Now that Cardinal Ratzinger has been Pope for a year, religion journalists are writing stories about his papacy. This quote from the Washington Post’s Alan Cooperman is typical of what we will find:
"He has not turned out to be the pope that many progressives feared and many conservatives cheered," said Christopher M. Bellitto, a church historian at Kean University in New Jersey.”
From my April 21, 2005 posting:
As I look at the flood of commentary on Cardinal Ratzinger becoming Pope Benedict XVI, I’m reminded of two proverbs from my favorite collection of Murphy’s Laws.
Miles’s Law of position states: “Where you stand depends on where you sit.”
Fiedler’s 2nd rule of forecasting states: “He who lives by the crystal ball soon learns to eat ground glass.”
Consider how unreliable the pundits were in their forecasts of the recent popes. Every one expected John XXIII to be just a caretaker. John Paul I died before anyone expected. John Paul II stood against communism as everyone anticipated – but was far more and fare different than either the journalists or Cardinals thought.
Cardinal Ratzinger now sits in a different position. We can expect that his stand on certain issues – most likely procedural issues rather than doctrinal ones - will change. Journalists and bloggers whose crystal balls tell them to expect consistency will find themselves eating words that taste like ground glass.
Given my long-standing skepticism of religion journalists, there is little to brag about in getting this part of my forecast correct.
In the second half of my posting, I expressed the hope that the Pope would pay greater attention to institutional reform, especially with respect to disciplining those Bishops who enabled serial child abusers and more emphasis on the role of the laity. As of yet, there seems to be little emphasis on either issue.
We can always hope. Given the small circulation of this blog, I can take encouragement from The Christophers motto: “Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”
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