Snippets

New pope confounds critics and supporters
My opinion Andrew M. Greeley
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.06.2006

A year later the conservative Catholics are the ones who are angry. The pope has not repealed the council, he has not imposed the old Latin Mass, he has not banned women from the liturgy, he has defended the council's statement on religious liberty.

Father Greeley just kind of lost all credibility with the above paragraph. There are 'conservative' Catholics out there who are disappointed with Benedict XVI to some degree. However, Father Greeley's list of disappointments is more along the lines of the SSPX stance than 'conservative' Catholicism. And since the SSPX is not in the Church, I'm just not at all sure who he is talking about here with his description of 'conservative' Catholics wanting to roll back the council's statement on religious liberty or wanting a complete roll back of the whole council.

Aside from the glee of those who are pleased that Benedict XVI is not Pius XII, with the one-year anniversary coming up, the looks-back at the past year are being spun along the lines of the following:

Pope surprises by not being not the 'Rottweiler' he was expected to be
By Russell Shaw
4/5/2006
Our Sunday Visitor (www.osv.com)

VATICAN CITY (Our Sunday Visitor) – In the year since his election as top leader of the church, Pope Benedict XVI has surprised and sometimes confounded critics and supporters alike. His message to both camps is that he intends to be pope his way, not theirs.
[...]

Did we just get to New Jersey? Is Benedict XVI really Old Blue Eyes, the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Frank Sinatra? He's doing things 'his way', so we are left to wonder...

More generally though, I find it interesting that the media is spinning it this way. A year ago, I had no real expectations aside from a few vague ideas stemming from Benedict's age and experience. So I can't really say I've been surprised by anything. I can say though that Benedict has not done anything that would make me cringe. Far from it.

Putting it simply, I just think this coverage is all wrong. We're still dealing in stereotypes in the press. We've simply gone from the Panzerkardinal to the Pope of Love who is not the hard-liner after all.