Pope Benedict’s critics are not too optimistic, but let’s wait and see

CATHOLICS were not encouraged to read the bible in this country, apparently because the hierarchy could not trust them to interpret it properly. It was symptomatic of a rather cavalier attitude towards education.

During the de Valera era, a postmistress in Co Galway decided it was a shame that her children were going to have to go away to secondary school, so she put up a petition in the post office for a secondary school to be built locally.

People were encouraged to sign the petition, but then the local parish priest came in and ordered her to take it down because, he said, young people would make better Catholics if they did not have a secondary education.

Fortunately, Mrs O'Sullivan was a woman of conviction and she refused to be cowed by the parish priest. The school was built and many years later when it was celebrating a jubilee, she was invited to speak.

She was then in her 80s, but she did not spare the late parish priest, much to the amusement of the gathering. But then women in their 80s could always say what they liked in this country.

The parish priest's definition of good Catholics may have been people who did what they were told without question. Educating people encouraged them to question and to think for themselves, and some clergy clearly thought that was bad. Education in this country was the preserve of the Catholic clergy and hierarchy until Donogh O'Malley decided to take charge.

He did not consult them before announcing free secondary education for all. In fact, he did not consult his cabinet colleagues, or even the minister for finance.

He just made the announcement, and it was so well received by the public that none of his colleagues had the guts to object, though many complained privately it cost so much that their pet projects had to be postponed.

Irish people, who were conditioned not to question the clergy on temporal matters, never dreamed of questioning them on theological issues. Hence what has been happening this week may have seemed confusing.

I am old enough to have heard that famous announcement, Habemus Papam, several times. In each case it was followed by the name of a mysterious cardinal Roncalli, Montini, Luciani and Wojtyla. In each case, people asked: "who is he?"

This time was different. Once people just heard "Joseph," they assumed the new Pope was Cardinal Ratzinger, as the conclave was so short. For the first time in more than half a century the cardinal who was named Pope was more than a mere name to a great many people.

They were aware of his existence before the conclave because he was known as the 'Panzer Cardinal' who enforced the wishes of John Paul II in silencing over 100 theologians, among them the Redemptorist Bernhard Haring, a man greatly admired by Popes John XXIII and Paul VI.

Pope Paul VI chose Fr Haring to give the first Lenten retreat of his pontificate.

"I have brought you here not only for the good of our souls, but also to help the whole Roman Curia open itself to the great event that is the Council," the Pope told him. "For that you will need frankness and plain speaking."

And Pope John XXXIII had earlier declared: "In Fr Haring I find my own soul, my own attitudes."

In his famous encyclical Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth), Pope John declared that "every human being has the right to worship God in accordance with his own conscience, and to profess his religion both in private and in public."

That was a long way from the Church's earlier teaching and, one could argue, rather different from what would happen under the last Pope. When Pius XII died, people called for his instant canonisation, but his papacy has not weathered well in historical terms. Something similar could happen to the pontificate of John Paul II. He was a consummate actor and a brilliant political operator who helped to draw back the Iron Curtain, but there are questions about his handling of Church issues, especially his treatment of some of the Church's leading theologians.

BERNHARD Haring persisted in professing his beliefs in public, and for this he was silenced. He was the bane of the Curia, which was a role that Paul VI clearly desired him to play. Having been drafted into the German army during World War II, the things Fr Haring witnessed convinced him of the evil of blind obedience to authority.

"I've seen people do the most terrible things justifying it by obedience," he once explained. "One of the soldiers of my regiment came to me after shooting 10,000 Jewish people in Cracow, Poland. He was crazy. He told me that he had prayed while he shot down innocent Jews!

Fr Haring declared at the time: "If ever after the war I have to teach moral theology, this will not be based on the concept of obedience but on the concept of responsibility and discernment: a discerning obedience and a virtuous disobedience."

It was significant that within hours of the election of Pope Benedict XVI, RTÉ interviewed two of the more famous theologians he had silenced at the behest of Pope John Paul II Charles Curran and Hans Kung. Neither was optimistic about the new Pope, but Hans Kung did say that people should give him a chance. He suggested areas in which the Pope might act. Within minutes Pope Benedict XVI spoke about his determination to tackle nearly all of those areas.

He promised to promote better relations with other religions and unity with other Christian churches. It was disclosed that he had persuaded his predecessor not to claim to be speaking infallibly on matters like the ordination of women priests, abortion, or proclaiming Mary the Mother of God and according her a kind of equal status with the Holy Trinity.

If Pope John Paul II had proclaimed new doctrines like he canonised new saints, he would have erected barriers between the Christian churches, especially with a new Marian doctrine.

Yet it would probably have made little difference because it would be another of those mysteries that people simply cannot fathom.

As a cardinal, the current Pope was distinctly conservative. One has to hope that he recognises that some of the Church's practices in the past were vile, not commendable.

In many countries they are now aware of the horrific paedophile abuse that was allowed to go unchecked for decades, but the Church practised and tolerated even worse abuse for centuries, such as castrating choirboys so that they could supposedly continue to sing for Christ.

Will Africa now be sacrificed to the ravages of AIDS on the altar of an unquestioning European conservatism? That is an "ism" that the new Pope pointedly omitted from his list.

Of course, Benedict XVI should be given a chance to prove himself. While a sceptical world is watching, it is also hoping, and even praying, for enlightened leadership.