New pontiff confronts rebellious U.S. church

Vexing issues
As a longtime power broker at the Vatican, the new pontiff has been enmeshed in some of the most troublesome issues in U.S. Catholicism over recent years:

• He was an important player in the American dispute last year over the church’s attitude toward Catholic politicians like Sen. John Kerry, who favor abortion rights. With one bishop saying he would deny Holy Communion to Kerry, Ratzinger helped guide the U.S. prelates’ discussion of the matter. The cardinal said that while bishops ultimately could decide to withhold the sacrament, they should meet with, teach and warn politicians first. Ratzinger also said that voters would be guilty of “cooperating in evil” if they backed a candidate specifically because he or she supports abortion rights or euthanasia.
• Ratzinger’s office also was responsible for reviewing cases of priests accused of child molesting. Clohessy’s group has complained that the new pope apparently scuttled a request to investigate the Rev. Marciel Macial, founder of the Legionaries of Christ — though it was encouraged that the Vatican recently reopened the investigation.
• Ratzinger was seen in some circles as minimizing the abuse crisis when he told Catholic News Service in 2002 that “less than 1 percent of priests are guilty of acts of this type.” A 2004 survey commissioned by the U.S. bishops showed that about 4 percent of the priests who served over a half-century were accused of abuse, though it did not pin down the percentage of guilty priests.
• Ratzinger also has been responsible for enforcing orthodoxy at Catholic seminaries and universities, some say at the expense of academic freedom. Perhaps the most celebrated U.S. example was the Rev. Charles Curran, who was forced out at Catholic University of America because his views on birth control and other matters differed from official teaching.
• The doctrinal office’s 2000 decree “Dominus Iesus” framed the role of the Catholic Church in human salvation in an exclusive manner that vexed Protestants as well as Jews and other non-Christians. Even his fellow German cardinal, Walter Kasper, was publicly perturbed.

Another contested issue is the Catholic stance — and Ratzinger’s — against gay relationships. Sister Jeannine Gramick, who was directed by the cardinal to cease ministering to gays and lesbians, said his election is “devastating” and would prevent Catholicism from “moving into the 21st century and out of the Middle Ages.”

‘We're going to be surprised’
Still, not everyone predicted doom and gloom for American Catholics. Just as U.S. Supreme Court justices moderate their views once they are on the high court, some predicted Ratzinger would adapt in his role.

“The image we have of him as a theological storm trooper, particularly in the West, is not the reality,” said Brian Saint-Paul of the conservative Crisis magazine. “People are going to see Cardinal Ratzinger for the man he is: quiet, truly humble, extremely popular among those who know and work with him.”

“I think we’re in for an image reshaping.”

Salvador Miranda, a Florida International University librarian and historian of the College of Cardinals, agreed: “I believe we’re going to be surprised. It’s one thing to be the bad cop for the pope and another to be the pope himself.”

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