Mulls Condoms? I would like to see that!
Pope Benedict Laments Pedophile `Cloud of Filth,' Mulls Condoms
Policing arrangements for Pope Benedict XVI’s U.K. visit were reviewed after the arrests and police are satisfied that the current plan “remains appropriate,” London’s Metropolitan Police said. Photographer: Peter Macdiarmid - WPA Pool/Getty Images
The cover jacket of "Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times," by German journalist Peter Seewald. Source: Ignatius Press via Bloomberg
Peter Seewald, the German journalist who interviewed Pope Benedict XVI for the book "Light of the World, The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times," published by Ignatius Press on Nov. 24 in the U.S. Source: Ignatius Press via Bloomberg
Let’s leave the condoms on the
bedside table for now. Pope Benedict XVI has much more to say in
his book-length interview with German journalist Peter Seewald.In “Light of the World,” Seewald, an earnest Catholic,
guides the pope through topics ranging from pedophile priests
and drugs to the ordination of women and the Second Coming.
Benedict’s responses, some humorous, are worth reading even
after you’ve flipped to the bit where he says condoms may be
justified in some cases, as “perhaps” for a male prostitute.Even as a lapsed Protestant, I was engrossed by the book’s
rare insights into a leader who usually appears impossibly aloof
-- an elderly, white-robed patriarch viewed from afar, waving to
crowds and speaking Latin. (He wears the cassock even at home,
he says. No sweaters for him.)Often seen as a dry academic steeped in dogma, Benedict is
better known for the things he did before, rather than after,
his election as supreme pontiff in 2005. In his 24 years as John Paul II’s doctrinal enforcer, he helped oust priests who
diverged from orthodoxy and asserted the superiority of the
Roman Catholic Church over other Christian religions. His hard-
line stances on homosexuality, women priests and birth control
won him enemies, both within the church and without.PR Disasters
Though there’s plenty here to make non-believers balk, his
clarity on complex issues is compelling. If nothing else, the
book succeeds as a public-relations vehicle for a pope who has
had his share of PR disasters.Seewald, who has written for Der Spiegel, Stern and the
Sueddeutsche Zeitung, rediscovered his Catholic faith 14 years
ago, after an interview with Benedict when he was still Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger. For this book, he spent one hour a day over
six days with the 83-year-old pope in July -- the most
extensive, one-on-one papal interview ever.Benedict doesn’t play down the damage done by pedophile
priests. The scandal was like “the crater of a volcano, out of
which suddenly a tremendous cloud of filth came, darkening and
soiling everything,” he says. He understands that Catholics who
were sexually abused as children may find it hard “to keep
believing that the church is a source of good,” he says.“Insofar as it is the truth, we must be grateful for every
disclosure,” he says, though he voices concern that some news
coverage was motivated by pleasure in discrediting the church.
He never considered resigning or, as he puts it, “running
away.”Secular Threat
His longer-term challenge is to hold onto his flock. The
threat, in his view, doesn’t arise from other religions.
Unsurprisingly, it comes from the spread of secularism.Attempts to force the Vatican to change its opposition to
homosexuality and the ordination of women would rob the church
of the right “to live out her own identity,” he says. So
that’s a “no” to female, married or gay priests anytime soon.Still, his willingness to address all these subjects and to
acknowledge that gay prostitutes even exist is surprising. Which
brings us back to condoms.The pope has hardly become an enthusiastic supporter
overnight. The church “does not regard it as a real or moral
solution” yet accepts that, to prevent the spread of AIDS, it
could be “a first step in a movement toward a different way, a
more human way of living sexuality.” What seems a small
concession could save thousands of lives in Africa.Nor is the pope averse to a touch of populist outreach in
his fight to save souls. Of late, he has taken to putting the
sacrament directly on the tongues of communicants at St. Peter’s
Basilica in the Vatican.“I have heard,” he confides, “of people who, after
receiving communion, stick the Host in their wallet to take home
as a kind of souvenir.”“Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of
the Times” is published by Ignatius Press in the U.S. (239
pages, $21.95) and by Herder Verlag in Germany under the title
“Licht der Welt” (256 pages, 19.95 euros). To buy this book in
North America, click here.(Catherine Hickley writes for Muse, the arts and leisure
section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)To contact the writer on the story:
Catherine Hickley in Berlin at
chickley@bloomberg.net.To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Mark Beech at mbeech@bloomberg.net
