Benedict XVI is brilliant, unpretentious, open
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
HONOLULU
Unpretentious. Open. Humble. That’s how Father Marc Alexander remembers Pope Benedict XVI from the Gregorian University in Rome where 10 years ago, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger he was an occasional guest speaker and Father Alexander was a doctoral student.
“Though he was always dressed in his cardinal robes,” Father Alexander said, “when he engaged people he never wore his rank on his sleeve. He was very unpretentious when he talked with people.”
Now pastor of the Manoa-Punahou Catholic Community, Father Alexander was in Rome from 1990 to 1993 earning his doctorate in theology at the Gregorian while living “around the corner” at the Casa Sancta Maria.
Cardinal Ratzinger, considered a brilliant theologian in his own right, was at the time prefect for the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Father Alexander, who is the theologian for the Diocese of Honolulu, said the cardinal “understood the distinction between his role as a theologian as distinct from his role as official spokesperson of the teaching of the Catholic Church.”
He knew the “catechetical function from the theological function,” Father Alexander said.
He also “emphasized the importance of the local bishop,” he said, defending “the role and function of local bishops over and against the teaching authority of (national) bishop conferences.”
Father Alexander said he found the cardinal to be “conservative,” but also “very ecumenical, very open, very humble.”
“Is he tough? Yes. His job is to articulate the church’s faith in the best possible light and to ensure that those who taught it, taught it accurately,” he said. “He is not shy intellectually.”
“He is going to be more open than people expect,” Father Alexander predicted.
“But he’s not going to ignore things,” he said. “My impression is that he is going to ask the difficult questions.”
“The European church really needs a shot in the arm,” he said, and he believes Benedict XVI can provide that.
He said that while Cardinal Ratzinger might not have been his first choice, “I am really confident” in his emerging papacy.
“I believe in the movement of the Spirit,” he said.