POPE BENEDICT XVI: Happy Birthday Your Holiness!

Catholic Pontiffs no doubt have a special place in history and while history has dealt reverently with most, it has on the other hand ridiculed and scorned the memory of some others. We have in mind here more especially, the Popes of the renaissance best remembered for their remarkably mundane tastes, unbridled luxury and glaringly scandalous lives of debauchery. However, this does not detract from the fact that the Papacy has always fascinated humanity down the ages. As this was true then, so it remains the case even in our own times marked as it is by this aggressively secular mind-set and the undisguised desire to relegate all things religious to the private domain. A clear evidence of this still enduring interest in this Catholic Institution was undeniably manifested in the events leading up to the death and burial of John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI all in April 2005 during which time the spotlights of the global media were literally and unblinkingly focused on the windows of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The papacy has never ceased to amaze and to command world -wide respect and attention.

It goes without saying however that some people at some time have tried to wish away this sacred institution and all that it stands for. These people have postulated the notion of a world where there is no formidable moral authourity personified in a single institution and embodied in a single person as does the papacy such that when such a person or institution speaks, the world listens. In any case, a fact that can not be wished away remains that, the Papacy as the famous British religious sceptic Lord Melbourne noted; “is a great historic institution and must be respected for all it represents”. Many will certainly agree with the former proposition but less so with the later, since it does seem to have become increasingly fashionable and indeed a mark of scholarship in some circles to mud-sling the Pope and the Catholic Church for every conceivable failing, real or imaginary. We do not intend to suggest or even to argue that the institution of the Papacy and the Pope is impeccable, nor that the Pope is in some way gifted with omniscience, since even the dogma of Papal infallibility does not say as much, as some anti-catholic and Pope-bashing ideologues may want us to believe. Papal Infallibility if we are to remind ourselves is restricted to the sphere of faith or morals where the Pope teaches ‘ex cathedra’ as the teacher and leader of the universal Church, guided by the Holy Spirit. Hence the Pope does not and cannot pretend to be an economic historian, a molecular Biologist, a nuclear Physicist or even a biotechnologist and proceed to make ‘infallible’ pronouncements in these departments.

However, the concern of this piece is rather with the charming and eminently interesting personality of Benedict XVI, the German Professor Pope who currently occupies the chair of St Peter and who just turned 80 this April. Here is a Pope who have held the world enchanted, spell-bound, and attentive during these two years he has stepped into the shoes of the Fisherman, as the leader of the over 1 billion strong Roman Catholic Church. Some watched with bated breath to see how this somewhat timid and reclusive academic –as some western journalists have tagged him- will fit into the gigantic shoes of John Paul II, the globe-trotting media superstar Pope who traversed the length and breath of the planet to bring the gospel of peace and reconciliation to the ends of the earth and in whom we were blessed with an extra-ordinarily charismatic leader, one that stirred the ship of the Church for 26 fruitful and eventful years.

Now after the initial hush and eerie apprehension that is many quarters greeted the election of the Former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith(CDF), to the chair of St. Peter, his former critiques have not ceased to be confounded and to be surprised beyond their widest imaginations. Indeed, it’s only those who never bought the cartoon Ratzinger that have not been left hopelessly stunned by the disparity between the real Ratzinger and the media make-up of him. The so-called arch-conservative chief Vatican doctrinal enforcer has scarcely lived up to his stereotype of a combative and fire-breathing German Rottweiler, swiftly going after all those who have deviated from the orthodox way to bring them forcibly back to the mainstream of the faith.

Perhaps some expected that a grave silence would have descended on the entire catholic world the very next day after Benedict XVI’s election, marking the beginning of another inquisition, and a ruthless clamping down on all liberal thinkers, extreme progressives and dissident ecclesiastics. He has instead captivated the world and indeed all peoples from different religious and ideological leanings with his grace and personal charm, springing infinite surprises at both supporters and critics. At the end of the first nine months of his Pontificate, he published his first encyclical entitled “Deus caritas est” (God is Love) which articulated with great clarity the Christian understanding of love, when perhaps some expected him to write a more political encyclical tackling head-on some of the burning issues on the global political scene. Drawing from the writings of the Church fathers, theologians, philosophers and poets, he was able to make his point strikingly that the love of God drives us on to love of our fellow human beings and that this expresses itself in various works of charity which the Church carries on as part of its nature.

Even some of his staunchest admirers have at times found it a bit too difficult to understand the personality of this Bavarian professor and theologian -Joseph Ratzinger who is now Benedict XVI. He further surprised many when he received in audience the radical Swiss liberal theologian, Hans Kung barely months into his Pontificate. It does seem that some expected him to be swifter in closing in on some of the western liberal thinkers renowned for their a la carte disposition towards the doctrines of the church, in terms of picking and choosing what to take seriously and what to ignore. They expected him to go after these people with the fiery zeal and the fanatic fervour of an Old Testament prophet. He did not allow himself to be that predictable.

On the other hand, he has continued to work with the certainty and self-assured pace of one that knows where he’s going. He does not appear to be unduly in a haste to make changes nor does he allow himself to be stampeded by public opinion to introduce radical reforms within the curia, which according to some so-called Vatican watchers, is long overdue. The man Joseph Ratzinger undoubtedly knows how to surprise. It has by now become abundantly clear to everyone both admirers and critics that if anything, this pope is one that can neither be predicted nor be taken for granted. Moreover, he has consistently raised his voice in condemnation of the European attempt at denial of its Christian roots and identity, in addition to criticizing the barely concealed attempt to abolish religion from the European public square.
It can not in any case be contested that the man is in his element, armed with a brain power of surpassing acuity, a fact to which any reader of his addresses and speeches, not to talk of his numerous publications, can readily agree to. The Holy Father’s polished use of words and language is to say the least, remarkable, impressive and elegant. I am personally most enchanted by it. Little wonder a commentator observed that while the crowd came to see John Paul II the Pilgrim Pope, they are coming to hear Benedict XVI the Professor Pope. In any case, does one expect anything less from a university academic, author and one of the foremost catholic theologians of our time?

One other thing that is by now evident is that this is a Pope that is not lacking in courage to say exactly what he thinks, if anything, that 12 September 2006 Regensburg speech says this most eloquently. Yes, that speech entitled “Faith, Reason and the University- Memories and Reflections” that was somewhat a lightning-rod that sparked-off visceral debates and fierce criticisms in some quarters. In Benedict XVI we have a Pope that desires to make his voice heard clearly and unambiguously in condemning all religious motivations for violence. Was that just a mere diplomatic gaffe, a slip of the tongue, perhaps of the pen by a Pope saying something that he shouldn’t have said, something nobody least expected or even something that nobody was bold enough to say, at least not as he said it? Many of us would beg to differ, since the Pope as we know him means exactly what he says.

In the beautiful words of Anna Arco “He has shaken us out of our complacency by saying things that we do not necessarily want to hear, but he does so in a rational way that makes it difficult not to listen”. Surely the Holy Father understands first hand that in as much as issues of inter-religious dialogues have to be handled cautiously with a considerable modicum of diplomacy, he equally understands that diplomatic niceties if not properly handled can often stifle the spirit of authentic dialogue, making it a boring exercise in empty rhetorics. There is therefore need for ‘straight talks’ and frank communication of views all in the spirit of ‘open exchanges’. Any dialogue that does not afford itself the wiliness to sincerely confront inconvenient truths is but a sheer waste of time. The Pope certainly knows that better than any one else.

In the wake of the furore generated by that Regensburg speech, some 38 Moslem scholars from across the globe -representing according to George Wiegel the A-list of international authourities in Islam- jointly responded with a letter which was sent to the Pope in the Vatican and which has also been responded to. This in itself is a feat, in every way unprecedented which boldly indicates that the Pontiff has set in motion the pendulum of open and sincere dialogue guided by reason. The Pontiff’s speech in a certain sense therefore, has already accomplished much and would certainly still bear more fruit in the future. That speech may go down in history as the greatest of this Pontificate. In addition his symbolic visit to Moslem Turkey and more especially his symbolic entry into and prayerful pause in the famous Blue Mosque at Instanbul, whereby he became the 2nd Pope to have entered a Mosque after John Paul II, is another unforgettable milestone in this path to authentic dialogue between Christianity -more precisely Catholicism- and Islam. History will surely be gracious and kind to him.


Written by
Amadi Alvan – 15 April, 2007.
United Kingdom