Here\u2019s an amusing mental exercise. Imagine you are able to travel back in time to, say, 1985 or 1990, a moment when the Ratzinger-is-the-evil-Inquisitor-the-Panzer-Cardinal narrative was in full swing. And you find the journalist Peter Hebblethwaite (may he rest in peace), one of the propagators of Cardinal\u2019s reputation. <\/p>\n
And you tell him that in 2009, Ratzinger is Pope. (Give him a moment, it will throw him for a loop.) Then tell him in summer of \u201909, Pope Ratzinger has issued an encyclical. <\/p>\n
\u201cProbably criticizes immoral actions like abortion, gay marriage, and contraception, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d Hebblethwaite growls.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d you allow. \u201cIt does.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot surprising,\u201d he nods. \u201cSome things never change, I see.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd some people,\u201d you add, \u201care picking and choosing which parts of the encyclical they like and which they don\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWell, sometimes a discerning conscience is\u2013\u201c<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the conservatives doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHuh?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, and they\u2019re mad at him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poor Peter is getting very confused now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are? For what?\u201d<\/p>\n
Pause for effect. \u201cThey say he\u2019s focusing too much on love and goodness, not enough on rooting out sin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now you\u2019ve either driven Hebblethwaite stark raving mad or convinced him that you\u2019re from a bizarre parallel universe and your time machine dropped you off accidentally in ours.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition!<\/p>\n