The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : A lot is expected of the new Pope

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 22, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

A lot is expected of the new Pope

Marcus Dam

Indian bishops hope the new Pope will review the policy on the major challenges facing the Church.

THE NEW pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI, "has a tremendous regard for the Indian Church" even as he has "kept a watch on the doctrinal aspects of theological thinking emerging in the Catholic world both in India and elsewhere" as Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith for more than two decades.

Most of the country's 160 Bishops had interacted with him during their visits to the Vatican over the years to apprise the Congregation of the developments in their respective dioceses. They returned with his advice "to put in the right perspective Catholic thinking within a multi-religious context like India", Father Babu Joseph, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India [CBCI] — the highest body of the Catholic Church in the country — told The Hindu over telephone from New Delhi on Thursday.

On the expectations of the Indian Bishops, he said: "Given the calibre of Joseph Ratzinger they hope that he would review the Church's approaches to some of the contemporary socio-religious challenges facing it ... social-religious issues like homosexuality, allowing married clergy in the Church, and ecumenical matters. There is a confidence that he will creatively respond to these issues."

"I, too, had the occasion to meet him two years ago," Father Joseph said.

"The Pope is very well known to the Indian Church hierarchy. Bishops from this country have had discussions with him on doctrinal approaches to the multi-religious social context of India that by itself, provides a challenge to theological thinking.

"He is also in line with the belief that God works through other religions although, with regard to doctrine and faith of the Catholic Church, he remains a strict person", he added. This was "the view of the CBCI in general."

Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, one of the three cardinals from the country to have participated in the conclave that elected the new Pope, and who is also president, CBCI, "has expressed happiness over the manner in which the conclave was conducted and Joseph Ratzinger's election in the sense that he shares a close relationship with the late Pope John Paul II and many of his policies", he added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion