How the Holy Father Lost the Fatherland

No one's more sick of Benedict than the Germans.

BY STEVE KETTMANN | APRIL 14, 2010

To understand the predicament of the European Catholic Church as Pope Benedict XVI's tenure becomes increasingly mired in scandal, it's worth remembering why the former Joseph Ratzinger chose that name in the first place.

Speaking to the crowds in Vatican City's St. Peter's Square on April 27, 2005, immediately after succeeding John Paul II, Ratzinger made clear the choice of the name was meant in large part because of his desire to look to the example of St. Benedict of Norcia, the influential sixth-century cleric whose ideas led to the founding of the Benedictine order.

"He represents a fundamental point of reference for the unity of Europe and a strong reminder of the unrenounceable Christian roots of its culture and civilization," the new pope said that day, leading the New York Times to highlight in its lead paragraph "the Christian roots of Europe" as a possible "central theme" of Benedict's papacy.  

If overseeing a revival of those "Christian roots" was a central goal of this papacy, as subsequent developments indicated, it's not too early or too sweeping to declare that this goal now stands virtually no chance of success. Recent widespread revelations of sexual misconduct by clergy members in Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, and elsewhere, coupled with a shoot-the-messenger defense that just made matters worse, have dramatically damaged the Catholic Church. And, though the Bavarian-born pontiff probably had his best shot at successfully reviving the faith in his homeland, the German church's reputation is now at a drastic low.  

According to a Forsa Institute poll published last month in the German news magazine Stern, after new revelations on child sex abuse around the world, only 31 percent of Germans rated Benedict's tenure as pope good or very good, while 45 percent gave him bad marks. (In April 2007, 70 percent of Germans had rated the pope good or very good on the same poll.)

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Steve Kettmann is an American living in Berlin who has contributed to the New York Times, Washington Monthly, Salon.com, and Wired.com and writes a weekly column on politics for the Berliner Zeitung.

NICHOLAS WIBBERLEY

7:41 AM ET

April 15, 2010

Enough already!

What in the name of Heaven does any of this matter? Those who sniff out these snippets are not Roman Catholics. Roman Catholics do not concern themselves with such esoteric preoccupations and trust the Church to repair any roofs that leak. Protestants have always relished bashing the Whore of Babylon, or whatever the fashionable designation may be. The images conjured by their vitriol are totally unrealistic as any sentient puppet on God’s stage is well aware. Enough already!

 

GENNY

3:35 PM ET

April 15, 2010

Poll results

Cited poll results show that mazochism and perversion among the respondents rose in the last five years by 40pc. They became more eager to listen about the sins of the saints rather than about their own sins. They prefer "pragmatic" blitz-kriegers to Christian modesty. It's a pity.

 

L0B0T

7:29 AM ET

April 16, 2010

Chant Down Babylon

For more than 2000 years ignorant, superstitious, savages have been misinterpreting 5000 years of Hebrew historical allegory as literal truth handed down from some big, invisible, old man in the sky. It is high time this mythology, and its poisonous doppleganger Islam, be eradicated so humanity can progress. William S. Burroughs was correct "Spaceship Earth is too small to tolerate lunatic sects. Churches shouldn't be tax free, they should be taxed double, they should be taxed right out of existence." The souls of thousands of ruined children cry out for vengeance.