Year 2!
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Thursday, April 21, 2005
The German Shepherd
Panzer cardinal...God's Rottweiler...and (my favorite!) Papa Ratzi. Barely a week in office, Pope Benedict XVI, a.k.a. Joseph Ratzinger, is already known by many names. This is largely due to the erstwhile Cardinal's reputation as a hardline theological conservative, a strict guardian of Catholic orthodoxy for 23 years. Newspaper sources mention how Ratzinger's writings and comments give "a hint of what his papacy will bring". He has dismissed demands for multiculturism as a "fleeing from what is one's own". His 2000 decree "Dominus Jesus", which touted the exclusive role played by the Catholic Church in human salvation, upset Protestants, Jews, and other non-Christians. And understandably so. As I write this, liberals all over the world are worried about how this brand new pope will handle the crucial issues of homosexuality, women's rights, same-sex marriage, the ordination of gay and women priests, contraception, and the propagation of non-Catholic Christian doctrine all over the globe.

The last pontiff, Pope John Paul the Great, was hailed as such because he seemed to have embraced the world--regardless of race or faith--and made people feel "loved" as human beings first. Whatever they stood for, wherever they came from, came a distant second. We'd all like to believe that God looks at the heart first before anything else. And if it's true that there is something good in all of us, then He sees it, and this gives us hope. This Hope is what was reflected in Pope John Paul II's very being.

However, let us not judge the new pope before he has had a chance to let God's true Light shine through in his life's greatest work. His election was guided by great prayer, after all. Women's rights advocate Sister Mary John Mananzan put it simply: "I believe in the Holy Spirit more than I believe in my human judgement. That is why I am accepting Pope Benedict XVI in faith."

I am one of those concerned about the future of religious unity, particularly (and maybe even especially) among Catholics and Christians of all denominations, but not gravely so. In his first public mass at the Sistine Chapel as pope, Ratzinger said that his "primary task" would be to work without fail to re-unify all Christians. "I welcome everybody with simplicity and love," he said, "to assure them that the Church wants to continue in open and sincere dialogue with them, in search of true good of man and society."

The issues of the 21st century are serious and very real. The heavy cloak of religion will not hide nor heal them. I'd like to think that this new Peter is not just God's appointed, but His annointed as well. That in his weakness, He will turn to God for guidance in all things. That he will truly be a rock for the world to lean on. That this German will be a true Shepherd.
 
posted by The White Rabbit at 4:25 PM | Permalink |


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