Meet the New Pope
Meet the New Pope
Well, it's a great day for people named Benedict. If progressives had a favorite among the leading papal candidates, it likely wasn't Joseph Ratzinger, who will become Pope Benedict XVI. He authored last year's letter urging U.S. bishops to deny communion to pro-choice politicians, widely seen as a shot at John Kerry. He opposes any weakening of the Church's stands on birth control, gay rights, choice, clerical celibacy, or the role of women. He has said nasty things about feminism, battled liberation theology and was even an (involuntary) member of the Hitler Youth as a teenager. Not our kind of guy.
But, unless you believe he really is God's representative on earth, it doesn't matter much. The Church is not about to open its arms to gay marriage, women priests, or even the vast majority of American Catholics who disagree with its teachings on sexual morality. It would have been nice to see an African or Latin American pope, but leading candidates from those areas were not progressives either. Pope Benedict's dutiful denunciations of war and the death penalty may be more obviously pro forma (hey, that's Latin!) but John Paul's words on those topics did not slow the machinery of death in Texas or Iraq. Progressive Catholics working to change the Church cannot expect backup from Rome anytime soon--the hierarchy, as they proved again in electing Ratzinger, is just too conservative.
John Brodkin is an ADA member and former Executive Director of the Greater Washington chapter. Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of ADA.
Well, it's a great day for people named Benedict. If progressives had a favorite among the leading papal candidates, it likely wasn't Joseph Ratzinger, who will become Pope Benedict XVI. He authored last year's letter urging U.S. bishops to deny communion to pro-choice politicians, widely seen as a shot at John Kerry. He opposes any weakening of the Church's stands on birth control, gay rights, choice, clerical celibacy, or the role of women. He has said nasty things about feminism, battled liberation theology and was even an (involuntary) member of the Hitler Youth as a teenager. Not our kind of guy.
But, unless you believe he really is God's representative on earth, it doesn't matter much. The Church is not about to open its arms to gay marriage, women priests, or even the vast majority of American Catholics who disagree with its teachings on sexual morality. It would have been nice to see an African or Latin American pope, but leading candidates from those areas were not progressives either. Pope Benedict's dutiful denunciations of war and the death penalty may be more obviously pro forma (hey, that's Latin!) but John Paul's words on those topics did not slow the machinery of death in Texas or Iraq. Progressive Catholics working to change the Church cannot expect backup from Rome anytime soon--the hierarchy, as they proved again in electing Ratzinger, is just too conservative.
John Brodkin is an ADA member and former Executive Director of the Greater Washington chapter. Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of ADA.
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