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| ...and God spoke. Twice. |
A few years ago I published a bilingual post entitled “The Real Ratzinger / Quién es Ratzinger - Quién es Benedicto XVI?” Mea culpa, because I failed miserably that time to mention it wasn’t my own writing but a Church divertimento, some kind of in-joke with a good deal of truth about the nature of the resigning Pope’s character: a high-stakes intellectual that could confront even Saint Peter.
That’s why some vaticanists doubt the health issues as the reason of the “surprise” resign (OMG! A Pope is lying!). See, Benedict XVI’s biggest quest was the fight against the western civilization’s moral relativism and the fundamentalist secularism currently in vogue. With the Regensburg speech, it became pretty clear it is not possible for a Pope to engage in an open debate about different cultures (not to mention religions) in absolutes because of the politically correct mentality permeating our own. However, the Church’s position stood the same, as expected.
In the meanwhile (according to the pundits) the so-called former “Panzer Cardinal” couldn’t handle the inner civil war between Cardinal factions. In a nutshell, Benedict XVI is a doctrine giant but a not so good statesman. Nevertheless, that could be doubtful, because he pledged to depurate the Vatican Bank and complied; not to mention the decision to stop for good the counterproductive attitude to keep swept deeply under the rug the decades-long pederasty scandal which generated a justified rejection of the public opinion and a measurable damage.
To our misfortune, the only thing that could agree the Cardinal factions this time is that the next Pope will be an Italian again. God only knows if this could be a good decision in this era when people are well-accustomed to perceive that the Papacy is a universal institution and not merely an Italian privilege.
And a few pundits argue something I agree with: Benedict XVI’s representatives everywhere (not to mention his flock) were only dimly aware of his intellectual stature, and they did not draw upon, to our great disadvantage. This could only hurt us.
Roma locuta, causa finita.
