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Pope Benedict XVI
faces difficult challenge

THE ISSUE Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has been elected as pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

CORRECTION Sunday, April 24, 2005 » As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI opposed allowing priests to marry and insisted upon celibate priesthoods. Wording in an April 20 editorial on Page A10 incorrectly conveyed that he had taken an opposite stance. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at corrections@starbulletin.com.

THE white smoke came earlier than expected, and the new pope that it presaged was equally surprising to many. Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, can be regarded both as a fundamentalist who will continue the theology of John Paul II and, at 78, as a transitional leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Following his predecessor's charisma, the new pontiff's reputed wisdom, honesty, warmth and humility will be put to the test as a spiritual leader and world figure.

Ratzinger was at center stage at the opening of the secret deliberation in the Sistine Chapel, as dean of the College of Cardinals. Observers expected he would draw a sizable number of votes early in the session and that the cardinals then would move on to find someone else to gain the necessary two-thirds of the 115 votes at hand.

The new pope was thought by many to be too divisive, having annoyed people within and outside the Catholic church since 1981, when John Paul appointed him to head the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, successor to the Inquisition as judicial arm of the Vatican. In that position, he enforced the conservative orthodoxy that his boss espoused.

He denounced "radical feminism" and called homosexuality "an intrinsic moral evil." He upheld the church's opposition to celibate priesthood, ordination of women, artificial birth control, abortion, euthanasia and full communion for divorced Catholics who remarry. Theologians who disagreed risked being excommunicated or forbidden from teaching.

While John Paul reached out to Jews, Muslims and other Christians, it is troubling that Ratzinger publicly opposed Turkey's admission to the European Union last year, arguing that it would conflict with Europe's Christian identity. He also issued a document calling other Christian denominations "deficient." Lutherans who had been in dialogue with the Vatican complained, but the cardinal spurned their protests as "absurd."

When the cardinals convened on Monday, Ratzinger criticized the changing moral values in Europe and North America. "Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism," he told his brethren. "Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and 'swept along by every wind of teaching,' looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards. We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires."

Benedict's greatest challenge will be to convey that message to young people without alienating them. John Paul had a special connection with the young, who adored him while ignoring much of what he preached. Still, while the late pope inspired many into the clergy, the number of priests and churchgoers has continued to decline.

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