VATICAN CITY
(CNS) --
As the guiding light on doctrinal issues during Pope John Paul II's pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI was one of the most respected, influential and controversial members of the College of Cardinals.
Since 1981 the 78-year-old Pope Benedict -- regarded as one of the church's sharpest theologians -- has headed the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican department charged with defending orthodoxy in virtually every area of church life.
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He's become the last check on everything, the final word on orthodoxy. Everything is passed through his congregation. |
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Over the years, Pope Benedict met quietly once a week with Pope John Paul to discuss doctrinal and other major issues facing the church. Insiders said his influence was second to none when it came to setting church priorities and directions and responding to moral and doctrinal challenges.
From November 2002 until his election, he was dean of the College of Cardinals, a key position in the time between popes. Pope Benedict presided over the preconclave meetings of cardinals in Rome, set agendas for discussion and action, and was responsible for a number of procedural decisions during the conclave.
White-haired and soft-spoken, Pope Benedict comes across in person as a thoughtful and precise intellectual with a dry sense of humor. A frequent participant at Vatican press conferences, he is a familiar figure to the international group of reporters who cover the church.
He is also well-known by the church hierarchy around the world, and his speeches at cardinal consistories, synods of bishops and other assemblies often have the weight of a keynote address. When Pope Benedict spoke as a cardinal, people listened.
Sometimes his remarks were bluntly critical on such diverse topics as dissident theologians, liberation theology, "abuses" in lay ministry, homosexuality, women as priests, feminism among nuns, premarital sex, abortion, liturgical reform and rock music.
As Pope John Paul's pontificate developed, some Vatican observers said Pope Benedict's influence grew.
"He's become the last check on everything, the final word on orthodoxy. Everything is passed through his congregation," one Vatican official said in 1998.
"I'm not the Grand Inquisitor," Pope Benedict once said in an interview, referring to the head of a medieval church tribunal focusing on heresy.
But to the outside world, he has been known as the Vatican's enforcer. He made the biggest headlines when his congregation silenced or excommunicated theologians, withdrew church approval of certain books, helped rewrite liturgical translations, set boundaries on ecumenical dialogues, took over the handling of cases of clergy sex abuse against minors, curbed the role of bishops' conferences and pressured religious orders to suspend wayward members.
In 2003, the doctrinal congregation issued a document that said Catholic politicians must not ignore essential church teachings, particularly on human life. That set the stage for a long debate during the 2004 U.S. election campaign on whether Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry, a Catholic who supports legalized abortion, should be given Communion.
Pope Benedict's congregation also published a document asking Catholic lawmakers to fight a growing movement to legalize same-sex marriage.
Pope Benedict has frequently criticized the growth of church bureaucracy and its output of studies, reports and meetings. Asked once whether the Vatican would operate better in Germany, he responded, "What a disaster! The church would be too organized.
"The saints were people of creativity, not bureaucratic functionaries," he added.
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