Shaw: Pope Benedict is universal grandfather, despite disappointments and rebuffs

By Russell Shaw

Pope Benedict XVI waves as he leaves his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican April 11. (CNS photo)

 

On his 85th birthday April 16 and, three days later, the seventh anniversary of his election to the throne of Peter, Pope Benedict XVI apparently remains for many people still something of an enigma even after so many years. A small but telling incident shortly before Easter may hold a key to understanding this unusual man.

In case you missed it, here’s what happened.

Preaching at the Chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Holy Thursday, Benedict spoke with regret of “a group of priests from a European country” who had issued “a summons to disobedience” even to “definitive” Church teaching. That was a reference to a highly publicized group of several hundred Austrian priests who’ve given their dissent the provocative name “Call To Disobedience.”

Benedict said he wanted to believe these men desire Church renewal. But, he asked, is this how to get it “or do we merely sense a desperate push to do something to change the Church in accordance with one’s own preferences and ideas?”

Contacted for reaction by the Associated Press, a leader of the group greeted the papal remarks dismissively. While “listening with interest” to the pope, said Msgr. Helmut Schueller, he took Benedict’s words merely as questions, not an invitation to halt and desist.

From the start, it’s often been that way for Benedict XVI. Almost his first act after becoming pope was to meet with Father Hans Küng, the Church’s most prominent dissenter and a bitter personal critic of the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Benedict was his customary gentle, cordial self. Father Küng apparently was friendly, but he hasn’t budged an inch since then.

A Catholic woman I know sums up what others feel about this pope: “Back when he was in charge of CDF, all we heard was what an ogre he was. Then he’s elected pope, and he turns out to be a kindly, loving man. Instead of an ogre, he’s a universal grandfather.”

That has several explanations. The difference between the job descriptions of pope and CDF prefect undoubtedly accounts for part of the perceived transformation, from the Ratzinger that was to the Benedict that is. Part of it also lies in the discrediting of the Ratzinger name during his CDF years by his enemies’ smear campaign.

But something else also is operative. As pope, Benedict is highly sensitive to the pastoral dimensions of his ministry. Crackdowns are few and far between. Like the professor he is at heart, he speaks the truth of the gospel as he sees it — clearly, persuasively, with entire sincerity — hoping that those who hear it will respond in like manner.

It’s an enormously attractive approach, but how practical is another question. So far, the results aren’t highly encouraging, whether it’s dissident priests in Austria or an ultra-traditionalist group like the Lefebvrist Society of St. Pius X, which Benedict has been attempting for years, without much success, to coax back into full communion with the Church.

For a man of lesser faith, the disappointments and rebuffs from left and right would be discouraging. But Pope Benedict at age 85 plainly has his eye on the future. The projects he’s pushing these days — the New Evangelization, the Year of Faith — are aimed at the long-term renewal of the Church, and it’s hardly likely he’ll be around to see it happen. But so what? In God’s providence, everything will work out in the end. Doubt it? Universal grandfathers know better.

Russell Shaw is an OSV contributing editor.