Ratzinger has changed his spots (but not the way you think), Brazilian cardinal says

[didymus]

NCRonline:

Ratzinger has changed his spots (but not the way you think), Brazilian cardinal says

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.

More than four years into the papacy of Benedict XVI, analysts have repeatedly pulled his track record apart and put it back together again, raising provocative questions about where the pope comes from and where he might be going. In that vast forensic exercise, however, one question often seems to loom above the rest.
Has Ratzinger changed his spots?

That is to say, has the lion of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the infamous “Panzer Kardinal” who polarized opinion like few other Catholic figures for the better part of 20 years, really metamorphosed into the lamb of Benedict XVI – seemingly a kinder, gentler, more optimistic figure? Or is such talk an illusion?

Typically, those who answer “yes” mean it in terms of the categories of secular politics – that Ratzinger the archconservative has given way to Benedict the moderate. Today, however, one senior church official offered a version of the case for “yes,” but from a very different angle.

Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, archbishop of São Paulo in Brazil, suggested that the great contrast between Ratzinger and Benedict has nothing to do with politics, but with his legacy and impact. Ironically, Scherer suggested, this consummate theologian may well make his most important contributions as pope not in theology, but rather in philosophy and even cultural criticism.

 

[JReducation]

NCRonline:

I belive that the bishop may be right. Pope Benedict has not really made any great or novel statements about theology. But he has certainly been very strong in introducing the power of philosophy (reason) into our understanding and application of the faith, esepcially in the social arena. He has done so very well.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF