For the pope, all questions must be entertained

The April 15-20 visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States offered Americans, and the rest of the world, grist for further evaluation of the pontiff not only as a man but also as a messenger. Caricatures of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became the current pope, have abounded.

As prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, a Vatican office that oversees the orthodoxy of priests, prelates, and theologians, he was called “the pope’s Rottweiler”, “Inquisitor”, and even “Nazi”. As pontiff, he has been called “panzer pope” and “enforcer”, among other epithets.

Benedict is the third pontiff to tread American soil and has a much more avuncular appearance than his detractors had heralded. While he may not have delivered as much as some of his detractors, and fans, had wished, Brennan Pursell, author of Benedict of Bavaria and associate professor at DeSales University, Pennsylvania, offered in an interview some insights into the pope and his message to the United States. Pursell said Benedict, as pope, is consistent with his life story and a life teaching theology and philosophy. He has served variously as parish priest, professor, academic administrator, Cardinal-Archbishop, and personal advisor to Pope John Paul II.

When Pursell was asked whether the man who was Cardinal Ratzinger is different from the man who is now Pope Benedict XVI, he quoted Hans Kung, a former Catholic theologian and colleague, as saying “Oh no, there is only one Ratzinger. He now has a different role”.

In visiting Americans, the pope’s intention, said Pursell, is “to uplift and to get their eyes off the ground…It is a challenge to step out of their comfort zone and to point out things they should not be doing.” Moreover, said Pursell, “The dimensions and complexity of one’s comfort zone is the measure of a person’s self-love.” The pope means to demonstrate that “We cannot improve ourselves if we don’t abandon self-love”.

The pope was not addressing merely Catholics, said Pursell, but all Americans so that they might examine policies and practices at odds with Judeo-Christian values of justice and charity. Hence, the pope had to bring up the scandal of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests and others, said Pursell. Even before the pope landed in the US, he brought up the issue with reporters on board his plane. Later, to assembled bishops, he said that the clergy sex abuse scandal had sometimes been "very badly handled”.

Pursell says that bringing up the issue of sexual abuse was necessary for Benedict XVI, just as it was necessary for him to bring up the issue of immigration: a controversial issue of much concern to the pope since it impacts families. The pope is saying that the family is an underpinning of society that “is prior to the State”, averred Pursell.

The pope, therefore, is making a special plea in favor of families divided through the irregular application of immigration law by Federal and local governments. In the interview, Pursell assured that the pope is not challenging the legalities of immigration to the US but is pleading for humane treatment for all immigrants.

That some of the pope’s statements caused discomfort among Americans was brought to the fore by CNN’s Lou Dobbs who, in reference to the pope’s exhortation about immigration said that the pontiff showed “bad manners” on his visit. Other commentators expressed wishes that he had said more, or done more, about sexual predators or relations with other religions.

But much of what the pope said may have been o