Breda O'Brien: papal visit 'triumph of civility'

Writing in today's Irish Times, the teacher and columnist describes how Benedict XVI confounded those who sought to paint him as an authoritarian.

Whatever Benedict did in Britain, he did not bore. People used to the slur, “Nazi pope”, saw instead an elderly man who suffered under Nazism, forced like so many of his generation to join Hitler Youth.

According to the Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team, Hitler Youth was the largest youth group in the world, with 7.3 million members. Any parent who held out against it was threatened with forcible removal of their children to an orphanage.

Ironically, it may have been Benedict’s experience of Nazism that shaped his commitment to truth as a boundary against totalitarianism. John L Allen jnr, the respected reporter on the Vatican, agrees. “Under Hitler, Ratzinger says he watched the Nazis twist and distort the truth. Their lies about Jews, about genetics, were more than academic exercises. People died by the millions because of them. The church’s service to society, Ratzinger concluded, is to stand for absolute truths that function as boundary markers.”

For some people, the moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church has been fatally undermined by the nature of the response to the abuse scandals. Benedict mentioned the scandals four times, and made clear his abhorrence. However, the UK visit showed that while the scandals are and should continue to be central, this does not negate every other contribution that faith can make. In a sense, Benedict was not there just as a representative of the Roman Catholic faith, but as an articulate exponent of the right of religion to be treated with respect and tolerance. Much was made of his references to aggressive secularism, and the fact that he spoke of attempts to prevent celebration of Christmas struck a particular chord with British listeners. However, the pope has made it clear that while aggressive secularism exists, he is a proponent of what he calls “positive secularity”.

As Raymond d’Souza says: “He has argued not so much as a Christian combatant against secularism, but rather in favour of a secularism that preserves the great achievements of European culture.”

Archbishop Rowan Williams echoed this theme. “We do not, as churches, seek political power or control, or the dominance of Christian faith in the public sphere, but the opportunity to testify, to argue, sometimes to protest, sometimes to affirm – to play our part in the public debates of our societies.” It’s a modest enough hope, and one that came closer as a result of the recent visit.

The visit was a triumph for civility, and for mutual respect. It showed there is a limited tolerance for verbal abuse, and an ability to see goodness beyond the caricatures.

Vatican hails visit a 'success'

Paddy Agnew (photo), Rome correspondent of the Irish Times, reports on the Vatican's ecstatic reflections on the UK trip now that Benedict XVI is back in Rome.

EVEN AS Pope Benedict took a well-earned rest yesterday after the exertion of his four-day visit to Britain, there was no disguising the Holy See’s satisfaction about the trip.

Many observers argued that it had gone much better than might have been anticipated. As one Vatican insider put it:“At first, you were just relieved to see that nothing untoward had happened but then as the visit went on, it became clear that there was reason to be really joyful about how it was unfolding.”

Speaking in Birmingham on Sunday just before the pope returned to Rome, senior papal spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi referred to the “spiritual success” of the pope’s visit: “We’re all convinced that this has been a huge success, not so much from the viewpoint of the numbers which there were, mind you, but from the very real and strong sense that people were listening and that the pope’s message had been received with joy and respect by the faithful . . . This was a marvellous trip during which hundreds of thousands of people saw, heard and met the pope.”

Fr Lombardi argued that, especially in his Westminster Hall speech last Friday, the pope had conveyed a “positive message” about the role of the Catholic Church in the modern world. On top of that, the trip had represented a powerful boost for ecumenism, pointing out that the Westminster Abbey service, presided over by the pope and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, “went to the very heart of the significance of the ecumenical dialogue, namely how (Catholics and Anglicans) can together bear witness to Christ in today’s world”.

Fr Lombardi’s positive words were echoed by a number of experienced Vatican commentators. Sandro Magister, Vatican writer for weekly L’Espresso , was just one of many to comment on the unexpected positive reaction to the trip from the much-feared British media, saying: “I notice that the English media have reacted both with great surprise and very positively. Those same news organisations which for months had prepared for this trip with a whole range of very strong polemics were realistically forced to acknowledge that their predictions had been entirely overturned by that which Benedict was able to do and say during these few days”.