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LATIN
AMERICA:
New Pope a
Disappointment to Progressives,
Women
Mario Osava*
RIO DE JANEIRO, (IPS) -
"Today was a sad day," Maria
José Rosado Nunes, head of the
Brazilian branch of Catholics
for the Right to Decide, said in
response to the selection of
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the
new pope, a decision that in
Latin America also disappointed
progressive members of the
clergy and married priests.
Ratzinger "inspired the most
hard-line documents against
women produced by the Catholic
Church," and was "the soul of
the papacy of John Paul II,"
while "logic indicates that
changes with regard to women
should not be expected" during
the new pontificate, said Rosado
Nunes, a sociologist by
profession.
But his selection "came as no
surprise" because John Paul
built "a College of Cardinals in
his own image and likeness,"
thus ensuring that his successor
would maintain his "conservative
orientation in terms of sexual
morality, reproductive rights,
and, to some extent, social
issues," she told IPS.
She predicted a "deepening of
the abyss between the Church
hierarchy and the people of
God," while expressing the hope
of a strengthening of movements
like the International Movement
We Are Church (IMWAC) and a
renewal of the process that
began with the Second Vatican
Council, or Vatican II, held
from 1962 to 1965.
The tension between the
leadership of the Church and the
grassroots movements will grow,
agreed Luiz Alberto Gomez de
Souza, director of the Centre of
Religious Statistics and Social
Research (CERIS).
Pressure is growing for the
Church to face up to issues that
have been "held in deep freeze",
like violence, sexuality,
reproductive rights, and the
ordaining of women priests,
while the cardinals "were
incapable of promoting changes,
and chose instead continuity and
Roman centralism," he argued.
"What is occurring in the
Catholic communities is
important," Gomez told IPS,
saying he did not rule out hope
for change in the future,
although not for now, because
"the Church is surprising."
For the Movement of Married
Priests, the choice of Ratzinger
was "a short-term disaster" that
will postpone any debate on
celibacy, said Francisco
Salatiel, a theologian and
former priest who left the
priesthood to get married in
1978.
But the name adopted by the new
pope, Benedict XVI, awakened
expectations of a possible
"rupture with the previous
pontificate," he added.
The name is significant, and
came as a surprise, he said,
because Benedicto XV "broke with
the prior pontificate of Pius X"
and stood out in his efforts for
peace during World War I.
He said it is possible that
Benedict XVI will assume a
"global vision" of peace, and
that he will be "less rigid"
than he was at the head of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith. But he added that "we
cannot predict how he will act,
as pope."
Ratzinger, who Salatiel met as
"a young priest, who was shy and
modest," became an important
figure in the Vatican as a
defender of "hard-line,
fundamentalist stances," said
the former priest, who
criticised the new pope's
"dogmatism and absolute
certainties, because faith is an
ongoing historical search," as
the Bible demonstrates.
But many in Latin America
welcomed the selection of the
new pope. Referring to the
decision reached by the 115
elector cardinals, Brazilian
Foreign Minister Celso Amorim
said that a choice "inspired by
the Holy Spirit can only be
good."
Leonardo Boff, one of the
leaders of the liberation
theology movement, which calls
for the Church to be more
politically and social active on
behalf of the poor, suffered at
Ratzinger's hands.
In 1985 he was silenced, and
when the punishments continued,
he finally left the priesthood
in 1992.
Boff said that as a Christian,
he "respected the decision,
despite the difficulties in
loving this pope."
"I hope he thinks more about
humanity than about the Church,"
and holds a dialogue with other
churches and with the world of
science, he said.
Popes have an influence in one
direction or another, but the
Church remains, because it is "a
system, an institution," said
Guatemalan indigenous human
rights activist and Nobel Peace
Prize-winner Rigoberta Menchú,
who added that she hoped to have
"the same close relationship"
with Benedict XVI as she enjoyed
with his predecessor.
Yet the selection made for the
new pope was "lamentable" in the
eyes of Chilean theologian
Alvaro Ramis of the Diego
Medellín Centre, who is also an
organiser of the Chilean Social
Forum.
As far as he is concerned,
Ratzinger is the cardinal whose
performance has shown him to be
the "most conservative, most
anti-ecumenical, and most
opposed to opening the Church up
to the world," he told IPS.
The Catholic Church is clearly
"regressing" to the stances held
prior to Vatican II, "with its
back turned on the world and
totally closed in upon itself,"
said Ramis, recalling that
Ratzinger said divorced people
and politicians who consistently
promote legal abortion should be
denied communion, and that he
condemned other religions,
proclaiming Catholicism the only
valid faith.
Argentine priest Eduardo de la
Serna, member of a progressive
priests movement, commented to
IPS that Ratzinger's election
will represent "very difficult
times for the church of the poor
in Latin America." It is
unlikely that he will be any
different "from when he
condemned liberation theology
without even having studied it
properly," he added.
"Ratzinger does not grasp the
reality of the poor," unlike
John Paul II, who came from a
poor country, de la Serna said.
At the same time, however, he
said he did not rule out the
possibility of surprises in the
future, since Ratzinger was once
progressive, and could "return
to his roots."
In Cuba, there is fear that the
conservatism of the new pope
could lead the Catholic Church
to lose more followers to other
religions and sects, as well as
exacerbating the dependence of
local Catholic churches on the
Vatican, according to journalist
and historian Enrique López
Oliva, a former professor of the
history of religion at the
University of Havana.
The Cuban Catholic Church is
already "one of the most
dependent on Rome," as a
consequence of confronting the
"all-powerful socialist state
that adopted atheism as an
official policy for three
decades," said López Oliva.
"Many fear that this could lead
to a new schism."
Yet there are still some who
cling to the slim possibility of
change. As pope, "Ratzinger
could change and understand that
he is not only a representative
of a conservative (leader), but
that he now belongs to the
Catholic people as a whole, who
will be listening to him," said
Nilton Giese, a spokesman for
the Latin American Council of
Churches, based in Quito,
Ecuador, with a membership of
over 150 churches.
"CLAI's mission is to promote
the unity of all churches, which
is why the first thing we must
do is congratulate the Catholics
on this decision," said Giese.
He added that this was not the
time to judge what the new pope
will do, although it is
well-known that "he supports the
staunchest and most conservative
stances."
If Ratzinger sticks to the hard
line that led him to oppose the
ordination of women and punish
the proponents of liberation
theology, "the consequences for
the Catholic Church are
unpredictable," noted Giese, a
Brazilian minister.
In the meantime, the newly
elected pope received a vote of
confidence from the president of
the Venezuelan Bishops
Conference, Baltazar Porras, the
Archbishop of Mérida. "More than
conservative, Ratzinger is a man
who is very clear in his way of
thinking... with very definite
ideas and a great capacity to
translate them into reality," he
declared.
* With additional reporting by
Marcela Valente in Argentina,
Gustavo Gonzalez in Chile,
Patricia Grogg in Cuba, Diego
Cevallos in Mexico and Humberto
Márquez in Venezuela.
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