US Cardinals predict Catholics will warm to new Pope
Two American cardinals with extensive Vatican experience insisted new Pope Benedict XVI was not the cold disciplinarian many believed him to be.
New York Cardinal Edward Egan called him “loving and lovely”. Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali said he had the “human touch”.
“I think he’ll play well as soon as people come to know him,” said Egan, speaking at a US seminary in Rome just hours after German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected yesterday to succeed Pope John Paul II. “This is a very unprepossessing, humble, and if I may say, lovely gentleman.”
Some American Catholics may be slow to warm to Ratzinger, who spent 24 years as the head of the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog office. The majority told polls in recent weeks that they favoured ordaining women and making celibacy optional for priests.
Anguished liberals noted Ratzinger’s role in enforcing orthodoxy at Catholic universities, his hard line against gay relationships and his warning that voters would be “co-operating in evil” if they backed a politician specifically because he supported abortion rights.
However, many Catholics predicted Americans would come to admire the new Pope for his intellect, spirituality and consistent support for the traditions of their faith.
“I think conservative Catholics are going to love him,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, editor of the Jesuit magazine America. “Liberal Catholics hoping for change are going to be disappointed.”
Rigali said that in the excitement inside the conclave after the ballots were tallied, Benedict took the time to wish the archbishop a happy birthday.
“With all the things he had to think about, he had the very human touch,” said Rigali, who worked for more than two decades as a Vatican diplomat, among other work in Vatican agencies.
Egan, who worked as a Vatican appellate judge and revised the church’s code of canon law, recalled how Ratzinger took the time to personally wish him well as Egan was leaving Rome to became a US archbishop.
“He is a very lovely and loving person,” Egan said. “I believe this man is going to do a splendid job and I think you’re going to like him very much.”
Eleven American cardinals voted in the Papal election. Egan and Rigali called the election moving after the tense days leading up to the conclave said the new Pope organised a party in the hotel where the cardinals were staying inside the Vatican.
Asked his thoughts heading into the conclave, Egan said he was impressed by Ratzinger’s moving homily at Pope John Paul II’s funeral. Egan went as far as to say its sensitivity reminded him of Pope John XXIII, a beloved pontiff known as “Good Pope John”.
But Rigali said the decision to choose Ratzinger was not made in the days ahead of the conclave or because of the German cardinal’s leadership in mourning John Paul.
“Decisions like this are not made on how a person impresses you in the last five minutes, the last hours, the last days,” he said.
Rigali said that instead, the cardinals thought about what John Paul had accomplished. “Number 1, who could continue the legacy,” he said.
“We were looking for a successor of (St) Peter,” the first Pope, Rigali said. “We were looking for a successor of John Paul II. All of us were talking about the incredible qualities of John Paul II, knowing the world was calling him ‘The Great’.
