A Second Look at the Catholic Faith with Pope Benedict XVI

A Second Look at the Catholic Faith with Pope Benedict XVI

            “The clown and the burning village” is a famous story written by the 19^th century Danish philosopher Kierkegaard.  The story starts out with a traveling circus in Denmark which caught on fire.  The manager sent the clown, who was fully in performance costume, to the village to tell the people the circus caught on fire and they needed help.  The manager was worried the fire was going to spread and engulf the whole village.  The clown went to the village and tried to ask the village people for help, but no one was taking him seriously.  The village people thought the clown was advertising for the circus.  Shortly after, the village was engulfed by the fire and both the circus and the village were burned down to the ground. 

Pope Benedict XVI, when he was Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, recounted this story in his book, Introduction to Christianity. Benedict sees the story as analogy for how theologians have a hard time getting people listen to their message.  The clown represents the theologian who has a serious message for the public, who unfortunately are looking only for light entertainment.

                        “This picture indubitably contains an element of truth in it,” comments Benedict; “it reflects the oppressive reality in which theology and theological discussion are imprisoned today and their frustrating inability to break through accepted patterns of thought and speech and make people recognize the subject-matter of theology as a serious aspect of human life.”  Those who try to preach about faith in the modern world are made to feel like clowns; the world today does not understand them nor do people want to understand them.  Theologians should not have to change out of their clothes to converse normally; they are normal people who mean what they say, whether in “costume” or not in “costume.”  

Benedict’s use of this story is intriguing, because Benedict himself has been seen as the clown, or perhaps as something more menacing—a religious leader with a message that runs directly counter to how most people, and even many Catholics worldwide want to choose to live their lives. Benedict’s notorious nickname, when as Cardinal Ratzinger he ran the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the Vatican agency that oversees the integrity of Church teaching), was “the Pope’s Rottweiler.” Is this reputation as an aggressive, unfeeling defender of tradition justified? Or is Benedict, as he suggests with the story of the clown, a more normal man which a message that deserves to be heard—a message we might need to hear for our own safety and well being?

Pope Benedict XVI

Joseph Ratzinger, grew up in Traunstein, a small village near Austrian border.  His struggling childhood years pursued him to become a teacher and a pope.  Joseph grew up “during which the Nazi regime pursued a hostile attitude towards the Catholic Church.  The young Joseph saw how some Nazis beat the Parish Priest before the celebration of Mass.” It was during this situation “that he discovered the beauty and truth of faith in Christ; fundamental for this was his family’s attitude, who always gave a clear witness of goodness and hope, rooted in a convinced attachment to the Church.”  He then went on to study philosophy and theology and after his studies he obtained a doctorate in theology.  He later taught the dogmatic and fundamental of theology. 

During 1977 he became a Cardinal, and in the November of 1981, John Paul II named Joseph Ratzinger “Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and of the International Theological Commission.”  As he continued through his life getting elected as a Cardinal, Relator of the V Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, President of the Preparatory Commission for the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and a member of the Council of the Secretariat of the State for Relations with States, he wrote many books that explained about intellectual foundations of Catholics.

Once Pope Benedict became pope, some fear that he would “take the church backwards.”  “It’s unfortunate that the Church is taking a step backwards rather than forward.  Pope Benedict’s ways will be hard felt throughout the world.  Whatever happened to “what is good for the people” rather than “what is good for the church.” As the years have gone by “most American Catholics [took] a positive view on where the Catholic Church [was headed] under Pope Benedict XVI, but many say their moral decisions will be guided by their own consciences and not by papal teachings.”  A poll was taken after the pope got elected, and 74 percent said they would rely on their own consciences while 20 percent said they would follow the pope’s teaching; 4 percent said they would follow both their own consciences and the pope’s teachings.  Not all American Catholics follow his teachings, but in a poll where the question was if church should change its teaching or not, 50 percent said they should stay the same and 48 said they should change.  With the faith of Catholics and the ideas of Pope Benedict, the Catholic Church can stay united as a whole.

He is not traditional for the sake of being old-fashioned, but wants the American Catholics to stay faithfully even if the idea of the Catholic Church becomes less important in the future.  Through the influence of the modern day, Joseph Ratzinger wrote the book The Ratzinger Report. The book describes to the reader how important faith is to the Catholic people; not just to the scholars and theologians.  A Catholic Church cannot stand on its own, but needs faith of the Catholic people, and the Catholic people acting as a whole community.  The church is not made up of individuals and theologians, but an assembly of citizens believing in the same God.  Ratzinger tried to explain about the modern world, and how the views of the Catholic faith have changed.  Although the reader might not agree with all the points and arguments Ratzinger makes throughout the book, Ratzinger brings up the importance of faith within the Catholic Church.

            “Harmonic wholeness” describes the completeness and unity of the Catholic Church, but in the modern world, the Catholic Church has lost the unity of the people and the faith.  Many Catholics today are going to church for themselves and not representing the whole church.  Catholics go to church because they feel like they have to or God will punish them.  Having Catholics involved with their church helps the church come together; being a Eucharist, lector, or alter server gets the people of the church involved.  Without people helping during mass, the mass would not run as smoothly.  Ratzinger explains to his reader the important aspects of the Catholic faith, and how theology is not just a matter for individuals, academicians, and theologians, but important for the community of the church.  “Some catechisms and many catechists no longer teach the Catholic faith in its harmonic wholeness- -where each truth presupposes and explains the other- -rather they try to make some elements of the Christian patrimony humanly ‘interesting.’ A few biblical passages are set in bold relief because they are viewed as being ‘closer to contemporary sensibility.’  Others, for the opposite reason, are set aside.”  The church today is “no longer a catechesis that would constitute a comprehensive, all-embracing formation in the faith, but reflections and flashes of insights deriving from partial, subjective anthropological experiences.” 

What does the word faith mean in the Catholic Church?  Within the Catholic Church faith is supposed to be organized into four elements; the Credo, the Our Father, the Decalogue, and the sacraments.  “These embrace the foundation of Christian life, the synthesis of the teaching of the Church based on Scripture andtradition.”   With these four elements, Christians will find “all the he must believe, hope, do, as well as the vital space in which all this must be accomplished.  Today this fundamental structure is neglected in extensive areas of present-day catechesis.” Catholics do not know how to find these four elements.  Without these four elements, the younger generations “are often incapable of comprehensive view of their religion.”  Ratzinger believes the younger generations need to be educated better in order for the unity of the church to stay together.  With Catholics believing in their faith, the unity and the harmony will stay strong and become the reason Catholics live throughout life.

Introduction to Christianity

Benedict was a prolific writer, before and after becoming Pope.  Introduction to Christianity, based on a series of lectures he gave to his students at Tubingen University in Germany – one of his most significant books explaining about the relationship of the younger generations with Catholic figures including God and Jesus.  Most young people do not how to reach out to God when they need help in their life.  As generations have passed, more young people do not know how to talk to God or even reach out to God.  The younger generation is also embarrassed to tell people he or she is Catholic and then they do not keep up with his or her faith.  Especially at college, most young people forget about going to church and drop their faith off of a cliff.  Students believe since their parents are not at the college to force them to go to church, why continue to believe and practice the Catholic faith.  It takes courage and bravery to stick with what he or she believes in especially when he or she becomes independent.  Students in college figure out who he or she is in life; students can change for the better, but sometimes for the bad.  As a student in college, going to church once a week helps to get through the struggling points and hard times in school.  Pursing a relationship with God in college is just the start of a strong connection with him throughout life.

Pope Benedict has been around the world, and speaks to many different types of groups whether they are non-practicing or practicing Catholics.  On March 26, 2006, Pope Benedict went to Auschwitz Camp, and spoke to the people in the camp.  At this camp, he spoke one of his most famous speeches “In this place of horror” which focuses on “to implore the grace of reconciliation” and forgiveness.  Pope Benedict wants the people of the camp who are suffering to reach out to God.  Pope Benedict also wants to reconcile those who are suffering in the “ways of power of hatred and the violence which hatred spawns.”  Many people do not understand this, but God is on both the sides in this situation.  He understands the people were are being threatened, and who are suffering from hatred to realize how they are hurting the people they are torturing.  Although people at this time felt that God was not present, Pope Benedict explained that through these dark times, God was nearby in these rough times.

            “In silence, then, we bow our heads before the endless line of those who suffered and were put to death here; yet out silence becomes in turn a plea for forgiveness and reconciliation, a plea to the living God never to let this happen again.”  Pope Benedict had a hard time speaking at Auschwitz since he saw the suffering and the pain.  Although it was difficult and troubling for him to see the crimes that were being committed, he came as a son of the German people.  “A son of that people over which a ring of criminals rose to power by false promises of future greatness and the recovery of the nation’s honour, prominence and prosperity, but also through terror and intimidation, with the result that our people was used and abuse as an instrument of their thirst for destruction and power.”   He wanted both the torturers and the people in fear and terror to receive reconciliation from God.  “Let us cry out to God, that he may draw men and women to conversion and help them to see that violence does not bring peace, but only generates more violence-a morass of devastation in which everyone is ultimately the loser.”  As much as the Jews, homosexuals, and many others see the Germans as torturers, they need to understand that many are suffering and need help from God.  They need to prayer for the Germans that one day the Germans will see what they are doing is wrong and hurting the people of this camp.  “We make our prayer to God and we appeal to humanity, that this reason, the logic of love and the recognition of the power of reconciliation and peace, may prevail over the threats arising from irrationalism or from a spurious and godless reason.”  With the power and help of God, the Germans will soon understand the power of reconciliation overcomes the power of hatred.

            Pope Benedict or “the clown” as some people sees him, made the realization of how Catholics only see religious leaders in “costumes.”  Catholics in the church need to realize religious leaders should not need “costumes” to spread the good word and the faith, and not the only ones who spread the faith.  It is the harmony of the community which helps spread the faith.  Pope Benedict puts in perspective, throughout his books and speeches, the importance of faith which brings the church and the people together; he wants to show how Catholics can claim the faith in order to bring the church together.  The day he became the pope, he has become a figure and part of the body of the Catholic Church.  His first words as a pope, he expressed his love and passion towards the Catholic faith.  “Dear Brothers and Sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the Cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble labourer in the vineyard of the Lord.  The fact that the Lord knows how to work and to act even with inadequate instruments comforts me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers.  Let us move forward in the joy of the Risen Lord, confident of his unfailing help. The Lord will help us and Mary, his Most Holy Mother, will be on our side. Thank you.”  The nervous, anxious, and shy Pope Benedict XVI has inspired Catholics to keep the harmony of the Catholic Church by believing in the everlasting faith of Christianity.