I'll make a confession. In the wake of Pope Benedict XVI's election, I've become much more sectarian. It's not that Ratzinger was the Cardinal I wanted to become Pope, but I think I'm increasingly frustrated about arguments with other people, especially non-Catholics, about how bad a thing this was or how this spells the end of any hope for the Catholic Church or about what Catholicism should do. I grow more sectarian because most of those who attack Benedict, in print or in person, often don't know very much about him or about how the Catholic Church operates.
Case in point: People flip out when they hear of his connection to the Hitler youth. This is then taken as an early case-in-point of Papa Ratzi's "fascism" or anti-Semitism or whatever else. And so I got the following news tidbit from CNA:
Volkswagen to build new Popemobile for Benedict XVI
HAMBURG, Germany, May 5 (CNA) - The German
automaker, Volkswagen has announced that it will build a new version of the famous "Popemobile" to be used by its countryman, Pope Benedict XVI.
The Holy Father will use the white, pick-up-like vehicle for his visits to Germany, including this summer's World Youth Day celebration in Cologne.
The car is being modeled after VW's popular Touareg SUV and will be specially outfitted with a bulletproof glass portion in the back.
And now I'm waiting to see if the media and/or my colleagues are going to seek to tie this in too. Hey, Hitler designed the first Volkswagen, and now Benedict wants a VW Popemobile - ANOTHER mark of his fascism.
That I'm likely blowing it out of proportion, I understand. And Benedict does come from traditional Catholic stock (the use of conservative-liberal terminology is misplaced in analyzing the decisions of the hierarchy - more on that later), he likely will not switch course on the issues that seem to get the most play in the media (homosexuality, contraception, and women's ordination) with the exception of priest abuse (which I expect he'll spend much time on, despite his claims that it is blown out of proportion by the media).
But there's a more fundamental issue at work here. He's the Pope, and barring the first resignation in 700 years (or an even more unlikely coup), he's the Pope until God calls him home. For good or for ill, there's nothing really to be done about him being in that office, and he's really not likely to follow opinion polls or letters to the editors about how important it is for him to open up condom distribution in Africa (not to say that this is a necessarily bad idea, mind you). So maybe a better, more generous, more Catholic, more Christian way to look at the whole thing is to pray for him? Maybe we could be a bit charitable and, instead of battening down the hatches and locking ourselves into the bomb shelters while we expect him to wreak holy terror on the world, we could pray that he be open to the Holy Spirit and guide the Church like a good shepherd?
Maybe take his election as a fait accompli but his papacy as still open to the will of God and the prayers of the faithful?