The materials that Pope Benedict XVI deals with everyday is carefully explained by in the book and includes the following: dicasteries, congregations, tribunals and pontifical councils.
The formal cause of the list of materials above should be to show a “universal moral reference point for reflection on world affairs.” When members of the Catholic Church become loyal to the Pope, then we can look at world problems with a moral and theological perspective. Weigel writes, “John Paul II gave that claim… real traction in history” (243, 36).
Pope Benedict XVI is “a true scholar-pope rather than a man of management,” but he prepared with a professional manager for twenty years by working with John Paul II (1981-2005) located “on the second floor of the Palazzo Sant'Ufficio” near the Basilica of St. Peter. Pope Benedict XVI learned from the great John Paul II to “form the kind of men and women who can… exercise the virtues” and “build economies and polities fit for human beings.” The Church has enough experience to understand the quarrel between good and bad political systems and the Pope desires to show us how to stop the quarrel. Does he know how? You bet. A reading of Weigel's masterpiece, Witness to Hope, will notify the reader that John Paul II stopped numerous political quarrels. After John Paul II at UNESCO in Paris on May 30, 1980, Cardinal Jean Marie Lustiger said, “Communism is finished”; after he gave a mass hundreds of thousands in Managua, Nicaragua on March 4, 1983, the Sandanista “myth” began to fade; and after saying mass for a million in Kinshasa, Zaire on May 2, 1980, John Paul II departed from the airport and a large crowd remained kneeling “in silent prayer” on the runway for thirty minutes after the plane left. Putting an end to fights and quarrels over unequal shares is what we all want to do and it is what the leaders of the Church have been doing for centuries. Pope Benedict XVI hopes to continue the project (242, 180, 259; Witness to Hope, 378, 456, 375).
The tools that Pope Benedict XVI will use to influence others with doctrine and love are several: World Youth days, the “cult of the saints,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church (44), Bishops around the world, and Eucharistic adoration. Further he will use a reliable theology built on both “aggiornamento” [“engaging” the world in the present and future] and “ressourcement” [“a return to the deepest sources of Christian wisdom” in the past]. These are powerful tools and Pope Benedict XVI has the training to use them (39, 43, 44, 254, 261, 241).
In relation to politics Pope Benedict XVI learned from John Paul II that a democratic republic “is not a machine that can run by itself.” Rather, it is a form of government that requires constant repair with the tools of discipline, virtue and faith. Such tools are developed by religious and educational institutions. Pope Benedict XVI also learned from John Paul II concerning vocations that “a man will give his life for a mystery, but not for a question mark.” If a citizen wishes to repair a democratic republic with discipline and virtues, then he might want to learn about the scientific wonders in school and may wish to understand divine mysteries by attending liturgies and saying prayers. Thus, Catholics have a golden opportunity to form citizens who can support a republic, since Catholics have a world-wide system of primary and secondary schools to teach the contemporary sciences along with a global system of monasteries and convents to present the classic public liturgies and private prayers. As a result, Weigel writes that “the new Benedict has his work cut out for him, precisely at home,” since some Catholic institutions are not developed to prepare future citizens of a republic (48, 52, 226).
Pope Benedict XVI is more than ready to guide Catholic schools toward a healthy direction, because he is, well, brilliant. Pope Benedict XVI is a “member of the Academie Française, the Rhineland-Westphalia Academy of Sciences, and the Salzburg-based European Academy of Sciences and Arts.” Plus, he is considered by scholars in the field to be the equal of “Hans Kung and Karl Rahner,” two giants of contemporary theology. And he worked for twenty-four years with Pope John Paul II whose writings “what may be the most consequential and influential body of papal teaching since the Reformation–and perhaps in the entire second millennium of Christian history.” Pope Benedict XVI was fortunate to work with an admirable Pope. Further, Pope Benedict XVI is willing to promote the classic prayers and liturgies of Catholic convents is shown by his several books on the liturgy where he teaches the obvious: liturgies and prayers are designed to help Catholics understand the divine mysteries and should not be designed to make us feel good. Weigel writes, “When worship is something we do for ourselves, rather than something we do because God is to be worshiped, then liturgy deteriorates into… a nice little alternative world… and becomes pointless.” (175, 232, 31, 261).
Pope Benedict XVI is unable to influence everyone. Some school principals prevent Catholic schools from teaching the contemporary sciences and some Bishops prevent monasteries from praying traditional liturgies. Educational leaders in Central America are “impeding progress by laying blame everywhere.” Curiously, some Jesuits do not like Catholic superiors who promote “orthodox” liturgies, such as Eucharistic adorations. There seems to be a set of Catholic educational institutions and monasteries that frustrate Pope Benedict XVI's goal of influencing people in a positive way. Why is that? It is mysterious and sad. (257, 127)
Historically Pope Benedict XVI has met Catholic superiors who share his goal to influence people with “doctrine and love.” Pope John Paul II was “the greatest Christian witness of the [20th] century.” And Pope Paul VI “re-configured the organizational chart” of the Roman Curia in 1967 although Curia is back to its old “that's they way we do thing here” plan of work. Thus, Benedict will probably use his smooth influence in order to organize the Curia more efficiently. Fortunately, George Weigel presents a clear plan for an efficient Curia in this book. (27, 247)
From the above analysis we can see that Mr. Weigel is careful when writing about the transition from John Paul II toward Benedict XVI. He provides extensive footnotes on papal documents and records many interviews with people in Rome. Weigel clearly knows his stuff and kindly presents to the reader a respectful look at the papacy of Benedict XVI. I highly recommend Weigel's book God's Choice.
© By Theodore Faulders, April 13, 2008.