THE election of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to the pontificate has been a shock to progressive Catholics everywhere, and, I suspect, to many moderates.
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (until the 1960s, the Holy Office of the Inquisition) for most of the papacy of John Paul II, and Dean of the College of Cardinals, Ratzinger has long been the defender and enforcer of a conservative, traditional form of Catholicism resistant to modernity, change and reform.
Both he and the former pope have been criticized for blocking the liberalizing initiatives of the Second Vatican Council. The Cardinal presided over a disturbing series of investigations and even excommunications of theological "dissidents" (of the stature of Hans Kung, Tissa Balisuriya and Charles Curran), at least one book burning (of Lavinia Byrne's Woman at the Altar), the suppression of sex abuse scandals in the U.S. and elsewhere, opposition to gay marriage (even for non-Catholics), and the definition of homosexuality as an "intrinsically disordered" state of being.
Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, is a competent theologian whose most recent book Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions, argues that interreligious dialogue and tolerance of religious difference is possible, with the proviso that Christians will continue to believe that Jesus Christ is the supreme mediator of salvation.
Unfortunately, within his own church, the new Pope has resisted dialogue, and refused to listen to voices begging for changes of policy on birth control, condom use in AIDS-ravaged Africa, clerical celibacy, and the ordination of women.
Dwindling
In a church where vocations to the priesthood are dwindling, and an ecumenical context where women function effectively as priests, ministers and bishops, he has forbidden even discussion of the possibility of women's ordination.
Rather than taking responsibility for the culture of secrecy that has nurtured church-tolerated sex crimes, the Vatican, under Ratzinger's watch, has blamed the media, society, feminists and homosexuals for clerical abuses. While advocating democracy, egalitarianism and even women's rights in the secular world, he stands for a hierarchical, centralized, clericalist, fundamentalist and authoritarian church.
The circumstances surrounding the new Pope's election were disquieting. Touted as the favoured candidate shortly after John Paul's death, he delivered the funeral homily and addressed the cardinals immediately before the conclave.
Once sequestered, the cardinals elected him as pope after a scant two days of voting. The quick consensus is no doubt the outcome of 26 years of papal appointments of conservative cardinals sympathetic to the doctrinal hardline favoured by John Paul II and his top aide.
The policy of stacking of the College of Cardinals, and the resulting predictable outcome of the papal election, has resulted in a lack of real catholicity -- a universality comprehending diversity -- at the highest level of church leadership.
It also bespeaks a lack of faith in the role of the Holy Spirit, whose influence is supposed to guide the cardinals in their selection of a new pope.
Benedict XVI, a less outgoing and charismatic figure than John Paul II, will find it more difficult than his predecessor to dazzle the media and the public with an appealing persona, and at the age of 78, is unlikely to enjoy a lengthy pontificate.
However, despite hopeful media speculations, he is unlikely to offer anything but more of the same, perhaps with less personal charm and finesse.
Liberals
Some Catholic liberals will regretfully leave the church; theological conservatives will feel vindicated. Most of the faithful will do what they usually do, function within -- or outside of -- their parishes with minimal awareness of the activities of the hierarchy.
Others, like the members of Canada's Catholic Network for Women's Equality, will continue to work towards a church that is democratic and egalitarian, that welcomes the full and equal participation of lay people and married priests, that recognizes women's full humanity and ability to image Christ as priests, that supports rather than silences theologians who ask questions, and that recognizes that the hierarchy is only a small and limited part of the church, the people of God.
At lunch with some shaken and discouraged Catholic friends immediately after the announcement from the Vatican, one of them half-jokingly asked whether the Holy Spirit could be wrong.
Of course, theologically speaking, the third person of the Trinity, being divine, cannot err -- but human beings, even high officials in the Catholic church, most certainly can, as history has repeatedly shown.
However, as John Paul II said on a windy day in Birds Hill Park in 1982: "You can stop the wind, but you can't stop the Holy Spirit."
Whatever the theological preferences of the new Pope may be, the Spirit will prevail.
Mary Ann Beavis, Ph.D., is a member of the National Working Group of the Catholic Network for Women's Equality (www.cnwe.org) and a former Winnipegger. She is a professor of Religious Studies at the University of Saskatchewan.
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