One wonders what effect this moment must have had on the German-born pope. Was this a watershed moment for Papa Ratzinger, realizing that his own clerical countrymen despised him? There is something pitiful about this frail old man in white almost magnetically repelling the men in black and red. Even in this low-quality video, you can sense the loneliness on the pope's face.
This is appalling. What was their reasoning for snubbing him?
ReplyDeleteRatzinger represented a brand of Catholicism at odds with the renegade German bishops, and their lack of even the basic respect of a hand shake speaks volumes of their open contempt for him and his authority. To me it also highlights just how little real practical authority Pope Benedict had.
ReplyDeleteThe trad set can say what they want about the Pope, but videos like this illustrate that beyond all the high brow theology of papal authority and power he really cannot force people to follow him or his directives.
It's painful to watch. I'd be so embarrassed and hurt if I were treated like that,either as a boss with my subordinates or as pope with the bishops of my own country. It's...painful.
I departed the Roman Church and headed east to Constantinople many years ago, I was not aware of the animosity directed toward Benedict. Yours is the only Roman blog I read, thank you for keeping me informed.
DeleteTo me it also highlights just how little real practical authority Pope Benedict had.
DeleteI am brought to mind of Benedixt anecdote from 2005: During an audience with the Pope, Bishop Fellay of the SSPX found himself alone with the Pope for a moment. His Excellency seized the opportunity to remind the Pope that he is the Vicar of Christ, possessed of the authority to take immediate measures to end the crisis in the Church on all fronts. The Pope replied thus: “My authority ends at that door.”
Well, why don't we expect the Vicar of Christ to act like Christ? If he wasn't prepared to, he should not have worn the red shoes.
DeleteThe poor powerless lacking-authority layman is told to keep and profess the Faith up to and including martyrdom but the vicar of Christ is ok to act like an epicene ecclesiastic?
Appalling indeed.
ReplyDeleteI'm struck by what a different man I am than the Holy Father. I've always said to my wife that in moments of doubt, my faith is powerfully and deeply reaffirmed when I see the enemies arrayed against it. This happening to me wouldn't cause me to be lonely. It would be a moment of blessed triumph.
When I saw that video back in 2011, I was really saddened but not surprised. After all, many of the German bishops are unfortunately of the worst bunch, doing as they please.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a bit of a misapprehension here. I know at the time it was widely reported that this was a snub to the Holy Father, but even the German bishops are not that stupid. It makes a lot more sense if you realize the Holy Father is introducing each prelate to the German president, that is why he is following. He is pointing to each prelate and introducing him. You will notice that the first to not shake his hand is Bertone, not exactly his enemy, and it is Kasper who does. Not that the German bishops weren't snubbing him in their hearts, but looke dat from this angle it makes a lot more sense.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a bit of a misapprehension here. I know at the time it was widely reported that this was a snub to the Holy Father, but even the German bishops are not that stupid. It makes a lot more sense if you realize the Holy Father is introducing each prelate to the German president, that is why he is following. He is pointing to each prelate and introducing him. You will notice that the first to not shake his hand is Bertone, not exactly his enemy, and it is Kasper who does. Not that the German bishops weren't snubbing him in their hearts, but looke dat from this angle it makes a lot more sense.
ReplyDeleteI hope that was the case, but Benedict appears to be standing too far behind the president to be effectively making introductions. The way some of them shrink back from his hand after others have taken it seems telling, too.
DeleteLet Reagan be Reagan was the plea of his supporters when his policies were not to their liking and it always irked me because that imputed more power to those who had relatively little - or no - power compared to his.
ReplyDeleteWhen he who occupies the Divinely-Constituted office is thought to be powerless by a majority of putative counter-revoultionaries, then we can see just how weak an blind we are.
This is all a denial of reality; that is all it is.
Pope Benedict XVI could have taken action but he was never a counter-revolutionary traditionalist (Mr. James Larson has systematically revealed him to be a material heretic) but what Plino calls a slow speed revolutionary who has counter-revolutionary clots ("Revolution and Counter-Revolution")
Pope Benedict XVI dutifully followed in the revolutionary footsteps of Paul VI who infamously told the Roman Clergy (paraphrase) I could use discipline but I prefer to be loved.
Karl Keating reviewed the record of discipline when the putative Rottweiler was Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and it was a record that was essentially completely null and utterly void of effective action.
We have an anthropocentric ecumenical shadow church (lacking substance) and just how is it we are served by making excuses for those who had ultimate authority and, instead of taking advantage of the moment, acted like Sid Dithers?