EUROPE, THE POPE, AND SOUR GRAPES
Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
I am back from my hiatus, my wife and I having spent a few weeks in Europe on a long-overdue vacation.
1. April 19 found us in Vienna. In the late afternoon church bells began to peal. It wasn't the top of the hour, so we suspected that white smoke had come from the Sistine Chapel. We turned on the television in our hotel room. Sure enough, the camera was focused on the stovepipe.
Once the new pope was announced, bells all over town started to ring, and some of them rang for a good half hour--a nice touch that probably wasn't replicated in any American city.
2. In the following days we drove through rural Austria and Germany. Many steeples flew long yellow-and-white pennants: papal colors.
3. Our last days were spent near Munich. We had a free afternoon, and I was tempted to drive eastward again, to Marktl am Inn, the birthplace of Joseph Ratzinger. Now I'm sorry we didn't make the trip. It could have been a twofer.
The River Inn forms the border between Germany and Austria in that region. Not far from Marktl, on the Austrian side, is Braunau am Inn, Hitler's birthplace. Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope Benedict the day before Hitler's birthday--two interesting juxtapositions.
4. Northwest of Munich is Dachau. We happened to visit on the sixtieth anniversary of the camp's liberation by American troops. The place was thronged, and we had to park a long walk away. Very little remains of the original buildings, but the historical displays, given in both German and English, are well done and thorough.
5. Earlier we had visited Obersalzburg, where Hitler had his southern headquarters. It is located above the mountain resort area of Berchtesgaden in southern Bavaria. Again, not much remains of the original structures--they were destroyed in heavy bombing--but the underground bunkers still can be toured.
6. Last night I finished reading Ian Kershaw's "The 'Hitler Myth.'" Especially interesting was the discrepancy between the Germans' regard for Hitler (at least until the war turned sour for them) and their regard for the Nazi party. It was as though Hitler and the party hardly had any connection.
Except for a small proportion of ideological zealots, the party was held in low esteem by nearly everyone. The proportions were nearly reversed with respect to Hitler. While some despised him all along, most Germans thought very highly of him. The "myth" constructed around him worked, so long as he scored diplomatic victories. Once Germany started losing battles, though, the "myth" evaporated.
7. Hitler and Nazism left behind a ghost that has haunted Germany for more than half a century. Perhaps the selection of a German pope will exorcise that ghost. We'll see.
8. When we first got to Germany I picked up a copy of "Der Spiegel," the equivalent of "Time" or "Newsweek." The issue was devoted to the life and pontificate of John Paul II and to prospects for the Church's future. Like its American counterparts, "Der Spiegel" has a bias.
One of the feature stories was called "Die Andere Kirche" ("The Other Church") and was about women deprived of the priesthood and homosexuals deprived of whatever. Another article was titled "How Rich Is the Pope?" Still another regurgitated old history in the person of Roberto Calvi, the banker whose 1982 death engendered lots of headlines.
Then there was an article on the "Holy Mafia," which is to say Opus Dei. A pro-liberation theology article was called "The Battle Against the Church of the Poor." There even was a piece by left-wing novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
If all this wasn't enough, one of the lead stories was titled "What Kind of Pope Does the Church Need?" The writer was Hans Küng.
9. Days later, at the moment when Joseph Ratzinger walked onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica as Benedict XVI, I thought I heard a distant wail. I thought it sounded a lot like former theologian Küng. Poor man!
Decades ago it was he who helped the young Joseph Ratzinger get a faculty position. The two eventually parted ways, and one can be quite sure that of the 115 cardinals in the Sistine Chapel, Ratzinger was the very last one that Küng wanted to see on that balcony.
10. What Küng and those like him said in print and on television was cockamamie, but let them have their say. They hardly will get another chance. Time has passed them by. Long ago they lost their lustre and disappeared from the headlines. They were sure the Church would go in their direction, and now look what has happened! How galling!
11. While on vacation we picked up the European editions of "Time" and "Newsweek." Each had the inside scoop on the conclave, and the two scoops differed in almost every particular.
"Time" claimed that in the final vote Ratzinger "had won 95 out of 115. Liberal stalwarts left grumbling." Let's parse that.
In the conclave there were 20 liberal cardinals (115 minus 95). If Benedict XVI enjoys a reign of average length, 7.5 years, a fair number of those 115 cardinals, including some of the 20 liberals, will become too old to vote or will have died. Perhaps the Pope will be able to hold two consistories, from which he might name, say, 35 new cardinals.
I suspect his appointments will be more consistently conservative than were John Paul II's. Some of those 20 "grumbling" liberals will be replaced. Maybe the next conclave will see only ten remaining grumblers. If he is still alive at the time, what will Hans Küng say if Benedict's successor is more conservative than "Pope Ratzinger"?
12. I ran across a small counterweight to the liberal commentaries, the "Katholishe Sonntags Zeitung" ("Catholic Sunday Newspaper"), published by the Augsburg diocese. It featured lots of positive articles about the new pope. One photo showed him receiving Joachim Cardinal Meisner of Cologne.
This year's World Youth Day will be held in Cologne--and Catholic Answers will be there, distributing two booklets to the thousands of young people who will attend. ("Der Spiegel" said only one German cardinal voted for Ratzinger: "Meisner, the ultraconservative Archbishop of Cologne." More sour grapes.)
13. When I got home I found in the diocesan newspaper the latest syndicated column by Fr. Ronald Rolheiser. I never have thought much of his writings, and my opinion was strengthened by this column.
He said, "Cardinal Ratzinger wasn't my first choice and may have been in fact my last choice [why be coy? of course he was your last choice; he was the last choice of every liberal commentator], but, after some initial disappointment, I've made my peace with his selection."
Rolheiser said that Pope Benedict "will try to move things ahead [that is, in a liberal direction] only slightly." This will preserve the movement toward [liberal] reform that John Paul II supposedly led.
If a more liberal man had been elected pope, said Rolheiser, he might end up pushing too hard and thereby ruin any prospects at all for further reform. Thus the Church is more likely to move leftward with the most conservative man at the helm.
Hmmm. Maybe Rolheiser's argument should appear in the dictionary under the definition of "rationalization."
p.s., I'm pleased to announce that the line-up of speakers for our fourth annual apologetics cruise has been finalized. Three of the speakers are noted radio hosts: Michael Medved, our own Jerry Usher, and now Teresa Tomeo of Ave Maria Radio.
Teresa hosts the daily "Catholic Connection" program. Listeners to "Catholic Answers Live" will recognize her as a frequent guest host of our program. I think she's great on air, and I can assure you that she's even more engaging in person. We expect to have a lively session when she, Jerry, and Michael are on stage together.
They will be joined on the cruise by Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, Jimmy Akin (our director of apologetics and evangelization), and, bringing up the rear, me.
Already we have had more people sign up for this year's cruise than we had on last year's cruise--and the 2005 cruise is still six months away! Don't let that lull you into complacency. It seems likely that we'll run out of space within a few months.
If you might want to join us, visit www.catholicanswerscruise.com for further information. We have reserved a block of staterooms, but, once they're gone, we'll have to turn people away.
p.p.s., If you have a comment about anything appearing in this E-Letter, please do not hit your Reply button. Instead, go to Catholic Answers' new discussion forums at
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where you may post your comment in the forum dedicated to the E-Letter. You will find a thread devoted to this issue of the E-Letter. Feel free to add your comment in the form of a reply to that thread.
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