Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger: The Man and the Job

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was given a job in 1981, and he performed it very well. The shadows that now some want to cast over him have mostly to do with his past job as doctrine enforcer. Many people have not made the distinction betweeen the man and the peformance of a duty.

But there is a reason why those who take the Throne of Peter change names. It would be unwise to judge Pope Benedict XVI as the sum of his acts in the Holy Office for the Propagation of the Faith. That was then, and this is now.

I am not surprised to read that he said at his installation:

My real program of governance is not to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen, together with the whole Church, to the word and the will of the Lord

He has a new job now. All things indicate that he will take this one as serious as he took the previous one. And that can only lead to an excellent pontificate.

Cross posted from Civitatensis.