12/7/04
"Man is capable of producing another man in the laboratory who therefore is no longer a gift from God or of nature. . . . Just as he can be fabricated, he can be destroyed."-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
Cliches cling to him like dry hurled eggs. He is the "panzerkardinal," an actual veteran of the Hitler Youth and Wehrmacht (from which he deserted). The Vatican office he heads used to be called The Inquisition. Lately, as Pope John Paul II dies to rise again as Saint and Doctor, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has been labelled "the Real Power at the Vatican," and accused of high-jacking a papacy that was already anti-progressive and making it an even more stern promulgator of Dominus Jesus and other neanderthal-medieval-fascist hogwash. In the futile but inevitable speculation of who the next pope will be, Ratzinger's name is now mentioned most.
I'm almost sorry that the papal conclave is not what the ignoranti think it is: a white-smoke-filled caucus room where cardinals make deals in the choosing of a pontiff like congressmen going at an omnibus spending bill, where there's discreet but forceful lobbying by the Freemasons and Opus Dei, with perhaps, a poisoning or two along the way. If the conclave were so, Ratzinger might be a possibility with his name-recognition and "power" to broker. But if the conclave were so, it would not have picked Cardinal Karol Wojtyla who, being obscure and isolated in Poland was certainly no political "playah." And because the Holy Spirit does inspire the choice, I do not take seriously the Vatican curial one-liner, "Too bad he's an American."
Ratzinger would be the ideal pope whose pontificate would assure a continued injection of John Paul II's work into Catholic life for a few more years (only a few; he's 77 now). He and the pope have always thought alike and it's true that JR has written the pope's script at times. Like John Paul II, Ratzinger personally experienced the two deadliest systems of the 20th Century, Nazism and communism, with their degrading views of Man as an organism, not destined for a heaven and unconnected to a God.
Like the pope, the cardinal has probably been very dismayed to find that while Nazism and communism are gone, their "culture of death" is alive and well in much of the world, especially in free democratic societies, particularly along their northeast and west coasts. As John Paul II realized as a young philosophy student, Ratzinger knows that ideas about truth and the nature of Man are not just personal preferences that weave a colorful tapestry of life. What ideas people have determine whether they care for and nurture souls or whether they exploit, corrupt and torment them.
Unfortunately, great popes don't come in succession. Only two popes, a Leo and a Gregory of over a 1000 years ago have ever been suffixed "the Great." About as many have reigned 25+ years. We have to be prepared for the likelihood that whoever succeeds John Paul, even if he continues John Paul's work, is going to be a spark following the sun-pope. A couple pontiffs down the road, there may even be a Julian the Apostate.*
*No need to tell me that Julian was a Roman emperor, not a pope.
Copyright 2004, 2008 by Neal J. Conway