Ansley Roan: March 2008 Archives

By Francis X. Rocca
Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY -- For more than two decades, Pope Benedict XVI served as one of the closest and most influential subordinates to his predecessor, John Paul II, a relationship built on common priorities, affection and mutual respect. Only weeks after John Paul's death in 2005, Benedict opened the process that might eventually make John Paul a saint.

Yet for all his admiration for the man who came before him, Benedict has displayed his own markedly different style of leading and communicating. One Vatican observer says the two pontiffs represent two distinct personality types.

"ohn Paul had all the traits of an extrovert," including gregariousness and a flair for spectacle and symbolic gestures, said the Rev. Keith F. Pecklers, an American who teaches at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Whereas the private, deliberative and self-restrained Benedict is, according to Pecklers, "very much of an introvert."

John Paul reveled in the presence of other people, celebrating open-air Masses before hundreds of thousands. He tried to physically touch as many as possible among the devoted crowds. Starting with early morning Mass and going all the way through dinner in the papal apartment, John Paul spent a typical day surrounded by dozens of personal guests.

The contrast was striking at the start of Benedict's reign, nearly three years ago, when the new pope appeared uncomfortable with the public at his weekly audiences, hesitating to offer his hand even to children. While he has grown noticeably more relaxed, Pecklers says, the pope still prefers to meet others one-on-one or in small groups.

Benedict is literally less outgoing than his predecessor when it comes to international travel. No one expected him to match the globe-trotting of John Paul, who was 20 years younger when he became pope and visited 104 countries outside Italy during his reign.

But even after his journey to the U.S., Benedict will have taken only eight papal trips abroad in three years -- three fewer than John Paul took at the same age, even as he suffered from advanced Parkinson's disease and other ailments.

Though Benedict sometimes offers Mass in large open spaces -- he will celebrate two during his April trip to the U.S., at Nationals Park in Washington and New York's Yankee Stadium -- he generally prefers the traditional venue of a church, saying super-sized crowds pose risks for the "dignity that is always necessary for the Eucharist."

In his approach to the liturgy, the pope shows a conservatism and regard for tradition characteristic of many introverts. He has encouraged the celebration of Mass in Latin and the singing of medieval Gregorian chant, and has expressed reservations about adapting Catholic worship to blend with the customs of non-Western cultures.

John Paul, by contrast, often presided over liturgies with displays of dancing (that in the words of the National Catholic Reporter's John L. Allen Jr. reminded observers of "Broadway production numbers"). At one celebration in Mexico in 2002, Indian women performed an indigenous purification ceremony equivalent to an exorcism on the pope. Such scenes, Pecklers acknowledges, are hard to imagine in Benedict's presence.

In the pulpit, the scholarly Benedict shows his long background as a theology professor and head of the church's highest doctrinal office, as well a cerebral nature that is common among introverts.

"John Paul was less theological and more devotional in his preaching," Pecklers said. Where John Paul's sermons were typically prayerful reflections on Scripture, Benedict frequently offers lessons on the teachings of St. Augustine and other church fathers.

Benedict's inclination toward complex intellectual argument can conflict with communicating with the wider public. If John Paul's most famous words were the simple yet powerful "Be Not Afraid!", Benedict's may be a 14th-century description of the Prophet Muhammad's legacy as "evil and inhuman." Unlike the media-savvy John Paul, Benedict is no master of the sound-bite.

Ironically, Benedict's introversion may have helped earn him a reputation as a clothes horse. He's been dubbed the "Prada Pope" for a pair of red loafers that media reports attributed to the Milan-based fashion house. Though he has donned some designer items presented to him as gifts (Gucci sunglasses, among others), his most attention-grabbing garments include a red velvet cape and two red hats that in some eyes suggested Santa Claus or the Marlboro Man.

The hats and cape were actually pieces of traditional papal regalia shelved by John Paul but revived by his successor, who has also resumed ceremonial use of the papal throne. In dress as in other aspects of his public persona, Benedict's style is to emphasize not his own unique attributes but those of the ancient role that has fallen temporarily to him.



Copyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

By David Gibson
Religion News Service

Central to the anticipation surrounding Pope Benedict XVI's April visit to the United States is a widespread curiosity among U.S. Catholics about a pontiff whom they mostly know only through headlines and video clips.

What he is like in person? And what he will say to his large and often independent-minded flock in the United States?

Such questions might seem odd, since for nearly a quarter-century before his 2005 election as pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was the Vatican lightning rod on the most explosive doctrinal controversies. No one in Rome -- except Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II -- garnered more media attention, and no one got so much negative press.

But not only is Ratzinger in a different role now as pope, he also has relatively little direct experience of U.S. Catholicism -- a flock that, despite its outsized influence, still represents just 7 percent of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics.

At heart, Benedict is a thoroughly European man, a German-born academic and classical pianist who speaks Latin -- yes, Latin -- with greater fluency than he does English. For years before his election, he wanted nothing more than to return to the Bavarian university town of Regensburg to write and lecture.

Yet now he finds himself about to visit Washington and New York as pope. It could be a learning experience for both sides.

Vatican officials say that as cardinal, Ratzinger visited the U.S. just five times -- the last nearly a decade ago -- and always on academic missions or church business. In a 1996 book-length interview, "Salt of the Earth," Ratzinger was hesitant to comment on the American religious scene "because I have so little knowledge of America."

Yet that's not to say that Benedict does not appreciate the United States. In that same interview, he noted that America has a "commitment to morality and a desire for religion" -- even citing Hillary Clinton's plea to families to watch less television as evidence of a "broad current" of counter-culturalism.

Last month, when he accepted the credentials of the new American ambassador to the Holy See, Benedict struck that note again, extolling the United States as "a nation which values the role of religious belief in ensuring a vibrant and ethically sound democratic order."

Associates of the pope also stress that he is well-informed on American culture and politics, as well as church life. As a cardinal, Ratzinger always had Americans on the staff at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and as pope appointed William Levada, the archbishop of San Francisco, to his old job, making Levada the highest-ranking American ever to serve at the Vatican.

The Rev. Joseph Fessio, a former student of Ratzinger's and the publisher of all of Ratzinger's works in English through Ignatius Press, also cited Benedict's intellect as compensating for his lack of direct personal experience of the U.S.

"I've had the practice over more than two decades of speaking with him, each time we met, about the two or three problems here which I thought most important," Fessio, a Jesuit, said in an interview. "I don't recall ever telling him something he didn't already know."

On the other hand, Benedict's American contacts are almost all like-minded conservatives, which may give him a somewhat slanted view of American church life. As John Paul's doctrinal czar, Ratzinger was instrumental in the campaign to rein in liberal and moderate forces in the American church. He disciplined theologians and prelates, promoted like-minded bishops to prominent posts and quashed debates over issues like the role of women or birth control.

The tipping point -- in the Vatican's favor -- may have been a 1989 showdown in Rome between Vatican officials and American church leaders.

During that summit, Ratzinger was John Paul's chief spokesman, and he told the bishops in no uncertain terms that they are "guardians of an authoritarian tradition" and must be firm and not overly tolerant: "Pastoral activity consists in placing man at the point of decision, confronting him with the authority of truth."

The effort, while taking a toll, was considered a success.

Observers generally agree the American church is in a quiescent -- some would say resigned -- era. Already in his 1996 interview, Ratzinger acknowledged that tensions with the American hierarchy had eased, and that there were only "30 bishops at most" (out of about 300) who caused headaches for the Vatican.

Now that he is making his first papal visit to the United States, Ratzinger is likely to soften his tone. He is the pastor-in-chief now, and will follow the model of John Paul, exhorting the flock to a greater fidelity to Rome but reminding them -- as gently as possible -- of their failings.

In addition, there may be more focus on Benedict's support for environmental protection, his "liberal" (by American standards) stands on social welfare and immigration, and his continued opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Overall, however, Benedict is far more likely to please conservatives than he is liberals. Conservatives tend to overlook papal pronouncements they do not like, and this pope is, at heart, a conservative.

In receiving new U.S. ambassador Mary Ann Glendon, Benedict made no direct mention of his earlier opposition to the war in Iraq, preferring to press his concerns about abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage, and his support for a greater public role for religion.

Benedict will surely do little to advance the reform-minded agenda of Catholics who want the church to consider changes in doctrine, tradition or governance. As he once said, "being a Christian today does not stand or fall on these questions. ... I believe we should finally be clear on this point, that the church is not suffering on account of these questions."

Instead, the pope will want to remind Catholics that remaining a counter-cultural force is the best way not only to push America toward a more just society, but also to unite fractious Catholics under the banner of a common, and somewhat retro, Catholic identity.

Whether such a vision is realistic -- or even desirable -- at this point in the history of the U.S. church will likely be one more debating point during the visit, and for a long time to come.

(David Gibson is a veteran religion writer and the author of "The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle With the Modern World.")

Copyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

By Francis X. Rocca
Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI will become the third leader of the Catholic Church to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York, following Pope Paul VI in 1965, and Pope John Paul II in 1979 and 1995.

Vatican officials have not indicated what Benedict might say in his April 18 speech, but if his past statements are any guide, he will address some of the U.N.'s most prominent agenda items, such as arms control and the fight against global poverty and disease, along with issues of particular interest to the Holy See, such as religious freedom and abortion.

Whatever the precise content, Benedict's U.N. speech is bound to reflect a vision of peace and development drawn from Catholic social teaching -- priorities that cut across the usual geographic, political or ideological boundaries of the world community.

Like his predecessors, Benedict enthusiastically supports the U.N.'s founding mission, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and its central operating principle of multilateral diplomacy.

On Feb. 29, the pope told the new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Mary Ann Glendon, that resolving global conflicts calls for "trust in, and commitment to, the work of international bodies such as the United Nations."

The reference had special resonance since the Vatican opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 largely because the Bush administration lacked an explicit U.N. mandate.

Benedict''s U.N. speech is likely to clash with White House policy in other areas, too.

"On Iraq, terrorism, poverty, refugees, disarmament, the environment, Third World debt, trade -- on these issues, the pope is usually to the left of the Democrats," said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center.

For Benedict, peace is inextricably related to economic development.

He has said that "one cannot speak of peace in situations where human beings are lacking even the basic necessities," and has called for new "legal structures" to remedy the inequality "between the First and the Third World."

Benedict has also spoken out in favor of protecting the natural environment. "We can't simply do whatever we want with this earth that has been entrusted to us," he said last year. "We have to respect the inner laws of creation ... and obey them if we want to survive."

Speaking to an audience as diverse as the General Assembly, the pope will not appeal to specifically Catholic beliefs, but to common ethical principles of "natural law." Yet Benedict's unique role as a head of state and leader of the world's largest church inevitably implies special attention to religion.

Benedict has repeatedly spoken out against religiously based discrimination and persecution, particularly against Christians in Islamic nations.

Benedict believes "religious freedom must be protected, including the right to convert and even to promote conversions," says the Rev. Robert A. Gahl Jr., an American who teaches at Rome's Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. "The Pope advocates the free discussion of faith, even, one could say, a competitive and free market place among religions."

Any reference to religiously justified terrorism, which Benedict has forcefully denounced on other occasions, will be especially potent in the U.N. context.

The proximity of Ground Zero (which the pope will visit two days later) will render his words on the subject all the more poignant, and the presence of scores of ambassadors from Islamic states will add to the drama. A 2006 lecture in which Benedict quoted a 14th-century description of the Prophet Muhammad's legacy as "evil and inhuman" drew condemnation from Muslim leaders and sparked violent protests.

On the other hand, most of his Muslim listeners are likely to welcome any papal remarks regarding sexual and medical ethics. In his official message for the World Day of Peace this year, Benedict suggested that abortion, birth control and same-sex marriage all pose threats to peace by undermining the traditional family.

The Vatican's positions on these issues increasingly put it at odds with leaders and citizens in the wealthy, global West. But the same issues are areas of agreement with the Bush administration, whose U.N. representatives have backed the Holy See on such questions as abortion funding and the use of condoms to fight the spread of AIDS.

Benedict's address to the General Assembly is likely to offer something for everyone -- and to make practically everyone listening at least a little uneasy.

Copyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

By Daniel Burke
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS) Most Americans hold a favorable opinion of Pope Benedict XVI, but the vast majority confess they don't know much about the pontiff, according to a new poll.

Just weeks before Benedict's first trip to the U.S. as leader of the Roman Catholic Church, 58 percent of Americans say they have a favorable or "very favorable" opinion of him.

But when asked how much they know about the 80-year-old German, 52 percent said "not very much," and nearly 30 percent said "nothing at all."

Benedict and Americans will have a chance to get to know one another better April 15-20, when the pope celebrates Masses, greets interfaith leaders, and visits heads of state in New York and Washington, D.C.

Forty-two percent of Americans said they'd like to attend one of Benedict's public appearances, according to the survey, which was conducted by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion and financed by the Knights of Columbus. Sixty-six percent of Catholics said the same.

More than 70 percent of Americans look forward to hearing Benedict talk about spiritual matters such as God's presence in daily life, spiritual fulfillment and how to positively affect the world.

The survey polled 1,015 adults 18 years of age or older, 613 of whom were Catholic. The margin of error for all Americans is plus or minus 3 percent; for the Catholic sample alone it is plus or minus 4 percent.

Copyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

By Daniel Burke
Religion News Service

Asked about her church's ban on artificial birth control, Emily Kunkel inhales deeply and pauses.

"It's hard because the church has had this stance for so many years, there's so much tradition behind it," she says. "But I think in certain circumstances condoms should be used."

Kunkel, a 20-year-old sophomore at Ohio State University, is a cradle Roman Catholic and a graduate of church schools. She regularly attends Mass on campus and in general agrees with her church on birth control -- it shouldn't be widely practiced, she says. But some dilemmas, such as the spread of AIDS in Africa, call for a more "situational" approach, she says.

"It's not really helping the whole AIDS epidemic if condoms aren't used," Kunkel says.

When Pope Benedict XVI touches down in the United States, he'll see a church in which Kunkel's ambivalence toward Catholic sexual ethics is widely shared, particularly among the youth.

Sixty-one percent of Catholics insist that individuals should have the final say on contraception; 75 percent say it's possible to be a good Catholic while disobeying church teachings on the matter, according to recent surveys.

Forty years after Pope Paul VI issued "Humanae Vitae" and upheld the ban on artificial birth control, the encyclical continues to be a flashpoint in the church. Nearly all Catholics agree that Humanae Vitae's effects are pervasive and enduring.

From there, opinions diverge.

Did Paul VI accurately predict the dangers of separating procreation and sex? Or did he crack open a culture of dissent that has since seeped into every corner of Catholic life?

"The document was exceedingly important in the development of American Catholicism," said R. Scott Appleby, a historian at the University of Notre Dame. "It was the first time in the history of the modern church that a papal teaching had been openly defied in such a widespread fashion."

At a recent conference marking Humanae Vitae's 40th anniversary in Skokie, Ill., Cardinal Francis George of Chicago candidly addressed the encyclical's tangled legacy.

"It was the occasion for a direct conflict between many people's experience as they expressed it and the authority of the church," said George,president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "We have then the beginning of the dissolution of the teaching authority of the church, with consequences we still live with."

Among Humanae Vitae's consequences, depending on whom you ask, are dwindling Mass attendance, a callousness toward sin, and polarized pews full of "liberals" and "conservatives."

Others, meanwhile, say Humanae Vitae -- or reaction to it -- is partly responsible for the dearth of young men entering the priesthood, weakened bishops and the clergy sex abuse scandal.

In July of 1968, expectations ran high for Paul VI to at least partially lift the ban on artificial contraception. The Second Vatican Council had just called for lay Catholics to play a larger role in the church. The now widely available birth-control pill offered a discreet means to avoid pregnancy. A leaked press report hinted that a Vatican committee studying the ban favored ending it.

Instead, Paul VI dug in. He defended tradition and encouraged Catholics to savor "the sweetness of the yoke." Sex exists for the connected purposes of unifying married couples and creating new life, Paul reasoned. Contraceptives break that connection and frustrate God's designs, he said. Abstinence during a woman's fertile days to avoid pregnancy -- known as "the calendar method" -- is acceptable. But other forms of birth control are "repugnant" and wrong in all circumstances, Paul said.

The uproar was immediate. In the U.S., 600 Catholic scholars issued a statement insisting that families, not the church, should be the final arbiter on contraception. Nineteen priests in Washington publicly defied their archbishop and criticized Humanae Vitae.

Dissent spread well beyond scholars and clergy. In fact, historians say Humanae Vitae sparked the most widespread public opposition to a papal teaching in centuries.

"American Catholics decided in their own consciences that the use of birth control was not sinful," said the Rev. Jim Martin, an author and associate editor at America, a Jesuit weekly. The laity began to pick and choose which teachings to follow, leading to the rise of so-called "cafeteria Catholics," he said.

"This is when the door to the cafeteria opened."

Young Catholics in professor Lisa Cahill's ethics classes at Boston College don't understand why the church allows married couples to avoid pregnancy through the calendar method but not by other means, she said.

"The arguments don't really fit together coherently," she said. "As soon as you concede that it is moral to have sex while trying not to procreate, why does everything rest on the natural structure of the act?"

George Weigel, a noted Catholic scholar, said the clergy sex abuse crisis that erupted in 2002 was, in part, fostered by a culture of dissent born with Humanae Vitae.

"Did the notion that what the church believes is settled teaching can be disregarded help break down clerical discipline? Yes. Did the idea that bishops cannot address that breakdown forcefully wreak havoc on the church? Yes. Those two ideas were manifestly part of the crisis,"
he said.

But Weigel cautioned that bad behavior by clergy and misgovernance by bishops are more to blame for the scandal.

Marissa Valeri, 30, an advocate with Washington, D.C.-based Catholics for Choice, said that "whatever sliver of high ground (the church hierarchy) had on sexual matters was lost when the sex abuse crisis came to light."

The young Catholics Valeri meets around the country don't look to the bishops for advice on sex, she said.

"I know a lot of Catholics that are right there with them on immigration and the death penalty but on contraception, they're just not."

The late Pope John Paul II reinforced the ban on artificial birth control and said the matter was not up for debate. For him and Benedict, adherence to Humanae Vitae has served as a litmus test for would-be bishops, according to Catholic scholars.

U.S. bishops published a pamphlet in 2006 that encouraged young Catholic families to forgo contraception. As Paul VI predicted, the bishops said, use of birth control has led to a "pandemic of sexually transmitted diseases," adultery, divorce and government population control programs.

Chicago's Cardinal George said "Humanae Vitae is an illustration that even under great societal pressures and hardships, the church will stand for moral truth in her teachings and remain strong regardless of the consequences."

Kunkel, the Ohio State sophomore, said she's glad her church takes a moral stand and sticks with it. College students are bombarded with pressures and competing messages, she said, and it's comforting to hear one clear, unchanging call.

Still, Kunkel said good Catholics can disagree with the church about contraception.

"For me, having that belief inside of you, that you know God is there and you're supposed to help people when you can, that's being a good Catholic."

(Celeste Kennel-Shank contributed reporting for this story from Skokie, Ill.)

Copyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.

By Brittani Hamm Religion News Service WASHINGTON -- With only two months to design and construct the altar that will be used for the giant outdoor papal Mass next month, two first-year grad students at Catholic University have relied on...

By Tom Feeney Religion News Service This the official schedule for Pope Benedict XVI's trip to Washington and New York April 15-20: TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 4 P.M. Arrival at Andrews Air Force Base. Greeting by President Bush and Mrs. Bush....