Pope Benedict, Sinner

I have given the Pope's recent troubles a lot of thought in the past few days. Though the news cycle has spun on some, it was hard to miss.

Now my religious past is so checkered if Benedict were a blog reader (which I seriously doubt) even he'd probably say, "Please Sam, stay off my side" but I'd like to offer the following, not as a defense of his sins (because I believe this is more than boneheadedness) but as a possible explanation. Hopefully we aren't so far gone that we can't discuss the hows and whys-illumination is a good thing, especially when you're talking about religion.

1) The dude never wanted to be pope. Obviously I'm an American girl so I'm not exactly down with the inner workings of the Vatican but I do know this. Benedict, back when he was Joseph Ratzinger, was a theologian. He was an academic, never served as a priest in any other way. He never had a parish, he never served the people. He was one of John Paul II's closest advisors on matters of theology (we're talking angels on the head of a pin here people) which was his ticket to the other side of the velvet rope at Vatican City. I think this is significant because it explains the way his mind works-he included the offensive text because he doesn't get out much. For all his flaws, John Paul II did. Prior to being pope he was a parish priest, an actor, a poet-the guy was a total people person. An academic might be reluctant to edit something, even something that might upset people, when it proves their point so perfectly while a people person is primarily concerned with just that, people. Benedict was told using those passages might ruffle a few feathers but he wanted to be right more than he wanted to do the right thing. A very human flaw but a very expensive one in a world leader. That was his first sin, pride.

2) Going along with sin #1 was another sin, this one a classic sin of omission a la Cat Stevens. You may remember when Stevens, in his new Muslim guise, was asked about the fatwah issued on Salman Rushdie for his Satanic Verses he said, "Yes, that has traditionally been the punishment." Notice he didn't offer an opinion on whether that was right or wrong, just offered up the fact. Same thing with the Pope, just offered the quote with little or no indication of how he felt. I'm sure in the text what he was saying made perfect sense but you're running with the big dogs now, you've got to think of these things. A little disclaimer can go long way in the sound bite age.

3) Then, when all the shit hit the fan and horrible things were being said and done, we were back to sin #1 , to the prickly academic with his back up because the class didn't get what he was saying. Benedict, here's the sword-start falling. When people's lives are at stake you don't pussyfoot around with the semantics of your apology. I don't believe you wanted to start something but after you've thrown a lit match on a tinderbox you can't say it was just cause people didn't get you. That ain't gonna do it. You can't work for the Prince of Peace and cause violence, even accidentally, without doing everything, and I do mean everything, to make it right.

All in all it was a very costly error in a job with a super steep learning curve. But I forgive the Pope because I think I get the reasons why it happened and because my faith instructs me to forgive as I seek forgiveness. A wise leader learns from his mistakes though and it seems it's Benedict's turn for some schooling.