Habemus Problem

It was five years ago today that Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez of Chile announced to the world that Catholics had a new pope, Benedict XVI. While I'm sure the Pope is marking the fifth anniversary of his reign, I'm also certain that he's not celebrating it.

Pope Benedict, who turned 83 on Friday, was chosen in part for his advanced age - after a quarter century and change with John Paul II on the throne of Peter, the College Of Cardinals wanted a caretaker pontiff who wouldn't last too long. Maybe he already has. Benedict has in fact reigned longer than John XXIII by five months, and he does not see himself as a caretaker of the Church, but he has hardly left an enduring mark on the papacy like John, who called the Second Vatican Council to recommit the Church to the times, did. As noted earlier, Pope Benedict XVI's pontificate is devoted to a continuity of the Johannpauline period, and as a member of the Catholic laity (and a lapsed member at that), I have yet to see this Pope taking the Church in any particular or distinctive direction. He keeps insisting that he does not intend to be a caretaker, and with the ongoing sex abuse scandals, it's obvious that he can't merely be a caretaker.

Alas, the Holy Father's handling of the situation is lamentable at best. It's easy to see why, during the conclave that elected him, the former Joseph Ratzinger prayed to God that he wouldn't be chosen and hoped to retire from his role as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and return to Germany. Benedict has expressed regret and attempted to apologize on behalf of the Church regarding this scandal without admitting any negligence or error on his part. He parses his words similar to how noted heretic John Lennon did when he explained his remark that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ, except that Lennon had good reason to do so (and the Vatican accepted his apology).

To be fair, Benedict had a tough act to follow, succeeding a larger-than-life pontiff who just about singlehandedly liberated eastern Europe from Communism - he is like Andrew Johnson to John Paul II's Abraham Lincoln. But his inability to get a grasp on the sex abuse scandal shows how is own personality has conspired against him. Benedict is a rather stubborn fellow, usually relying on his own instincts and conclusions - which is to be expected, given his introverted character - and he still comes across as the taciturn professor from the University of Regensburg that he used to be (and, officially at least, still is). He's lecturing his audience and only occasionally accepting contrary input in return.

Although there's a precedent for popes not serving out their lifetime reigns - Martin I was dethroned and kidnapped in 653 by an Eastern patriarch for refusing to legitimize Monothelitism, a belief that Jesus had two natures but only one will - Benedict is unlikely to abdicate or be dethroned, and the best we can hope for is that the Holy Father will handle the Church crisis better going forward. More likely, he will continue to bear the papacy like a cross while the Vatican continues to protect him.

A Benedictine Mess

It may be an understatement to say that the Roman Catholic Church is in its greatest crisis since the rudderless drift it experienced in the 1970s, but it suits the circumstances well enough. Pope Benedict XVI is apparently at a loss over what to do about clerical sex and physical abuse scandals dating back over fifty years. Indeed, he seems to have trouble accepting the fact that they actually happened.

No one can blame Benedict for all of the child molestation cases, obviously, but he can be held responsible for not addressing them in a forthright manner. He shows more regret than remorse about cases in the United States and Ireland, and he seems oblivious to the charges of possible connections to similar cases in Germany - especially that involving his older brother, also a priest, who has admitted to slapping children's faces. Georg Ratzinger directed the choir at St. Peter's Cathedral in Regensburg, Germany and was present when several instances of abuse described by one man who living in the boarding school linked to the choir as "sadistic punishments in connection with sexual lust" were supposedly committed. It's inconceivable that Father Ratzinger could not have known about it. And the fact that the Pope was archbishop of Munich and Freising, whose jurisdiction included Regensburg, seems to suggest that he knows more about the abuse cases than he is willing to let on.

As the successor to John Paul II, Benedict has sought to continue a hard line against moral relativism and modern consumerist capitalism, suggesting a sense of continuity in the Church. Ironically, this continuity has extended to the pedophilia cases. The first such cases, mainly out of Boston, surfaced in 2002, late in John Paul's papacy when he was aging and becoming less proactive in his role as Holy Father. The transition to another pontificate has hardly helped the Catholic Church deal with the legacy of these cases of abuse, and Benedict is ceding moral authority by the day with his current posturing.

If the Church is going to survive this scandal, it's going to have to be more open and more relevant to its parishioners. The Vatican can't just preach to the faithful; it has to listen. Somehow, I suspect that it may fall to the next papacy to begin the listening and healing process.