Pope Benedict XVI
Fr. Roch Kereszty, O. Cist.

The joy of so many young Catholics over the election of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who on April 19 became Pope Benedict XVI, sharply contrasts with the caricature that some of the mass media have drawn of him: they characterized him as aloof, cold, closed to modern culture, the ruthless watchdog of the Vatican who silenced more than a hundred theologians. I am not qualified to give an adequate description of our new Pope, but I would like to reveal a side to his personality and work that may not receive much coverage in the press.

Cardinal Meisner of Cologne has called Cardinal Ratzinger the “Mozart of theology.” Indeed, long before he became prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, Joseph Ratzinger was one of the greatest if not the greatest theologian of our times. His book “Introduction to Christianity” has become a classic. It was just recently republished with a new introduction summing up clearly and most insightfully the history of theology in the past four decades. That book alone, not to mention his many other writings, shows Ratzinger’s intimate knowledge of modern culture. He laments precisely the crisis, the self-destructive nature of modern culture in order to save the culture and renew its lasting values. I believe that one of the reasons for the Cardinals’ choice was their conviction that Ratzinger is best equipped to present the Christian message to the educated people of Europe and to the world in a compelling and challenging way. He is most capable of entering into a patient but forthright dialogue with Western culture, a culture that is increasingly dechristianized, dehumanized and decadent. He sees better than most of us the connection between relativism and dictatorship: he sees how oppressive that intellectual climate is which denounces and silences any affirmation of a “clear faith based on the creed.”

He has become well known for his total lack of ambition to be part of the Roman Curia, much less become pope. He asked John Paul repeatedly for the permission to resign as head of the Doctrinal Congregation and to be allowed to continue his work as a theologian. Yet, when elected, he accepted the choice. In his homily to the Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel (April 20), he said: “I seem to feel his strong hand (the hand of John Paul) clasping mine, and I look into his eyes and hear his words: Do not be afraid.”

In the same homily he gives expression to the experience we have all had: “the funeral of John Paul II was a unique experience in which we have perceived the power of God who, through his Church, wants to make all nations into one great family through the unifying power of truth and love.”

In this homily he also presents part of his program: a further implementation of Vatican II in harmony with the work of his predecessors and the two-thousand-year tradition of the Church. He also pledges not to spare any effort in his primary task of restoring the full, visible unity of all the disciples of Christ. He calls for actions not just nice declarations, actions that lead to an interior conversion which forms the basis for any real progress in ecumenism. He also calls for the Church to present Christ as the light of the world and to seek a sincere and open dialogue with other religions. He pledges the Church’s work in promoting authentic social progress that respects human dignity, and he expresses his desire to continue the dialogue with different cultures. This program is certainly not reactionary; on the contrary it provides solid reassurance for the continued rejuvenation of the Church.

Let me also add that he has not “silenced” any theologian. If he became convinced after a long and gentle dialogue with a theologian that this person continues to contradict the teaching of the Church, he simply declared him unfit to teach Catholic theology. Charlie Curran and Hans Küng, for instance, continue even today to speak up and teach, but they can no longer speak in the name of the Church as Catholic theologians.

Two interesting details shed some further light on the man who has become our Pope. One is his Episcopal coat of arms, which includes a bear carrying a load.

Archbishop Ratzinger himself explained it in the following way: according to the legend of St. Corbinian of Freising, a bear devoured the saint’s horse on his way to Rome. The saint had no choice but to order the bear to carry the load to Rome. “The bear that replaced the horse – or rather the mule – of St. Corbinian was burdened with his load and thus became a beast of burden (against his will). Isn’t this the image of what I have to do and of what I am?” Archbishop Ratzinger asked. He intended to be a theologian, and against his will, he was made an archbishop, a burden he accepted but did not seek.

The second detail is the name he chose. We can only speculate here. On April 1, a day before John Paul died, Cardinal Ratzinger was receiving an award in Subiaco, a Benedictine monastery built close to the mountain slope where Benedict long lived as a hermit and monk. In receiving the award, Cardinal Ratzinger said:

We need people like Benedict of Nursia today, a man who, in an age of debauchery and decadence, plunged himself into the most extreme solitude, and after he underwent all the necessary purifications, emerged to build Monte Cassino, the city on the mountain top, a city that, amid so many ruins, gathered together the energies out of which a new world was formed.

Briefly, St. Benedict, the father of Western monasticism, evangelized through his monks the barbarian tribes of Europe and contributed to the emergence of a Christian culture.

Cardinal Ratzinger may also have chosen the name because of his immediate namesake. Benedict XV became pope at the beginning of World War I. He is well known for denouncing the ‘senseless massacre’ and ‘hideous butchery’ on both sides. He also called for a halt to the anti-Modernist witch-hunt, which was leading to a campaign to spy even on professors of church history as pious as Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, later to become Blessed Pope John XXIII. Thus, the name of our new pope may be also an indication that, while never compromising on the full truth of the Gospel, he intends to avoid unnecessary confrontations.