cellini's Diaryland Diary

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On Pope Benedict

I have decided that I rather like Pope Benedict. Having been raised in the Catholic church, I still keep an eye on what's going on there. Ratzinger has taken a lot of flack for his goals, but given his job I think that his priorities make sense.

These days I do not run around calling myself a Catholic, because I disagree with some things that are very fundamental to Catholic liturgy. Transubstantiation in particular. I mean, come on. The communion wafer tastes like a piece of flat bread. It is most certainly not literally turning into Christ's body in my mouth. If I said that I was Catholic while disagreeing with that, I would be a heretic. Fundamentally, I have too much respect for the history and accomplishments of the Church to call myself a Catholic.

This is exactly what Ratzinger is getting at. The Baltimore Catechism addresses this quite explicitly:

129. Q. How is the Church One? A. The Church is One because all its members agree in one faith, are all in one communion, and are all under one Head.

Ratzinger's concern is that Catholicism is splintering like so many Protestant sects. His contention is that when doctrine becomes a matter of personal interpretation, you no longer really have a church. Fundamentally, Catholicism as a concept is a bureaucracy established by Jesus of Nazareth himself, who passed authority on to the Apostle Peter along with the right to further delegate this authority. This is a matter of historical fact. The church is supposed to be an institution which systematically analyzes moral questions and passes judgment based on both the teachings of Jesus and on the 'case law' that previous leaders in the church have established. It is espoused by the church that the Bible is not literally true and that truth about God and how he wants people to live cannot be determined purely from reading the Bible, but that the other traditions of the church going back to the time of Peter are essential.

That's what's for dinner. Anyone who calls himself a Catholic while rejecting the authority of the church's statements on things like transubstantiation or birth control is not in fact a Catholic. Or at the very least he is a heretic.

Thus Ratzinger's focus on purity of litrugy is actually a defense of the very existence of the Church as something recognizable for what it has been for the last 2,000 years. He's taken a lot of flack for tightening up on doctrine at a time when people are leaving the church in hordes over issues of doctrine. But this isn't a popularity contest. It isn't a political campaign or a cell phone plan that he's trying to get people to buy. Given the purpose and goals of the church in the first place, it would be better to be to insist on adherence to doctrine and consist of a handful of members than to let everyone make up their own religion and call it Catholicism with a congregation of millions.

I applaud Pope Benedict's insight and courage. My agreement with his policies also happens to require that I not be a part of the church, which is fine by me.

The Catholic church is generally a good thing internationally. They've educated millions of people in third world countries, going back to before there was such a thing as organized secular charity on that kind of level. I think that the world is better off for it existing. There have been some very bad popes in history, who demonstrate clearly that this matter of popes being infalliable is bullshit. But overall, I think they've done a pretty good job. The world has gotten some very nice art and architecture out of the church. A lot of good science came out of the church and it's monasteries. I'm in favor of it even though I am now completely without religion.

14:26 - 2008-04-17

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