Cardinal Ratzinger becomes Pope (19Apr05)
Review of his work as doctrinal watchdog

The day after his election (20 April), Britain's Daily Telegraph put up the front page headline:
"God's rottweiler becomes the new Pope". The Opus Dei had secured a conservative and it was the progressive and Third World Catholics who were the losers.
Let's look at a few episodes in his long career as Cardinal.

#1. Times 25 Nov 1996
Ratzinger brands rock music as an 'Instrument of the Devil'
He said "There are diabolic and satanic messages  in much of today's heavy metal music" - including the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Queen. He urged heavy metal bands to 'purify themselves'."

#2. Jan 1997)
He gets Sri Lankan theologian Fr Tissa Balasuriya excommunicated.
In 1981 Ratzinger became head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (pompous new name for the Inquisition Office). In Jan 1997, Ratzinger (70) notified Fr Tissa that he had deviated from the truths of the Catholic Faith and could non longer be considered a Catholic theologian. He was summarily excommunicated - the first time the extreme penalty has been used since 1953.

Fr Tissa (72) wondered why he had not been given the chance to defend himself. He asked pointedly: "Is there a different criterion for Asian theologians?"
His books had portrayed Mary as "role model for working class women", challenging the traditional portrayal by "the capitalist, patriarchal and colonialist West". He had also argued that, as a minority religion in Asia, Catholicism had to be less arrogant towards other faiths.
As the progressive US Z Mag put it (May 97): "Ratzinger's racism showed when he picked on a brown-skinned man without powerful friends and living half a world away."

Earlier theologians disciplined (but not excommunicated) were Dominican Fr Jacques Pohier (French), Hans Kung (Swiss). Their licences to teach Catholic theology were withdrawn in 1979. Pohier quit his order in 1984 while Kung who taught at the University of Tubingen in Germany was rebuked for his "contempt for the magisterium of the Church" [probably meaning for Ratzinger & the pope]. Ratzinger himself taught at Tubingen in the late 1960s and subjected to student protestors who disrupted his lectures. Kung says this experience must have had a "permanent shock effect", that led to his hard line position on any dissidence.
In 2001 (following the issue of Dominus Jesus), the CDF pulled up the Belgian Jesuit Fr Jacques Dupuis  over his book Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism. Dupuis taught for 25 years in Jesuit seminaries in India and moved to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. the book was found to have "notable ambiguities on important doctrinal points which could lead a reader to harmful practices." He was asked to publish the CDF's notification in every future edition. The harassment was too much for the frail Dupuis and he died in Dec 2004.
Even as late as 2004, his CDF condemned the book Jesus Symbol of God by the American Jesuit Fr Roger Haight as having "grave doctrinal errors". After a 4-year investigation, Haight was barred from teaching Catholic theology.

Again in 1997, Ratzinger said that Europeans were attracted to Buddhism for its “autoerotic spirituality” that offers “transcendence without imposing concrete obligations”. He has been equally dismissive of Hinduism saying that it offers “false hope” and condemns its adherents to a “morally cruel” concept of reincarnation that resembles “a continuous circle of hell”.

#3. Sept 2000
Ratzinger re-affirms Roman Catholicism as the only true faith.
The cardinal is known to be an intellectual. His documents (as also those of previous popes) are all written in the European philosophical tradition but meant for the church worldwide. In Sept 2000, he issued a turgid document called " Dominus Jesus: The Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ & the Church".
[Note the pedantic title - can this be translated in non-European languages?]
Among those present at the presentation was Msgr Fernando Ozariz, vicar general of Opus Dei.

The document insists that those of other faiths are in a "gravely deficient situation" compared to Christians who alone "have the fullness of the means of salvation".
Critics sensed that the document was prompted by the influence in the West of "the negative theology of Asia", especially the writings of Indian theologians. The Vatican must have the upper hand and any intellectual challenges outside the West have to be quashed.

The document claims that:
 -  the sacred writings of other religions may "maintain a life-relationship with God" but only the Bible texts are "inspired".
- prayers and rituals of other religions do not have a 'divine origin' and 'some superstitions or other errors' represent 'an obstacle to salvation'.
- Catholicism is superior to Protestant Christianity and implied that Protestant churches were defective in some way.

Ratzinger is not likely to warm up to peoples of other cultures.
For example, he has argued against the admission of Turkey into the EU.
He flatly told the French paper 'Le Figaro' (11 Aug 2004): "Turkey had always been in permanent contrast to Europe. It should seek its future in an association of Islamic nations, rather try to join a European community with Christian roots."

To his credit, Ratzinger did oppose the Iraq invasion which he said “had no moral justification” and rejected the concept of “preventive war.” But in common with Pope John Paul II, Ratzinger's focus has been on conservative issues like abortion, contraception, homosexuality, role of women in the news in the West. During the US election campaign, he had called for pro-abortion politicians to be denied communion.

On the women’s liberation movement: “women should “follow the roles inscribed by her biology”; suggesting a traditional function as domesticated breeding-machines. 
On homosexuality: gays are inherently disposed “to intrinsic moral evil” and their rights can be “legitimately limited”.

On rehabilitating errant clerics: Various cover-ups were arranged under his authority to protect bishops who had failed to act against paedophile priests. For example, the serial-criminal Cardinal Law was promptly evacuated from the Boston diocese. Ratzinger reportedly also helped in securing a sinecure for the cardinal in Rome to save him from facing felony charges at home. (A similar stratagem was used for Cardinal Laghi, who supported the murderous Argentine regime 1974-80. He was seen regularly at the government's torture centres and could decide on the fate of detainees. After a stint in the US, he returned to Italy where he was appointed to head the Vatican's Dept of Catholic Education. In 1997, a human rights group filed formal charges against the cardinal in Rome, 75 in 1997 but he is protected by diplomatic immunity.)

Ratzinger led the crusade to silence or remove dissenters, visionaries and progressives. The office served as the papal “thought police”; rooting out the liberals and bringing them into line with Catholic doctrine. In just a few short years he has weakened the “liberation theology” movement of poor people struggling for social justice. But he has yet to call for social justice for the Third World masses, kept impoverished by the West. 

Soon after his inauguration as Pope on Sunday 24 April, Benedict 6 called for a renewed effort at evangelisation.  Leonard Boff wrote (CounterPunch 25 Apr 05) that unless the church promotes "faith with justice and social mission with liberation, evangelization is alienation".
And how does Benedict propose to re-evangelise Europe driven by consumerism and hedonism?

Popes have routinely issued usual, hollow appeals for “peace and justice” accompanied by tacit support to the ruling classes. The Church has always preached that the poor and deprived must put up with their lot, they will be rewarded in the next life. They must not envy the rich and powerful. Authority must not be challenged. Will it be different under Benedict?