After Benedict, will anything really change?
Published on February 16, 2013
Published on February 15, 2013
It occurred to me recently that Pope Benedict XVI had taken a walk in the February snow, perhaps like Pierre Trudeau, before making his decision to resign one of the most prestigious jobs in the world, at least in the Catholic world.
Turns out there was no snow in Rome, and given that renovations on the nearby convent where the Pope will spend his latter years had begun back in November, it would appear the Pope had made his decision sometime before the official announcement that really did take the world by surprise. Many indicated they were shocked by the resignation. Had the Pope announced that he was actually going to consider changes in Church doctrine or canon law, many more would have been shocked. No such luck, however.
There has been much praise for the pontiff from the usual sources including like-minded clergy and faithful around the globe, but there has been as much or even more sadness expressed that as the leader of the Catholic church, he devoted so much of his life to silencing those within the church who dared speak out against church policies. Had he died, he might have been spared much of the not-so-religious press coverage that offered him little sympathy. The online magazine The Onion translated some of his Latin resignation speech to suggest that “he no longer possessed the strength and energy required to lead the Catholic church backwards,” and that “he was unable to helm the church’s ambitious regressive agenda.”
Sr. Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a national Catholic social justice lobby group, when interviewed on Democracy Now just after the resignation news, spoke of Pope Benedict’s encyclical “Charity in Truth” in which he stated that “charity demands justice: recognition and respect for the legitimate rights of individuals and peoples... (and) it strives to build the earthly city according to law and justice.”
More recently, he spoke of “economic inequality” and decried a world in which wealth is concentrated at the top. Yet, the Pope also spoke out against nuns in the United States who were “too concerned with social justice.” Might his denunciation have come from the fact that it was women who were preaching and practising social justice?
There’s no doubt that the sexual abuse scandal will be the hallmark of his papacy and perhaps is the reason why Fr. Peter Daly, a parish priest in Maryland, wrote that Pope Benedict’s resignation would be the most important part of his legacy.
I doubt, however, that any pope would have dealt with the scandal in any other manner, given that as cardinals they take an oath “not to make known to anyone matters entrusted to me in confidence, the disclosure of which could bring damage or dishonour to Holy Church.”
Before he was elected pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was probably one of the first at the Vatican to have been fully aware of the scandal, but his loyalty then, and later as pope, was to “Holy Church,” not the most vulnerable of God’s people.
It was probably the most important decision of his priestly life and rather than speak out for the abused, he chose to be part of the cover-up. Red is the colour associated with confirmation and the virtue of courage, but all those confirmed, red-capped cardinals displayed very little of that virtue.
Whoever succeeds Pope Benedict will be conservative, even if it happens to be a Canadian, since Pope Benedict chose as cardinals only those who dance to his tune. So to conservative Catholics, Pope Benedict will have served the church well, upholding Catholic traditions and practices, dogmas and doctrines, and undoing much of the work of Vatican II.
To those seeking renewal in the church, his legacy will be one of silencing and/or excommunicating questioning theologians and clergy, refusing to consider women as equals in all ministries of the church, continuing a ban on contraception, and treating gay people as less than worthy in the eyes of Holy Church.
How tragic that a man of superior intelligence chose power and control over reconciliation and justice.
Dolores Campbell
Turns out there was no snow in Rome, and given that renovations on the nearby convent where the Pope will spend his latter years had begun back in November, it would appear the Pope had made his decision sometime before the official announcement that really did take the world by surprise. Many indicated they were shocked by the resignation. Had the Pope announced that he was actually going to consider changes in Church doctrine or canon law, many more would have been shocked. No such luck, however.
There has been much praise for the pontiff from the usual sources including like-minded clergy and faithful around the globe, but there has been as much or even more sadness expressed that as the leader of the Catholic church, he devoted so much of his life to silencing those within the church who dared speak out against church policies. Had he died, he might have been spared much of the not-so-religious press coverage that offered him little sympathy. The online magazine The Onion translated some of his Latin resignation speech to suggest that “he no longer possessed the strength and energy required to lead the Catholic church backwards,” and that “he was unable to helm the church’s ambitious regressive agenda.”
Sr. Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a national Catholic social justice lobby group, when interviewed on Democracy Now just after the resignation news, spoke of Pope Benedict’s encyclical “Charity in Truth” in which he stated that “charity demands justice: recognition and respect for the legitimate rights of individuals and peoples... (and) it strives to build the earthly city according to law and justice.”
More recently, he spoke of “economic inequality” and decried a world in which wealth is concentrated at the top. Yet, the Pope also spoke out against nuns in the United States who were “too concerned with social justice.” Might his denunciation have come from the fact that it was women who were preaching and practising social justice?
There’s no doubt that the sexual abuse scandal will be the hallmark of his papacy and perhaps is the reason why Fr. Peter Daly, a parish priest in Maryland, wrote that Pope Benedict’s resignation would be the most important part of his legacy.
I doubt, however, that any pope would have dealt with the scandal in any other manner, given that as cardinals they take an oath “not to make known to anyone matters entrusted to me in confidence, the disclosure of which could bring damage or dishonour to Holy Church.”
Before he was elected pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was probably one of the first at the Vatican to have been fully aware of the scandal, but his loyalty then, and later as pope, was to “Holy Church,” not the most vulnerable of God’s people.
It was probably the most important decision of his priestly life and rather than speak out for the abused, he chose to be part of the cover-up. Red is the colour associated with confirmation and the virtue of courage, but all those confirmed, red-capped cardinals displayed very little of that virtue.
Whoever succeeds Pope Benedict will be conservative, even if it happens to be a Canadian, since Pope Benedict chose as cardinals only those who dance to his tune. So to conservative Catholics, Pope Benedict will have served the church well, upholding Catholic traditions and practices, dogmas and doctrines, and undoing much of the work of Vatican II.
To those seeking renewal in the church, his legacy will be one of silencing and/or excommunicating questioning theologians and clergy, refusing to consider women as equals in all ministries of the church, continuing a ban on contraception, and treating gay people as less than worthy in the eyes of Holy Church.
How tragic that a man of superior intelligence chose power and control over reconciliation and justice.
Dolores Campbell
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