Hawaii officials react with surprise, admiration, anticipation

By Patrick Downes

HONOLULU

“He is a brilliant man. … certainly respected,” said diocesan administrator Father Thomas Gross of the newly elected Holy Father. “He is bringing to the office of pope a tremendous amount of experience.”

On April 19, less than five hours after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was presented to the world as Pope Benedict VXI, Father Gross was describing the new pontiff to an inquisitive group of television and print reporters gathered at the diocesan chancery downtown.

The questions were simple and straightforward.

“Your immediate reaction?”

“Surprise,” admitted Father Gross, explaining that “front-runners” usually don’t get elected.

“But in this case he was,” he said. “So that was a big surprise.”

The diocesan administrator has never met the new pontiff but is familiar with his 23 years as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith through his writings and reports of his work.

He suggested the transition to the new papacy would be “fairly smooth” given Benedict XVI’s two decades of close collaboration with Pope John Paul II.

That said, “John Paul II is a tough act to follow,” he said.

Father Gross was asked what challenges facing the church the new pope will have to deal with.

Those would be issues of morality, the administrator said, particularly the life issues, such as abortion and euthanasia.

“He was very much aware of the sex abuse crisis of the Catholic Church in the United States,” Father Gross said. “He has always been in tune with what is happening. He will know how to continue to deal with that.”

He also predicted the church would not change its teaching regarding married priests and woman clergy.

And he added several times, that while Pope Benedict XVI has the reputation of being a conservative, one cannot tell how being pope might transform the man.

“When you are the one who is ultimately in charge, you have the ability to let your personality come through,” he said. “We will have to see.”

Father Joseph Grimaldi, Father Gross’ delegate and diocesan judicial vicar, offered a brief lesson on the significance of the pope’s chosen name.

He explained there is “great significance” in the fact that Cardinal Ratzinger chose the name of Benedict XV, a pope who reigned during a world war and while dissention tore at the church.

“There are a lot of similarities between the time we exist in now and the early 1900s when Benedict XV was pope,” Father Grimaldi said.

Benedict XV is best known for his passionate but ultimately futile attempt to end World War I.

“Benedict XV spoke eloquently on the topic and was very much against any type of inhumane warfare,” though not necessarily against a war of self-defense, Father Grimaldi said.

“Aren’t we facing something similar today when we are afraid of things like nuclear warfare and the terrorist activities?” he asked.

The clashes between the “traditionalists” and “modernists” of Benedict XV’s day, he said, parallel the quarrels between today’s conservative and liberal Catholics.

The prior Benedict “was able to effectively put a halt to that division and unify people,” Father Grimaldi said. “I think Benedict XVI has that in mind.”

He said the last Benedict was the first pope to promulgate the Code of Canon Law, a unifying action that, updated in 1983, carries through to today.

The present Benedict, “is very much for having an ethical rule,” he said. “He is very much into setting standards for morality.”

The new pope is a “complex individual,” Father Grimaldi said, “an extremely spiritual man.”

“That is very important for anyone who is going to lead the church,” he said.

He said that both Benedict XV and John Paul II had the dream of unifying western Christianity and the Eastern Orthodox churches.

“There is a reason why this man chose Benedict XVI,” Father Grimaldi said. “I think, within his heart, he wants to follow those beginnings he saw in Benedict XV.”