MARCH 27, 2006

ROMAN CATHOLICISM
Assessing the first year of Pope Benedict XVI

On April 19, 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger emerged on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica and was introduced to the world as the new Roman pontiff, taking the name Pope Benedict XVI. The conclave of 115 cardinals in the Sistine Chapel acted with unexpected speed - just 24 hours - to choose one of their number as the successor to Pope John Paul II. The choice of Ratzinger, a German cardinal who earned a reputation for controversy in nearly 24 years as the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog, was an even bigger surprise than the speed of the vote.

A year later, there is enormous interest in what sort of pope he is proving to be. Is he a papal "hard-liner" the way many believe he was as a cardinal? What changes has he made, and what changes can be expected? How will his decisions be received by his flock? How does he differ from his predecessor, and how is he the same? And how are the papacy and the church faring after the death of John Paul, a hugely popular figure whose cause for canonization Benedict himself put on the fast track? ReligionLink offers a guide to exploring those and related issues.

Why it matters

As the spiritual leader of more than 1 billion Catholics worldwide, and nearly 70 million in the United States, the pope can have enormous influence on the religious, ethical and political choices of a large percentage of the population. His reign is watched with particular interest in America, where scandals have left the Catholic Church - the nation's largest denomination - in turmoil in recent years. Moreover, the pope is considered an important global statesman who regularly receives other world leaders. He also makes his views known through his delegates to the United Nations, where the Holy See has a high-profile diplomatic mission.

A guide to the pope's first year

NEW CARDINALS (March 2006)
The selection of cardinals is one of the most closely watched developments in a pontificate because it is those men who will choose a pope's successor from their own number. In February, Benedict announced that he would create 15 new cardinals, 12 of them under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote in a conclave. Benedict officially appointed the new cardinals at a Vatican ceremony called a "consistory" on March 24. John Paul routinely created dozens of cardinals at a time, often surpassing the limit of 120 electors (that is, cardinals under 80 years old). By appointing a smaller number, Benedict indicated he would respect the 120-elector ceiling and create fewer cardinals, though perhaps more frequently. Benedict also surprised some Vatican watchers by naming more Europeans than African or Latin American cardinals, apparently halting a trend.
• See "Cardinal trends: Pope's picks boost Asian, U.S., European presence," a Catholic News Service story about Benedict's first class of new cardinals. The Rev. Thomas Reese, a leading political scientist of the church, also analyzes the class of cardinals at the web site of America magazine.
• Vatican watchers are also analyzing Benedict's early appointments of bishops. His decision to promote the archbishop of San Francisco, William Levada, to succeed himself at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as the church's doctrinal gatekeeper surprised many since the powerful post was not expected to go to an American. The appointment of Salt Lake City Bishop George Niederauer to succeed Levada in San Francisco also prompted much comment and produced some of the first criticisms of Benedict from the Catholic Right. See an article, "The Truce of 2005?" by the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, in the February 2006 edition of First Things.
• Salvador Miranda, a retired professor of library sciences at Florida International University, maintains the most exhaustive catalog of information on cardinals, past and present, with biographies, geographic distribution and a wealth of other data.
• For up-to-date information on all bishops and dioceses in the world, go to Catholic-Hierarchy.org.

CURIA DOWNSIZING (March 2006)
Benedict was long expected to act on recommendations to reorganize and perhaps reduce the Roman Curia, the church's central bureaucracy. Many observers were surprised that he did not act more quickly, but in March 2006 he began to take steps to downsize and consolidate certain offices. Observers expected that process to continue into the future. See stories at Catholic World News and Catholic News Service.

THE ENCYCLICAL (January 2006)
An encyclical is considered one of the most authoritative documents from the pen of the pope, and a new pontiff's first encyclical is considered something of a "mission statement" for the rest of the pontificate. Benedict's first, Deus Caritas Est, or God is Love, was considered surprising by some in that it did not deal with the controversial moral issues Ratzinger was known for, but with the concept and application of Christian charity and the relation to divine and sexual love, agape and eros. Still, some saw in the document hints of a change in focus from traditional Catholic social justice teachings - a change that reflects Benedict's longtime views. The text of the encyclical is on the Vatican web site.

HOMOSEXUALS AND THE PRIESTHOOD (November 2005)
An initiative to keep homosexuals out of the priesthood had been debated for years in the Vatican, at the initiative of then-Cardinal Ratzinger. But the policy was never implemented until Ratzinger became Pope Benedict. In November 2005, the Vatican issued a document under Benedict's signature, titled "Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with Regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in View of Their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders." The document's aim is to bar gay men from the priesthood, and it caused wide debate. At the same time, the Vatican began an inspection of U.S. seminaries in an effort to tighten up on the preparation of future priests in the wake of the clergy sex abuse scandals, including their ability to deal with celibacy. That initiative also sparked some controversy. For background on both issues, see a ReligionLink's issue on Homosexuals and the Catholic priesthood (November 2005)

SYNOD (October 2005)
A Synod of Bishops is a nearly monthlong meeting of several hundred of the world's bishops at the Vatican under the direction of the pope. It is usually held every three years, and Benedict presided over the October synod, which was scheduled long before he was elected. The theme was the Eucharist, but the synod entailed discussions of many difficult issues, such as whether divorced-and-remarried Catholics can take communion. The synod's conclusions held the line on existing policies while recognizing the debates. The Vatican web site has a list of the relevant documents and Benedict's addresses.

WORLD YOUTH DAY (August 2005)
Benedict is not expected to travel nearly as much or as widely as his peripatetic predecessor, but his visits will have an impact and will each convey an important message, observers say. Benedict's first trip outside Italy was an event he inherited from John Paul, World Youth Day (Aug. 18-21, 2005) in Cologne, but one he made very much his own in large part because it had been scheduled for Germany, his homeland. The trip was seen as a success, though it also signaled how Benedict would differ in style from the charismatic John Paul. Moreover, the visit was important because Benedict met with leaders of other Christian churches and the Jewish and Muslim communities. His speeches gave indications of his approach to ecumenical and interfaith dialogue. The Vatican web site has a list of all the World Youth Day talks.
• Trips scheduled for 2006 are a May 25-28 visit to Poland, a July 3-9 visit to Spain and a September visit to his Bavarian homeland. He is also to visit Turkey at the end of November to meet with the Patriarch of Constantinople, the leader of the Eastern Orthodox churches. Visits to Brazil and the United States are rumored for 2007.

THE 'AMERICA' AFFAIR (May 2005)
Almost immediately after Benedict's election, the Rev. Thomas Reese resigned as editor of the weekly magazine America, the flagship Jesuit periodical that he had led for years. Although Reese did not comment on the reasons, it emerged that Benedict, in one of his last acts before the conclave that elected him pope, pressured the Society of Jesus to remove Reese. Apparently Ratzinger did not like some of the issues America was covering. When Ratzinger was elected pope, Reese's departure, which the Jesuits resisted, became a foregone conclusion. The controversy over Reese's departure, however, drew wide public interest and threatened to cast a shadow over the start of Benedict's pontificate.

BOOKS AND BIOGRAPHIES
• The Rise of Benedict XVI: The Inside Story of How the Pope Was Elected and Where He Will Take the Catholic Church (Doubleday, 2005), by John L. Allen Jr. See contact info.
• Pope Benedict XVI: A Biography of Joseph Ratzinger (Continuum, 2005) is a reissue of a 2000 biography of Ratzinger by John L. Allen Jr, subtitled The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith. Allen later said he thought that book was too harsh on Ratzinger.
• God's Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church (HarperCollins, 2005), by George Weigel. See contact info.
• The Making of the Pope 2005 (Little, Brown, 2005), by the Rev. Andrew M. Greeley. The well-known priest-sociologist-novelist updates his 1978 classic for the last conclave. See contact info.
• A Church in Search of Itself: Benedict XVI and the Battle for the Future (Knopf, 2006), by Robert Blair Kaiser. Kaiser is a former priest and author of several books on the Catholic Church. See contact info.
• Holy Father: Pope Benedict XVI: Pontiff for a New Era (Sterling, 2005), by Greg Tobin, an author and spokesman for the president of Seton Hall University in New Jersey.
• Pope Benedict XVI: Successor to Peter (Paulist Press, 2005), by the Rev. Michael Collins, an Irish priest teaching in Rome.
• We Have a Pope! Benedict XVI (Our Sunday Visitor, 2005), by Matthew E. Bunson, an expert on the church and author of numerous books on Catholicism.
• Pope Benedict XVI: A Personal Portrait (Crossroad, 2005), by Heinz-Joachim Fischer. Fischer, Rome correspondent for a leading German newspaper, focuses on Benedict's career as a cardinal and head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He has known Ratzinger since 1976.
• The Thought of Pope Benedict XVI: An Introduction to the Theology of Joseph Ratzinger (Burns & Oates, 2005), by the Rev. Aidan Nichols. This is an update of a book on Ratzinger's theology written in the 1980s by Nichols, an English Dominican.
• Pope Benedict XVI: His Life and Mission (Tarcher, 2005), by Stephen Mansfield. Mansfield is a Protestant and author of a spiritual biography of President Bush.
• Benedict XVI: The Man Who Was Ratzinger (Spence Publishing, 2005), by Michael S. Rose, a trenchant conservative whose other books have excoriated modern church architecture and the presence of homosexuals in the priesthood.
• See also a Nov. 30, 2005, Religion Bookline story (from Publisher's Weekly) titled "A Flood of Titles on the New Pope, But Which Are Selling?"

OTHER RESOURCES

See past ReligionLink editions:
• The reign of Pope John Paul II (February 2005)
• A handbook on Pope John Paul II and electoral politics in the Vatican (April 2005)
• See an extensive collection of headlines and resources from April 2005 in a special ReligionLink feature, The Vatican in the new millennium.

• Ignatius Press is in San Francisco and is the official publisher of all Benedict's works in English, including all those he wrote as a priest and cardinal. The CEO of Ignatius Press is Mark Brumley. Contact 415-387-2324, mark@ignatius.com.
• Vaticanologist Sandro Magister is an Italian journalist whose web site, Chiesa, has an English-language archive of Magister's insider essays on the Vatican, including all the developments of Benedict's papacy.
• For useful links and much fun and lots of Pope Benedict merchandise, visit the web sites for the Ratzinger Fan Club and the Benedict XVI Fan Club.

Click the map for interview sources in your state and region

National and international sources

• John L. Allen Jr. is the Rome correspondent for National Catholic Reporter, a leading national Catholic weekly. He is the author of The Rise of Benedict XVI: The Inside Story of How the Pope Was Elected and Where He Will Take the Catholic Church (Doubleday, 2005). Allen is considered a leading English-language expert and commentator on the papacy and Ratzinger in particular. Contact by email, Jallen@natcath.org.
• The Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak holds the John and Gertrude Hubbard Chair in Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Komonchak has written frequently about Ratzinger's thought and theology, and his June 3, 2005, article "The Church in Crisis: Pope Benedict's Theological Vision" in Commonweal magazine was recognized for its insight. Contact 202-319-6888, komonchak@cua.edu.
• Sister Jeanine Gramick is a Maryland-based member of the Sisters of Loretto religious order. She has been deeply involved in ministry to homosexuals but in 1999 was ordered by then-Cardinal Ratzinger to cease her activities because Ratzinger's office said they did not conform to Catholic teaching. She was subsequently silenced by her previous religious order, which led to her becoming a Sister of Loretto, which has allowed her to continue to speak out. Contact 301-864-3604, gramick@juno.com.
• The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York and founder and editor of First Things, a monthly journal promoting orthodox religious thought. Neuhaus, a convert from the Lutheran church, is a longtime acquaintance and strong supporter of Pope Benedict. Contact 212-627-1985, ft@firstthings.com.
• The Rev. Thomas J. Reese is a Jesuit and visiting scholar at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, Calif. Reese is the leading political scientist of the church and author of Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church (Harvard University Press, 1996). He was also the longtime editor of America magazine, a national Jesuit weekly of opinion, but stepped down after Benedict's election, reportedly at the insistence of Benedict just before the conclave. Reese has not commented on that episode but is widely quoted on other aspects of the church and the papacy. Contact 408-554-4399, treese@calprov.org.
• Robert Mickens is an American journalist in Rome, where he works as Vatican correspondent for The Tablet, a highly respected Catholic weekly published in London. Contact 011-39-329-748-7708, robinrome@libero.it.
• The Rev. Richard P. McBrien is a noted author/editor (the Encyclopedia of Catholicism and other works), commentator and professor of theology at Notre Dame. He is knowledgeable, and often critical, about the politics and history of the church and the papacy. Contact 574-631-5151, rmcbrien@nd.edu.
• Christopher Bellitto is an assistant professor of history at Kean University in New Jersey, where he teaches a course on the papacy. His most recent book is Ten Ways the Church Has Changed (Pauline Books and Media, 2006). He has also written many articles on Catholicism and is a regular television commentator on Vatican stories. Contact 914-584-3961 (cell), cbellitt@kean.edu.
• Mary Ann Glendon is a professor at Harvard Law School and a vocal advocate of the Vatican's views on women, abortion, sexuality and related issues. In 2004, John Paul appointed her as head of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, at that time the highest Vatican post ever held by a woman. Contact at 617-495-4769, through her web site or through her assistant, Susan Norton, 617-496-2609, snorton@law.harvard.edu.
• The Rev. Robert P. Imbelli is a theologian at Boston College and has written and commented widely on the theology and policies of John Paul and Pope Benedict. Contact 617-552-8298, robert.imbelli@bc.edu.
• John-Peter Pham is director of the William R. Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University in Virginia. He is a former Vatican diplomat who worked under John Paul II and is author of Heirs of the Fisherman: Behind the Scenes of Papal Death and Succession (Oxford University Press, 2004). Pham is a frequent commentator on papal politics and processes. Contact 540-568-2281, phamjp@jmu.edu.
• George Weigel is a conservative Catholic theologian and commentator and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. He is the author of God's Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church (HarperCollins, 2005). He is also the author of Witness to Hope (HarperCollins, 1999), essentially the authorized biography of Pope John Paul II. Weigel can be contacted through his assistant, Carrie Gress, 202-682-1200 ext. 218, cgress@eppc.org.
• The Rev. Joseph Fessio is a former student of Cardinal Ratzinger and remains a confidante of the pope. Fessio is a widely quoted promoter and defender of Benedict and of conservative Catholic views. Fessio founded Ignatius Press but now serves as provost of Ave Maria University in Florida, where he also teaches theology. Contact 239-280-2516, jdfsj@avemaria.edu.
• Helen Alvaré is an associate professor of law at Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law. She has a master's in theology and is the former spokeswoman for the U.S. bishops on pro-life issues. Contact 202-319-5146, alvare@cua.edu.
• Sister Mary Johnson is an associate professor of sociology and religious studies at Emmanuel College in Boston who has given guest lectures in Australia, Europe and North America on Catholicism. She is a co-author of Young Adult Catholics: Religion in the Culture of Choice (University of Notre Dame Press, 2001) and is writing a book on Catholic religious orders. Contact 617-735-9830, johnsmb@emmanuel.edu.
• The Rev. Andrew M. Greeley is a sociology professor at the University of Arizona and a research associate with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. Greeley is a respected scholar whose current research focuses on the sociology of religion. Contact Agreel@aol.com.
• The Rev. John T. Ford is a professor at the school of theology and religious studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington. He has often used Benedict's books as texts in his courses on Christianity. Contact 202-319-6501, ford@cua.edu.