« Littlefield Names Johnson as Chief o'Staff | Main | Lou Corker? »
April 20, 2005
Ratzingerians, They Don't Know Nothin' About My Soul
Liberal and reformist Catholics are, predictably, up in arms about the selection of Pope Benedict XVI. Many of these complaints are hogwash, thinly-veiled whines that the papacy isn't making concessions to a postmodern, wishy-washy psuedo-ecumenicism. But Andrew Sullivan offers truly disquieting concerns:
This new Pope has no pastoral experience as such. He is a creature of theological discourse, a man of books and treatises and arguments. He proclaims his version of the truth as God-given and therefore unalterable and undebatable. His theology is indeed distinguished, if somewhat esoteric and at times a little odd. But his response to dialogue within the church is to silence those who disagree with him. He has no experience dealing with people en masse, no hands-on experience of the challenges of the church in the developing world, and complete contempt for dissent in the West. His views on the subordinate role of women in the Church and society, the marginalization of homosexuals (he once argued that violence against them was predictable if they kept pushing for rights), the impermissibility of any sexual act that does not involve the depositing of semen in a fertile uterus, and the inadmissability of any open discourse with other faiths reveal him as even more hardline than the previous pope. I expected continuity. I didn't expect intensification of the fundamentalism and insularity of the current hierarchy. I expect an imminent ban on all gay seminarians, celibate or otherwise. And I expect the Church's immersion in the culture wars in the West - on every imaginable issue. For American Catholics, I foresee an accelerating exodus. But that, remember, is the plan. The Ratzingerians want to empty the pews in America and start over. They will, in that sense, be successful.
All of which brings to mind an excellent essay by Pulse expatriate Ryan Davidson on the virtues and limitations of dissent. Well worth reading, especially at the moment.
| By mesh | 11:53 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://chattablogs.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/20415
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Ratzingerians, They Don't Know Nothin' About My Soul:
