Shaped and dislocated by history, By Owei Lakemfa

The young Father Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, was a brilliant theologian and academic who, at the age of 31 in 1958, had become a full professor at the University of Bonn. But before becoming a priest, he had been a POW in World War II. It is a war in which people seem to have lost their lives. But soon the world promised to solve the problem in peace, and established the United Nations as a backstop from humanity continuing the war.

In Asia, the two-stage Vietnam War, first against France, and then against the United States, erupted on December 19, 1946. The world moved closer to another world war with the three-year Korean War, which began on June 25. 1950. The terrible Chinese Civil War that claimed more than a million lives, also erupted in 1948, only to end with the victory of the Maoist Revolution.

France killed more than two million Algerians from 1954 to 1962 in an attempt to end Algerian independence. Elsewhere in Africa, the ‘winds’ of independence were so strong that in 1960 alone, 17 countries in various forms emerged from the yoke of colonialism, with many, like Kenya and Cameroon, bearing visible scars.

These events did not stop human progress, as the Soviet Union launched Yuri Gagarin, the first man into space, on April 12, 1961, and the United States launched Alan Shepard, the second, on May 5, 1961. The world was almost unrecognizable. , and the Catholic Church was forced to find itself in a grossly distorted world tainted by the absorbing and potentially destructive Cold War.

What role does the church play when the world is on its knees, bleeding profusely? Does the church speak for itself instead of communicating with the congregation? In any case, how can we communicate when the priest conducts mass only in Latin, which almost 100 percent of the Catholic faithful do not understand?

Do they know the world is used? Is the Church only about ancient times, or, also about the modern world? Is it relevant and in danger of disintegrating and disappearing into folklore? The Church decided that the way out, to gather the Second Vatican Council, which will bring bishops from all over the world to hold a mirror for themselves, identify with the hopes and needs of the world’s Catholics, extend the hand of relationship to other churches. and religion and clear the way for the future.

In his 1975 book, The Runaway Church, Peter Hebblethwaite quotes a British bishop who said that for Vatican II, which took place from 1962-65, “The Church will be like the Loch Ness monster: rumored to exist, from venerable antiquity. , actually seen by some, but not much relevance in the contemporary world. Ratzinger, at the age of 35, came to Vatican II as an assistant to Cardinal Joseph Frings. It obviously had a positive influence on him until after 1968, when his views seemed to begin to change.

However, the Council has introduced democracy into a hierarchical institution to this day, with whoever is the Pope the infallible Vicar of Christ, the bishops the undoubted successors of the Apostles, and the priest the Man of God in the parish. But Vatican II raised another argument. If Jesus said that there will come a time when God will not worship in Jerusalem (Temple) John 4:21, and: “God is a spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth,” (John 4: 24). Where does the Church stand as a temple? But the implication is this: if worship comes out of the Temple and God is worshiped only in spirit and truth, that will be the end of the priesthood. This may mean that the Church is involved in its own liquidation.

There are many progressive results from the Second Vatican Council, such as the need for the Church to identify with the soft, the poor, and the defenseless and even against dictators. However, the fact that it allows open debate between bishops, exposes disagreements, challenges the traditional hierarchy and authority (where unquestioned obedience has previously been the case), and provides fertile ground for Liberation Theology obviously that some see the Council as dangerous to the Church. While Liberation Theology emphasizes social justice, environmental protection, and building the Kingdom of God on earth to ensure His will is done as it is in heaven, its opponents claim it is the secularization, radicalization and politicization of the Church.

Cardinal Siri of Genoa said that “the Council was the greatest mistake in recent ecclesiastical history.” Some bishops, such as Dr. McQuaid of Dublin and Cardinal MacIntyre of Los Angeles, rebelled. About 100,000 priests left in ten years, and for some, like Ratzinger, who first supported the liberal movement of the Church, Vatican II was like a genie escaping from a bottle; it must be taken back and rebottled.

This became Ratzinger’s quest for the rest of his life; return the Catholic Church to its ancient traditions, untouched and unaffected by modernization. As Archbishop of Munich since 1977, he is more Catholic than the Pope—and as Head, Congregation of the Faith (successor office of the Inquisition), the fear of Cardinal Ratzinger, for many priests, is the beginning of wisdom. He declared Liberation Theology a “single heresy”, and excommunicated its leaders like Leonardo Boff. He was so hawkish that he became known as “God’s Rottweiler”. He served as Pope from April 19, 2005, until February 28, 2013, when he resigned, the first resignation of a Catholic pope in seven centuries.

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Pope Benedict upholds the Church’s ban on birth control to the extent that when HIV/AIDS ravaged the world and there was an appeal to allow the use of condoms, at least for prevention, he refused. If one partner in a Catholic marriage is positive, the couple is expected to either refrain from copulating or risk infection. He also strictly upheld the Church’s ban on divorce, feminist ideas, and abortion, no matter the circumstances.

As Pope, he was involved in unnecessary controversies. For example, they claim that Catholicism is the only true church of Christ and that Islam is a dangerous faith spread by the sword.

He encouraged the conversion of the Jews, but then tried to mend fences by exonerating the Jews from the charge that they killed Jesus Christ. When the Holy Father died on December 31, 2022, he had been dislocated by a liberal history that made him one of the most conservative Popes in history. But he could not defeat Vatican II; His successor, Pope Francis, is a product of the progressive spirit that permeated the ecclesiastical gathering 58 years ago.

Owei Lakemfa, former secretary general of African labor, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.