Rottweiler.”
Five years later, missteps and crises threaten to define his papacy. With the Church at a crossroads, and the battle between reformers and conservatives intensifying, Benedict’s reign is in tumult.
“Characterizing this pontificate is a whole series of mishaps that are unusual for a Church with a tradition of being circumspect and diplomatic,” says Daniele Menozzi, a university professor of Christian history at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.
Asked to describe the pontificate, a leading Canadian theologian, Rev. Gilles Routhier, was brief: “A lot of turbulence.”
Relations with Protestants, Jews and Muslims have been strained by gaffes and revisions of Catholic doctrine or practice. Within the Church, progressives are appalled by reactionary signs — most notably by talks to bring the ultra-conservative Society of St. Pius X, and one of its Holocaust-denying bishops, back into the fold.
Rarely has an officially infallible papacy spent so much time at damage control.
“The pontificate is finished,” says a leading Vatican scholar in Italy, who asked to remain anonymous, claiming a fear of excommunication. “This man will never recover the credibility that the papal ministry needs.”
Few other observers go that far. Not yet.
Compared to his predecessor, he’s a monastic and isolated Pope. His intellectual references are medieval theologians. And his penchant for papal garments not worn since the reforms of Vatican II in the 1960s is seen by some progressives as a calculated and infuriating slight.
The battle over Vatican II — and the future direction of the Church — was openly engaged.
Vatican II, an ecumenical council that ran from 1962 to 1965, radically changed the way the faithful experience the Church. It reformed the practice of sacraments such as baptism and penance, and introduced mass said in the language of parishioners.
It left Church doctrine largely untouched, including positions on celibacy and contraception. But much was done in the name of “the spirit of Vatican II,” a notion fueled by the social winds of the 1960s. Liberation theology — with priests focused on the poor, influenced by Marx and sometimes backing revolutionary struggles in Latin America — was the most obvious example.
Today, a key demand of reformers is a more democratic Church. They want to break the absolute power of bishops over their diocese and make them accountable to parishioners, who would have a greater role in running parishes. As for priests, they would be seen more as men than representatives of God.
What’s clear is that Benedict believes a hefty dose of doctrinal discipline is in order.
In his recent letter to Irish Catholics on the sex abuse scandals, he partly blamed pedophile priests on Council reforms being “misinterpreted.” He said penalties under canon law were avoided and priests adopted “ways of thinking and assessing secular realities without sufficient reference to the Gospel.”
In an interview, one leading exponent of reforms called the Pope’s analysis “scandalous.”
Another, Laval University’s Gilles Routhier, says the Pope should seize the opportunity to make bishops accountable, thereby ensuring more transparency and reducing the likelihood of future cover-ups.
But Menozzi, the professor of Christian history, believes a “siege mentality” has taken hold. With time, Benedict could perhaps bolster his legacy with historic initiatives — normalizing relations with China, for example, or meeting the head of the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow, responsible for the largest Eastern Orthodox Church in the world.
But for now, a tired-looking Benedict sits atop a very troubled Church.
Source: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/796849--the-trials-of-pope-benedict?bn=1
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