And this week's winner...

... of "Pathetically Skewed and Angry Attack 'News' Piece About the Pope" is "The Missing Pope" by Joseph Contreras for Newsweek International. Contreras had stiff competition from Jane Kramer of The New Yorker, but his piece—as Mollie Hemingway ably shows—is so wretchedly bad, it's a clear winner. In the losing kind of "winner" way. For example:

On his upcoming trek to the Brazilian town of Aparecida do Norte, he plans to huddle with regional prelates worried about their declining influence, the growth of evangelicals and local moves to legalize gay unions and abortion. The pope should choose his words carefully; on one of his last trips, to his native Germany, he sparked a firestorm when he quoted in passing scathing comments about the Prophet Muhammad. Within days Benedict was being burned in effigy. He can expect a warmer greeting in South America. But there's no denying he's been a disappointment to many faithful there and elsewhere. Some U.S. Catholics condemn him as aloof, Europeans resent his intrusions into their affairs and he's never been popular in Latin America. The region, home to 450 million Catholics, had hoped to see one of its own succeed John Paul. Many there have felt ignored by the man who ultimately did.

Part of the problem is style. The last pope was a former parish priest who recast himself as an international player (he spoke eight languages, including Spanish and Portuguese). Benedict is a colorless academic who spent much of his career teaching theology and philosophy. "This is a professor, a quiet man, not an actor skilled in politics," says the American theologian Michael Novak. "[People] should not judge him by the standards of John Paul II." ...

But Benedict's emphasis hasn't won him many fans. Just before his ascension, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger warned Italians that "Europe has developed a culture that ... excludes God from the public conscience," and last month he decried Europeans' "dangerous individualism." Also last month, Italy's bishops came out against the country's attempt to extend rights to gay and unmarried couples. Such moves have rankled politicians—one parliamentarian has warned Benedict against imposing a "clerical dictatorship" in Italy—and many of the faithful. "Ratzinger is getting too intrusive on [subjects] such as civil rights for unwed couples and is too out of date," says Milanese housewife Maria Novella Dall'Aglio.

Whoa—he rankles politicians! (And that's bad?) And a housewife thinks he's "out of date." Next you'll be saying that he's "too conservative" and is obsessed with Latin and is stuck in the past. Well, shore nuff, you do!

It also underscored just how conservative—and far from the mainstream—Benedict is. That will cause more trouble in the future, especially in Latin countries that already believe he is behind the times. Later this month, the Vatican is expected to permit congregations to celebrate mass in Latin without seeking prior approval. This represents a big step backward: Pope Paul VI abolished the Latin rite in 1969, and relatively few modern Catholics can even recall it. But that doesn't worry Ratzinger. "He's an old-fashioned guy who wants to go back to what [the church] was before," says David Gibson, the author of an acclaimed 2006 biography of the pope. 

The problem, according to Gibson, is that Benedict "doesn't seem to realize that he's a world leader and not an academic." Indeed, the pope's great misfortune may be his election to a job he was never suited for. With the Vatican facing an acute shortage of priests and nuns and its moral authority tarnished by child-abuse scandals, the world's 1.1 billion Catholics could use a shepherd who would help them tackle present and future problems. What they've got instead is a reclusive intellectual more interested in resurrecting old rituals and disputes.

Yep, it is truly befuddling why B16 keeps addressing Islam, relativism, secularism, nihilism, modernity, post-modernity, liturgy, the Eucharist, love, God, Jesus, and the relationships between faith and reason, Church and state, science and religion. That is, like, wow, so yesterday!

Truly pathetic, even for Newsweek.

Comments

[Ed Peters]

You're right. This IS worse.

[peter]

I'm not sure if the mainstream media pays attention to the Benedict's popularity. I read an article recently that the number of people who come to Vatican just to hear Benedict preaches is almost the same or more that number of people who came to Vatican to see John Paul II.

[RC2]

It's not the snide and predictable part I mind, it's the palpable ignorance and stupidity. JP II is more "open" than Benedict because he mastered 8 languages? Excuse me, but how many languages does Benedict speak? At least 5 to my knowledge. How many does the reporter speak? But I bet she considers herself "open."

Even the relatively fair and pleasant piece that ran recently in the NYT magazine claims that Benedict is part of the "personalist" school and a disciple of Husserl. (I guess all Popes look alike.)

If these people turned their papers in for a grade, they'd flunk.

[dan]

"Pope Paul VI abolished the Latin rite in 1969"

wow. fact-checkers, anyone?

[Ed Peters]

Yes, dan, we are all Eastern Catholics now.

[Cale Clarke]

Carl,

As always, insightfully and humorously done. Keep up the great work!

Cale Clarke
www.thefaithexplained.blogspot.com

[Marc]

whaaaaaa!
cry babies in search of their sucker