Conservatives hail new pope,liberals prepare for the worst

ROME — Because of his roles as chief enforcer of Vatican orthodoxy and closest advisor of Pope John Paul II, reaction around the world to the election of German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was unusually pointed.

The day before Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, he declared in a sermon during a public Mass that a “dictatorship of relativism” threatens the church’s claims to absolute religious truth. That observation could easily have come from conservative evangelical leaders in the United States, who, despite theological differences, are cheering the choice of a pontiff who seems to speak the same moral language they do.

“Relativism, pluralism and naturalism are the three main foes of evangelicalism today, and they’re the main foes of conservative Roman Catholics,” said Norman Geisler, the president of Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, NC, and co author of Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences.

"We rejoice in the choice, because he's going to hold the line, and he’s not going to allow the liberal element in the Catholic Church to reverse any of those things.”

Richard Land, the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said Ratzinger will be an ally of U.S. religious conservatives on a host of moral issues such as abortion, gay rights, cloning and doctor‑assisted suicide.

“This is a reaffirmation of ... Pope John Paul II’s policies in all those areas,” said Land, who described Ratzinger as “a known quantity.”

The Southern Baptist leader said he isn’t bothered “in the least” by Ratzinger’s contention in the Vatican’s 2000 document, “Declaration Dominus Iesus,” that non-Catholic churches are “gravely deficient” and Catholics alone have the “fullness of the means of salvation.” The document was prepared by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, which Ratzinger headed.

“His views have no authority over us, and I realize that it’s an official opinion in Catholicism, but for us, it’s just one guy’s idea,” Land said. “I can disagree with that theological statement and I can at the same time work with them as I would with people of other denominations on issues where we find common cause, like fighting the culture of death and fighting for the culture of life.”

Chuck Colson, a founder of the Prison Fellowship who in 1994 helped draft a paper, “Evangelicals and Catholics Together,” that aimed to foster cooperation between the two groups, hailed Ratzinger’s election as “a great choice.”

“The College of Cardinals has opted for orthodoxy over geopolitical considerations,” Colson said. “Cardinal Ratzinger is strong, solid, and will carry on the tradition of John Paul II. That is very good news indeed for Catholics, for all Christians and for the world.”

John Witvliet, director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI, said the choice of Ratzinger as the new pope is likely to hearten those still involved in the “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” movement, as well as evangelical opponents to abortion and euthanasia. But he said the German’s writings on Christ also will appeal to those outside the Catholic world.

"The vast majority of his writings are about the person and nature of Jesus, the beauty of God, and the nature of the church as source of healing and mission in the world,” Witvliet said. “Those, of course, are all topics that resonate not just with Catholics, but with Protestants as well.

Liberal American Catholics responded less enthusiastically to the elevation of a cardinal nicknamed “God’s Rottweiler” for his dogged defense of church doctrine. While they are bracing for the worst, they’re hoping Pope Benedict won’t be as doctrinaire and conservative as advertised — particularly toward women and gays.

“We would be very pleased if the new pope would tone down the virulence of the anti GLBT (gay, lesbian,bisexual,transgendered) rhetoric, and give the tones of love and inclusion a chance to be heard,” said Sam Sinnett, president of the gay Catholic group Dignity USA.

But, given Ratzinger’s statement that gay marriage is “destructive for the family and for society,” and his pronouncement that homosexual behavior is an “intrinsic moral evil,” liberals aren’t holding their breath.

“Today, the princes of the Roman Catholic Church elected as pope a man whose record has been one of unrelenting, venomous hatred for gay people,” said Matt Foreman, a Catholic who is executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Even for non-Catholics, Ratzinger’s hard line approach to gay issues is a bit frightening.

“He is perhaps the biggest homophobe in Europe,” said Mel White, a non Catholic who heads the gay rights group Soulforce. “We couldn’t have had worse news. This man is taking us back to the days of the Inquisition.”

During his debut as a young theologian during the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Ratzinger exhibited a relatively progressive streak; but he turned conservative in reaction to the student uprisings in the late 1960s.

“I’m hoping this pope will surprise us” by reconnecting with the progressive sensibilities he expressed as a younger man, said the Rev. Donald Cozzens, a religious studies professor and author at John Carroll University in Ohio.

In the past four decades, however, Ratzinger has honed a decidedly conservative approach, serving as Pope John Paul II’s doctrinal watchdog and disciplinarian.

In his role as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger lashed out at dissident theologians and rebellious Catholics and closed the door to discussions of any kind that strayed too far from the official line.

“I think that it will only be a matter of days before quarters within the church that have fallen under his investigatory eye will begin speaking of the chilling effect his papacy might have,” said Diana Eck, director of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University.

Ratzinger has shown little tolerance for talk of opening the priesthood to women. He excommunicated Dagmar Celeste, a former Ohio first lady, and six other women who underwent an illicit ordination ceremony in 2002.

“I have absolutely no hard feelings toward this man or the church,” Celeste said after the cardinals announced their choice. “As Catholics, we believe that these elections are not just politics. There is God’s hand in it.”

She held out optimism for the new pope, noting that his roots are democratic and predicting that, “as all older people do, he will return to his roots.”

After the clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted in Boston in 2002, the pope transferred jurisdiction over the matter to Ratzinger, who decided whether accused priests should be stripped of their ordinations

Ratzinger also agreed to investigate allegations against the Rev. Marciel Macial, a founder of the Legion of Christ, and a close friend of John Paul II.

“Some Catholics will be discouraged because of his reputation for authoritarianism, but we’re trying to just remain optimistic and hopeful,” said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “His nickname is ‘God’s Rottweiler,’ and we hope that he brings that tenacity to the issue of children’s safety in the church.”

Some lay reformers are withholding judgment, at least for now. Jim Post, the president of the Boston lay group Voice of the Faithful, which emerged from the abuse scandal with calls for more involvement by lay people in the administration of the church, said the new pope — at age 78 — may not be in the job for long.

“The most important factor that influences all of the cardinals is their judgment of the holiness of the man, and clearly the cardinals were convinced that he had the right spirituality for the early years of the 21st century,” Post said. “Clearly they have faith that he will be a good bridge builder, and we shall see."

Some church observers, including veterans of the ecumenical movement, said Ratzinger’s election may not portend a “doomsday scenario” for Catholics’ relations with other churches or with the broader world.

“I’m not going to measure this pope’s commitment to deeper unity in the Body of Christ solely on the basis of (‘Declaration Dominus Iesus’), said the Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and president of the Lutheran World Federation.

Ratzinger helped orchestrate a 1999 agreement between Catholics and Lutherans that settled centuries-old disputes on the nature of salvation. That agreement, Hanson said, is much more important than "Dominus Iesus," which he said took some positions that "were somewhere between bewildering and of concern."

“The fact that he was a theologian in Germany and a bishop in Germany means he ... knows Lutherans,” Hanson said. “He brings to our relationship a deep theological understanding, as well as contextual experience.”

"Dominus Iesus," a 15 page treatise intended to clarify the Catholic Church’s views on salvation in a world of religious pluralism, deeply angered Protestant and Orthodox Christians, who wondered if they were now to be viewed as second class Christians. Many Jewish groups questioned whether the document was a retreat from John Paul II’s warming relations with Christianity’s “elder brothers.”

Hans Kung, the dissident Swiss theologian, dismissed it as a “mixture of medieval backwardness and Vatican megalomania.” The Lutheran World Federation called it “painful.” The Anglican Communion said it “does not for one moment accept” inferior status.

Echoes of “Dominus Iesus” could be heard in Ratzinger’s homily opening the cardinals’ conclave on Monday, in which he condemned the “dictatorship of relativism” and defended the church’s claim to absolute truth.

Many Christians appreciated the document for reaffirming in no uncertain terms that salvation is found through Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ alone, but the tone struck many as a betrayal of the spirit of the Second Vatican Council.

Terry Tilley, a professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton in Ohio, said “Dominus Iesus” broke little new ground, but was a complete disaster in its delivery. “Most of us think it was a diplomatic blunder, yet only a blunder in diplomacy, not in substance,” he said.

Veteran ecumenists caution that the statement was not intended as a comment on ecumenism and should not be mined for ecumenical implications.

“What I think we all have to understand is that Cardinal Ratzinger, his mandate, was to be the church disciplinarian,” said the Rev. Wes Granberg& Michaelson, general secretary of the Reformed Church in America and architect of a new Catholic& Protestant ecumenical group, Christian Churches Together in the USA.

Supporters of the “liberation theology” movement in Latin America found little to cheer in Ratzinger’s election. He has been one of the sharpest critics of liberation theology, which advocates for the poor and oppressed in the church’s faith and life, as Marxist.

Ratzinger authored two Vatican “instructions” — “On Certain Aspects of the ‘Theology of Liberation’” in 1984 and “On Christian Freedom and Liberation” in 1986 — upbraiding some liberation theologians for what he saw as reducing salvation to freedom from political and economic oppression.

In 1984, he censured Leonardo Boff, a Franciscan priest considered by many the father of liberation theology, forbidding him to speak publicly or publish his ideas.

“Obviously the new pope is not a friend of liberation theology,” said the Rev. Kevin Burke, a Jesuit and professor of systematic theology at Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, MA. “He clearly sees liberation theology as a threat to the church.”

The Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a Jesuit and founder of the Washington based School of the Americas Watch, a Latin American human rights organization, said his response to Ratzinger’s election as pope was disappointment rather than fear.

“This will cause a lot of pain for many in Latin America who are knowledgeable about the destruction he caused liberation theology,” Bourgeois said. “Liberation theology gave hope to many in Latin America, and brought about new models of church, a more circular model and less top-down.”

Many supporters of liberation theology in Latin America have lived through autocratic regimes in their nations, Bourgeois said, and “see Ratzinger as another dictator, in his style of leadership.”

There are some interesting items in this article that I hadn't seen in others I'd read. Off of PCUSA's website, is it any suprise the number of negative comments and paragraphs outnumber the supportive ones.

I especially liked this paragraph:

Apparently Pope Benedict XVI recognized the destructiveness of looney liberalism early on.

Also, I don't recall a first lady from Ohio being excommunicated.

PCUSA is a wayward left-leaning mainline.

But THIS is what caught my eye:

Seems to me that if the Pope hated homosexuals, he would more likely ignore their sin, or worse - condone it. In fact, it would be rather like one who passes by a samaritan on the other side of the street - leaving him to die in his sin.

Here is a quote from another article about the lovely Ms. Celeste
"Ms. Celeste, 60, was the only American among seven women who were ordained as priests by Bishops Romolo Braschi of Argentina and Rafael Regelsberger of Austria on June 29 on a boat on the Danube River between Germany and Austria.
Ms. Celeste said she was ordained under the pseudonym Angela White because her daughter got married in September and she did not want to distract from the ceremony.
The church excommunicated the women on Aug. 5, after warning them that they must renounce their posts by July 22"

"Seems to me that if the Pope hated homosexuals, he would more likely ignore their sin, or worse - condone it. In fact, it would be rather like one who passes by a samaritan on the other side of the street - leaving him to die in his sin."

Bingo. I haven't heard anyone make that point in a long time, and it's a good one. How do liberals get away with saying people like us hate homosexuals when in reality we condemn their actions and put up a fight when people say it should be mainstream? A friend of mine who I haven't seen in ages is a so-called "bisexual", and if I hated them I wouldn't have associated with him at all.

Me thinks they doth protest too much. He hasn't done anything yet, for the love of Pete. I am as conservative as they come in the Catholic Church but I doubt I will see the Panzer Pope we have all been promised (if one listens to Big Media and all the loony left "Catholic?" rags).

Most likely it will be a mixed bag. Some things I will like and cheer and yet others that will leave me shaking me head. Lawd 'ave mercy I hope to never see another Assisi Ecumenical meeting and I hope he keeps puckered lips off the Koran or any other work that denies the divinity of Christ. He may allow married priest but deny women vocations in the priesthood. Who knows, we will all have to wait and see. I hope but do not expect a complete return to the pre-Vatican II Church. sigh.

Umm. Yeah. There might be a reason for that strange commonality. It's called the Bible. Might help if some of them read it once in awhile, than they might not be shocked at the idea of a REAL Catholic (see John Kerry for the opposite) being selected as Pope and why evangelicals/protestants/non denomination etc.. with a fundamentalist belief would cheer a pope of similiar mindset.

I'm just thinking of the massive build up this guy has gotten. Quite big shoes to fill to match the profile. LOL

' “We would be very pleased if the new pope would tone down the virulence of the anti GLBT (gay, lesbian,bisexual,transgendered) rhetoric, and give the tones of love and inclusion a chance to be heard,” said Sam Sinnett, president of the gay Catholic group Dignity USA.'

News flash girlfriend: You have every right to be heard but that doesn't mean that the Church has to change it's doctrine just for you and your lifestyle choice. If you don't like it than find another religion. Now shuddup.

' “Today, the princes of the Roman Catholic Church elected as pope a man whose record has been one of unrelenting, venomous hatred for gay people,” said Matt Foreman, a Catholic who is executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.'

I see, so now not agreeing that there is nothing wrong with homosexual behavior and changing the doctrine of an entire Church to cater to it is now akin to "unrelenting, venomous hatred". New flash girlfriend: You have every right be as gay as you want to be but that doesn't mean that the Church has to change it's doctrine just for you and your lifestyle choice. If you don't like it than find another religion. Now shuddup.

' “He is perhaps the biggest homophobe in Europe,” said Mel White, a non Catholic who heads the gay rights group Soulforce. “We couldn’t have had worse news. This man is taking us back to the days of the Inquisition.” '

This is just one of the most ridiculous things I've read in a long time. Now who is it that's inciting hatred towards whom?

I hope that Pope Benedict XVI excommunicates these so-called Catholics and sends a message that the Catholic Church is not some kind of political party.

Pretty telling how much space was devoted to the comments of the dissenters in this article from the Presbyterian USA website. I'll also post the PCUSA's Stated Clerk Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick's letter to Pope Benedict XVI. The bible quote, in the context used, was a little insulting IMO.

The full text of Kirkpatrick’s letter: April 19, 2005

Your Holiness:

May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you! On behalf of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), I write to offer you our best wishes and commitment of prayer as you answer the call of the Church through voice of the Cardinals to lead the Catholic Church. Clearly, you are being called to offer spiritual leadership that touches the Catholic Church and the world.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and our broader confessional family, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, are committed to seeking the unity of the church and the reconciliation of the Christian family. We appreciated the invitation by Pope John Paul II to engage in serious study and dialogue on how the Petrine ministry might serve the cause of Christian unity. Both through our delegation visit with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and local dialogue with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, we experience the Holy Spirit leading us toward more visible unity. We have also been greatly encouraged in our search for Christian unity by the Reformed-Roman Catholic Dialogues in which we have participated through the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. We rejoice in the progress that has been made.

The task before you is great. It is the grace of God that will lead you. Our prayer for you as you begin this new ministry comes from the apostle Paul’s letter to the Church at Ephesus, “I, therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4: 1-3).

We welcome you to this ministry and pray God’s richest blessings upon you and the faithful of the Catholic Church.

In Christ,

Clifton Kirkpatrick Stated Clerk of the General Assembly President, World Alliance of Reformed Churches

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