Pope Benedict is liberal - no wait conservative. . .

Summary: If "conservatives" don't like Pope Benedict XVI, neither do liberals. This is a good thing! Click below to read this article:

I took the following quotes from Karl Keating's weekly letter. He got them from the editorial page of National Catholic Reporter:

1. Mike Coverdale of Nevada, Iowa:

"I turned the TV on just before noon, at the very moment Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was announced as Pope Benedict XVI. 'No!' I screamed from the depths of my soul. I hit the speed dial to my wife's cell phone. 'They not only shut the doors with this guy, they locked them!' I shouted. 'I don't know what to do now,' I cried, feeling physically ill."

2. Mark Summit of Portland, Oregon:

"I am deeply saddened and distressed by the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the papacy, so much so that I sat outside the Portland cathedral the afternoon of the 'Mass of the Holy Spirit,' holding a sign that said 'The Spirit Was Asleep.'"

3. Michaeleen Swanson of Lakeville, Minnesota:

"The morning headlines may as well have read instead: 'Cardinals to Catholic Women: Go to Hell.' We Catholic women have been told for so many years, just hang in there, we are only one death away from change. Well, some of us have hung in there, but every day the handhold is slipping."

4. Pierre LaPlante of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia:

"Since Cardinal Ratzinger has been elected pope, I guess I won't be returning to the Catholic Church too soon. This man is the most undesirable of all the candidates and a reinforcement of all I would have hoped could have been modified."

Why don't liberals like our new pope? When Pope John Paul II died, all the buzz was: "Now maybe we'll have women priests. Now maybe contraception will be allowed. Now maybe the Church will become more modern in its view of abortion." It was as if Pope John Paul II was an arch-conservative, holding the Church back. Of course, JPII was hated by the traditionalists as much as Pope Benedict is.

Where do liberal critics go wrong? They fail to realize that the crushed wishes expressed in the quote above could never have been realized. Unlike the issue of ecumenism (see yesterday's post), the male priesthood, contraception, and abortion are matters of faith and morals, and are therefore infallibly taught by the Magisterium of the Church. No pope would have the power to change these teachings.

The fact that traditionalists and liberals both hate Pope Benedict XVI is actually a good thing. Both of these groups represent misunderstandings of the Catholic faith. The Truth does not fit into neat categories such as "liberal" and "conservative." It transcends these human-defined pigeon-holes. In fact, Truth is usually a paradox that holds two apparently contradicting ideas in tension (is Jesus God or Man? - he is both). Heresy is usually the embracing of one or the other of those ideas to the exclusion of the other. Pope Benedict XVI is in safe water.

In the love of Christ,

Brother Thomas