Word: popes
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After the last few days he has endured over his controversial comments about "bitter" small-town America, Barack Obama can only hope that the Pope's arrival in Washington on Tuesday steals some of the spotlight. But given the hits he took from both the Clinton and McCain campaigns over his questionable choice of words, that may be too much of a miracle...
There are no speeches or writings, no public records to tell us what Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - the future Pope Benedict XVI - thought of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. But the influential prelate, then head of the Vatican's office for internal doctrinal matters, clearly had a forceful opinion. Soon after the bombs fell on Baghdad, the topic came up in April 2003 as Ratzinger talked with fellow Cardinals Carlo Maria Martini of Italy and Paul Poupard of France at an intimate Vatican diplomatic reception. A Church official present that evening remembers the typically soft-spoken German shaking his fists...
Ratzinger did not elaborate then, nor since becoming Pope, about his opposition to the American military campaign, though he has spoken out about the Iraqi people's suffering. The intellectually rigorous Pope rarely sounds off on subjects that are not in his purview, say those close to him. "He's not an armchair politician," says one German scholar who's known Ratzinger for years. "He's not an armchair anything." Still, being Pope, especially the successor of the diplomatically adroit John Paul II, means Benedict is expected to make his mark on world politics...
...SNAP sex abuse victims group, said the Vatican continues to lack real measures for combating sex abuse within its ranks. "[Benedict] will totally avoid reference to the ongoing complicity and duplicity and recklessness of top church officials," he said "That's the scandal." Clohessy also called on the Pope to use the U.S. visit to announce the extension of new Church policies for combating the problem worldwide, noting that even the measures taken by the U.S. Church, which he considers insufficient, are better than nothing. "For 94% of Catholic kids on the planet," he said, "there's not even...
...course, for Benedict to win over American Catholics, responding to the crisis is just a start. Two open-air masses, on April 17 at the Washington Nationals' baseball stadium and on April 20 at New York's Yankee Stadium will show the shy Pope is improving on the public stage. With a reputation as a doctrinal hardliner, Americans may be pleasantly surprised that Benedict tends not to wag his finger at the faithful on these pastoral missions. But with the recent history in the U.S. church, he can focus on what's best in the American church only...