The Many Meanings of "Benedict"
by Aemilia Scott

What's in a name? Quite a lot, if you're the Holy Roman Pontiff. Before he was chosen, it was "Ratzinger this" and "Ratzinger that." Now that he is officially pope you'll never hear that name again. He is Benedict. When Joseph Ratzinger chose the name Benedict, it gave the world an insight into the kind of pope he wanted to be. Or, more specifically, the kind of stigma he wants to overcome.

Sure, his membership in the Hitler Youth was compulsory, as was his draft into the German Army. And he may have the nickname "God's Rottweiler" and he may have spent his career trying to make the paradox of a fascist religious leader a reality. Oh, and there was that thing in 1981 when he was named head of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (yeah, we still have those), and he became known as the great enforcer of orthodoxy of the Catholic Church.

Enforcer of orthodoxy? God's Rottweiler? What is this, the WWE? One should not imagine a papal conclave where Ratzinger gives Francis Arinze that other type of Hail Mary and goes in for the ecclesiastic double-tap before bringing him to the mat. Liberal and even centrist Catholics were angered by John Paul II's alienating positions on social issues, but they'll be looking back fondly on JP when they see what Ratzinger has in store.

Which brings us back to his choice in name, Benedict. Ratzinger choosing the name Benedict is like the school bully finally getting invited to the prom, and donning a powder blue tuxedo that is two sizes too small.

The previous, and 15th, Benedict was pope from 1914 to 1922 during the height of World War I. He was known as a peacemaker and a unifier, who in a time of polarized politics and culture stood in the center and sought to unite the world through God.

Did Ratzinger choose this name because he thought it fit? Not likely. That tuxedo isn't going to fit this bully. His career up to now has seemed more like another Benedict — St. Benedict, the one who started it all. St. Benedict lived during the fifth century and is considered the father of monastic Christianity.

St. Benedict wasn't a bully. But Benedict's attitude, like that of most monks, was one of a solitary focus on doctrine and reflection to the exclusion of the temporal world. Some call it devotional, others call it damn foolish. But for monks who have taken St. Benedict's orders, if the world is getting you down you are applauded for turning the other way.

The world is a dirty, dirty place, and a cardinal truly does God's work by keeping his hands squeaky clean. This is why Ratzinger forbade priests from counseling young single women who become pregnant. This is why he has helped Asia and Africa battle their poverty and AIDS rates by maintaining an absolute ban on birth control and family planning of any sort. Those dirty, dirty people with their dirty, dirty problems.

Like the school bully, both Benedicts have been aggressively ignorant. St. Benedict didn't have time for worldly suffering and so he built a wall around his faith. Benedict XVI has made a career on building a conceptual wall between the teachings of the church and the needs of the faithful.

And at a time when the Catholic Church is proving again and again to be shamefully unyielding to the problems of the modern world, Benedict XVI will surely follow in the footsteps of the fifth-century saint by bricking up the walls of the church even higher.

E-mail Aemilia Scott at aemilia at gmail dot com.