Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger , "God’s Rottweiler", has emerged as a favorite to be the next pope. Irish bookmakers today have shortened the odds to 4 to 1:
A flurry of bets on Thursday helped boost Ratzinger, whoturns 78 this
week, after Italian media reported he had initialsupport of 40 to 50
cardinals and a church official toldReuters on Wednesday that support
for him looked strong.
The Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club is selling more T-shirts and hats than ever ("Putting the smackdown on heresy since 1981"). But German Cardinals have joined forces with their American colleagues to oppose the Bavarian:
American cardinals have also expressed reservations about a possible Ratzinger pontificate, according to La Repubblica.
The paper reported that American and German cardinals are worried about
Ratzinger’s apparent lack of interest in matters of administration.
German
cardinals also have taken issue with Ratzinger’s opposition to allowing
lay theologians to take a leading roll in parishes that lack priests, a
serious problem in Germany. The paper also said the Ratzinger, the
one-time archbishop of Munich, had failed to address the issue of not
allowing Catholics who had divorced and remarried to receive communion.
On Wednesday Ratzinger published his new book Werte in Zeiten des Umbruchs where he sets forth his ultra-conservative credentials to become the successor to John Paul II.
An interesting counterpoint to book and the speculation in Rome about the next pope can be found in Freitag, which has an interview with the Catholic theologian Eugen Drewermann. Drewermann had been excommunicated by Ratzinger over a decade ago for his controversial writings about the church. In the interview Drewermann equates the papacy to a dictatorship that is destructive to a true Christian community:
Aus Ihren Ausführungen höre ich heraus, dass Sie das Papsttum, so
wie wir es kennen, durchaus als ein diktatorisches System sehen.
Was bitte sollte es anderes sein? Wie kann man sagen, man vertrete
Gott? Wie kann man sich als absolut erklären? Gott ist etwas Absolutes,
die Kirche aber sollte relativ sein, inklusive aller ihrer Ämter. Das
weiß man spätestens seit Humanismus, Reformation und Renaissance. Am
Papsttum scheitert bis heute die Einheit der Christenheit. An ihm liegt
es, dass die Freiheit eines Christenmenschen, die Martin Luther mit der
Berufung auf die Botschaft Jesu für das Christentum wiedergewinnen
wollte, in der katholischen Kirche immer noch aussteht.
Christianity is not a system of laws, says Drewermann, that the Vatican enforces Rather it speaks to something deep in the human soul:
Das Christentum ist seinem eigenen Verständnis nach eine
Erlösungsreligion. Es geht von der unglaublichen Evidenz aus, dass ein
Mensch gar nicht gut sein kann, nur einfach weil er es sein möchte. Er
bedarf, theologisch gesprochen, einer Gnade, um sich selber
wiederzufinden.(my translation) Christianity understands itself as a religion of salvation. Its premise is the unbelievable evidence that a person cannot be good simply because he wills it. He needs, theologically speaking, grace in order to find his way back to himself.
I haven’t read Cardinal Ratzinger’s new book, but from the excerpts and reviews I understand he rails against the evils of abortion and gay marriage as well as the erosion of Church authority in Europe. The concept of Gnade (Grace) is not central to his polemic.
