Pope Benedict, a year on

by Editor · April 19, 2006

Since that April evening a year ago when Joseph Ratzinger was presented to the world as Pope Benedict XVI, comparisons with his predecessor, John Paul II, have been inevitable. Indeed, often these comparisons have been useful in distinguishing the new pontificate from the extraordinarily long one that preceded it.

After more than a quarter century of Pope John Pauls high profile pontificate one that was subjected to extravagant media coverage right until its final moment there was always the danger that the papal throne, like a lived-in armchair, might have assumed the shape of its long-time occupant. The new pope might have tried to follow a tough act by assuming some of his predecessors properties.

Pope Benedict has elegantly sidestepped such hazards. Within a year, he has established his own pontifical character, yet without compromising his inaugural promise of continuity in the papacy. In doing so, he has dropped some traditions started by John Paul (who himself readily revoked some of the more ostentatious papal traditions) while quietly establishing his own style.

Cardinal Ratzingers election was not uncontroversial. Many conservative Catholics cheered his election, expecting a crackdown on dissent, while many progessives were dismayed for similar reasons. Curiously, it is conservative US Catholics who have been heard to grumble that Pope Benedict has not lived up to their whip-cracking expectation.

Of course, Pope Benedict is theologically, doctrinally and liturgically a conservative but not in a divisive sense.

In his installation Mass homily on April 24, Pope Benedict said he would be a listening pope.

And so, remarkably, he has solicited the ideas of others, inviting them to speak candidly from their own experiences. Priests have told him about the pastoral problem of divorced and remarried Catholics who are banned from the Eucharist; prelates participating in the Synod of Bishops in October were invited to address the pope on subjects such as mandatory priestly celibacy.

Nobody expects that by obtaining such opinions Pope Benedict will embark on a process of reform but by procuring the forthright thoughts of Catholics, he has endorsed dialogue on the non-essential teachings of the Church.

Tellingly, Benedicts dialogue with the faithful has been based principally on scripture, not doctrine.

The papacy has afforded Pope Benedict, who as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had acquired a not altogether unjustified reputation as an uncompromising hard man, to show his compassionate side. His first encyclical was not an intellectually alienating affair on a lofty theological principle, but a lucid reflection on a divine and universal disposition, love.

And in his public appearance, he exudes a confident warmth that belies his shy, academic nature.

The election of Cardinal Ratzinger might well have turned out to be divisive. Instead, the pope has shown a commendable spirit of rapprochement with the Churchs two most radical factions. In a matter of a few weeks, Pope Benedict met first with a top delegation of the traditionalist Society of St Pius X, with a view of reconciling the group with Rome, then with the ultra-progressive archcritic Fr Hans Kung. Both meetings signalled that this papacy intends to accommodate diversity.

The faithful have responded positively to such efforts; Catholics seem to have united behind Benedict, perhaps more even than they did behind John Paul II.

Pope Benedict was asked to succeed a defining pontificate. Without much fuss, he has stepped out of John Pauls big shadow so much so that the comparisons between the two popes are losing their usefulness.