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The new pope in the spirit Benedict XV

by Rev. Fr. Francisco R. Albano
Diocese of Ilagan

April 21, 2005

Habemus Papam! His Holiness Benedict XVI (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany) now leads the Roman Catholic Church. He has chosen as his role model Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922) who reigned during the difficult years of World War I. Perhaps the principal concerns of Benedict XV will also be that of the new Pope, and this forbodes well for the Church and the world.

Benedict XV was a man of peace. In the spirit of the Dutch and Scandinavian socialists, Benedict XV (Santiago della Chiesa of Bologna) used his extensive diplomatic skills to bring the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente to the table to negotiate peace based on justice and equality, “without annexations and indemnities, on the basis of the self-determination of peoples”. The papal and socialist proposals were rejected by the Central Powers to the sadness of the Pope and socialist parties all over the world.

I pray the new Pope will also try to muster and release the faith and even material resources of the Church to rally all of good will to bring today’s warring nations to negotiate peace, and end monopoly capitalist globalization, revisionist socialism, and militarism that promote war and oppression of peoples. May he succeed where Benedict XV failed.

Benedict XV had great concern for the victims of war, especially war prisoners. He ordered the organization of Church-based “comites del hambre” to see to the needs of the people of Lithuania and Poland. He sent more than 10 million lires were sent to the hungry of central Europe. Papal offices worked for exchange of prisoners.

The new Pope, I’m sure has a big heart for the poor, deprived and oppressed of the world and will perhaps exceed the record of his predecessors in alleviating poverty and eroding, if not eliminating, its root causes. The poor of war torn areas of the world will have his attention.

Benedict XVI will perhaps surpass the excellent record of Benedict XV and John Paul II in political diplomacy and establishing and strengthening Vatican/Church-State relations for the promotion of human rights and development. He is aware of the great love schismatic orientals and Turks had for Benedict XV.

Like Benedict XV, the reign of Benedict XVI will be strongly missional in thrust. The two Popes share a great similar pet love of the Congregation for the propagation of the Faith and the Congregation for Oriental Churches.

Like his namesake, the new Pope will consolidate the internal governance of the Church in a conservative but wholesome manner. For the institutional Church should strive to be always efficient yet winsome in style of work. Benedict XVI too will stress correct observance of the Code of Canon Law and internal Church discipline. The other Benedict had promulgated the 1917 version of the Code.

But the new Pope will put his own unique stamp on the Church. His focus, I believe, will be to unite the faithful on the basics of the faith and to combat the “dictatorship of relativism,” and what I would call bourgeois postmodernism that denies the existence of absolute truths and meta-narratives that open people to the largeness of life and the world of meaning, love and service. If this is the type of so-called ideological conservatism the new Pope has, so be it. After all, being the intellectual that he is, he surely still believes in the dictum: “In essentials, unity; in debatables, liberty; in all things, charity.”

May Benedict XVI “administer justice every morning.” (Jeremiah 21:12) #

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