On closer look, a more complex pope

Francesco Cesareo, president of Assumption College in Worcester, met Pope Benedict XVI six years ago and found him "very warm, very friendly," in contrast to his public image.

When the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, considered theologically conservative, became Pope Benedict XVI, some liberal critics expected a virtual return to the Middle Ages for the Catholic Church.

But on the eve of Benedict's American visit next month, Francesco Cesareo, whose scholarly expertise includes the Renaissance papacy, suggests a more complex view of the pope. Cesareo, the president of Assumption College in Worcester, met Benedict six years ago and found him "very warm, very friendly," in contrast to his public image.

In a recent interview, Cesareo discussed the upcoming visit. Excerpts follow.

Q. Do you expect anything of lasting significance to come out of the pope's visit, or is this more a show-the-flag tour?

A. A pope's visit is not simply for rallying the troops. [It's] meant to encourage the faithful living out the Gospel, making a connection between the faithful and the pope in terms of the unity of the church throughout the world. It always has an important impact.

Q. In his book "The Faithful," Boston College's James O'Toole predicts that American Catholics will "continue their ambivalent relationship to the papacy," loyal to it, yet often disregarding its teachings.

A. That's where the value of a visit of the pope comes into play. It allows at least for the faithful to think about their commitment, how they want to live out their faith, to think about the church in more an international scope than national or individualistic. I wouldn't necessarily agree that American Catholics overall are ambivalent. We have a vibrant church that strives to be faithful.

Q. You would not disagree that American Catholics are going to still practice artificial contraception and divorce and disagree with the pope on various matters in large numbers?

A. No, I wouldn't say that.

Q. Will you try to see the pope during his visit?

A. The pope is going to have a meeting with all the presidents of Catholic colleges and universities in Washington, D.C., on April 17. I will be in attendance, and then I will be attending the papal Mass at Yankee Stadium. I'm going to be doing commentary for the ABC affiliate in Pittsburgh, where I came from.

Q. Partly because of his age, Benedict was seen by many observers as a transitional, caretaker pope. What's your assessment so far?

A. I don't see Benedict as a caretaker. Benedict is an accomplished theologian. What we are seeing, in his writings and public presentations, is that he is trying to focus the thinking, not only of the church, but the world on important issues of secularism, relativism, the important role that reason plays within society, and the proper relationship between reason and faith. I think Benedict sees his role as countering the decline, particularly in Western Europe, of an authentic Christian culture.

Q. As Cardinal Ratzinger, the pope was considered a hard-liner theologically. Has his papacy followed suit? His first encyclical talked about the virtues of love.

A. You have to remember what his role was [as cardinal]. He was the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. His responsibility was to safeguard the teachings of the church from error. He was doing what anyone in that position needs to do, because that's the function of that office. That doesn't make one a theological hard-liner. His role as pope is to be the universal pastor.

Q. He offended Muslims two years ago by excavating a medieval anti-Islam slur, but now has initiated a regular dialogue with Muslim scholars. Will his be the papacy that heals religious tensions and repudiates fundamentalists on both sides?

A. He focuses on reason precisely to show that when faith is devoid of reason, the result is a fundamentalist approach that is not true to the essence of that tradition. These differences [between religions] have developed over centuries, and they're not going to be fixed overnight by one pontificate. But each step is a step towards that final goal.

He's going to address the United Nations, and that was the impetus for this visit. It shows the importance of the pope as a moral authority. He can offer some guidance to leaders of nations on fundamental values that, if they are taken out of the discussions of civilization, society would fall apart.

Q. The church's sex abuse scandal was an international scandal. You don't think the scandal has poisoned the papacy's moral authority?

A. No, the papacy's still seen as a very important moral voice in the world when we talk about human rights, the dignity of the human person, the injustices toward the marginalized and the poor.

Q. What do you make of the pope's decision to bypass Boston?

A. Pope Benedict is 82 years old. We remember a young, vigorous John Paul who would go on visits for 12, 13 days at a time. Benedict is in a different place.

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