The Path Ahead

The Peruvian priest turned his back on St. Peter’s Square and walked away. He did not wait for the first words of Pope Benedict XVI. No need to, he said. The priest knew where the new pope stood on the important issues. Benedict’s election, he said, was a major step backward in a church already reeling from scandal, divisions and the desertions of a wayward flock.

The priest represents just one of the many troubles that Benedict inherits as he begins his reign as the Roman Catholic Church’s 265th pope.

Although the church counts more than a billion adherents, it is plagued more than ever by apathy, confrontations with other religions and conflict with secular societies. Benedict’s challenge will be to show believers and doubters alike that he is their universal pastor, a “humble shepherd” for all his people.

Sadness over the death of Pope John Paul II early this month gave way to an eager anticipation of what his successor might bring: a chance for renewal in a church that many believed to be languishing in recent years.

The elevation of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was a hard-fought affirmation of the church’s conservative wing and a clear victory for Catholics solicitous of John Paul’s legacy.

Now the challenge for the white-haired German prelate, and for the wider church, is this: Can the new pope metamorphose from stern disciplinarian into an inspirational minister for the world’s Catholics? Or will he choose to administer a more insular papacy that promotes religious purity but risks alienating followers?

Will the new pope be able to reach the disaffected, especially in the United States and Latin America? He will have to find ways to attract Catholic youth back to the faith and their parents back to Sunday Mass; he will have to decide whether to entertain demands from local bishops for more autonomy and what to do about poverty that feeds political instability.

The pope may choose to confront the wide disparity between what the church teaches and how people live, especially in AIDS-ravaged countries or parishes left rudderless by the dearth of priests. Benedict also faces the challenge of whether to confront other religions, such as Islam, or to engage them in dialogue as potential partners in the promotion of morality.

The new pontiff’s long career holds clues to his approach. As Roman Catholicism’s chief doctrinal watchdog for more than two decades, Ratzinger has a clear philosophical record.

He cracked down on dissent, laid down the law on church teachings and in effect created the many divisions that now rattle the church. His unwavering stance served as succor to those in need of moral clarity, steering them from modern ideologies that refused to recognize absolute truths as taught by the church. But for liberals, his orthodoxy has been dispiriting.

Ratzinger often spoke of a “creative minority” of Catholics. He said he was less concerned that people were driven from the church than that they adhered faithfully to its doctrine. A smaller but purer church was acceptable.

Since his selection as pope, however, Benedict XVI has sought to evince a gentler, more magnanimous image. It is a side of the 78-year-old that many say has always been there but was not always seen by the public. Cardinals and other senior churchmen have taken pains to defend him and have asked their congregations to give the new pope a chance. They maintain that the role of pope is completely different from the role of enforcer. The world will see a new Ratzinger, they claim.

From the very choice of his name and his first prepared remarks, the new pope has made it clear that reviving Christianity in Europe is his top priority. Fighting religious apathy and the march of secularism on the historically Christian continent is uppermost in Benedict’s mind.

Some might argue that the Catholic Church has already lost Europe, and that it would be better to focus efforts on other parts of the world such as Africa and Asia, where the faith is flourishing but facing new threats from evangelical sects and radical Islam.

The pope’s defenders argue that the European heart must be salvaged as part of a quest to return to traditional core values.

“He is a European; he will not give up Europe,” said Austrian Bishop Egon Kapellari, a longtime friend of Ratzinger. “The church is like a tree with deep roots and a broad crown. A tree without deep roots cannot have a broad crown.”

But others worry that concentration on Europe will be at the expense of the universal church.

Reforms that some Catholics argue would broaden the church’s appeal and expand its membership, such as the ordination of married priests and a larger role for women in liturgical observance, are highly unlikely to be in the offing.

Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the archbishop of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and a leading Latin American prelate who many thought had a chance to become pope, outlined a very different agenda of priorities necessary to revitalize the church.

“What we need is a church closer to the people,” he said. “We must continue our solidarity with the poor.”

Benedict XVI, in his first speech outlining the goals of his papacy, made but a single reference, in five pages of text, to “the poor and the smallest” to whom “the ardor of charity” must be committed.

Hummes, like most other cardinals, whether or not they supported Ratzinger, expressed faith that the new pope would reach out.

“We are very hopeful that he truly has love for everyone,” Hummes said. “We can’t see all the plans of the pope in a first moment, in the first hours.”