Watchdog or Attack Dog?
Joseph Ratzinger won his share of supporters and critics in his 24 years as the Vatican's top doctrinal cop, but both camps agree that the office he headed had rarely seen as serious a theologian at its helm--or one as apt to blur the line between his personal theology and official orthodoxy. John Allen, Ratzinger's biographer, notes that traditionally the office of the secretary of state has played the most important role in Vatican affairs, but that during Ratzinger's tenure, it was the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that held that position. "You have to look back to the 16th century to find someone who had the same impact in that office," says Allen.
Heir to the office of the Inquisition, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith enforces Vatican orthodoxy by promoting doctrine and by disciplining theologians who stray from it. While opponents labeled him "God's Rottweiler," church experts stress that anyone holding that post would stir controversy. "To the extent that the job involves handing down [punishment], he's the one who gets blamed for it," says Boston College Prof. Francis Sullivan. "But he was doing the job he was given." Ratzinger's critics, though--mostly moderate and liberal Roman Catholics--argue that his doctrinal pronouncements and silencings of high-profile Catholic figures effectively "cut off debate before the discussion had even begun," says James Martin, associate editor of the Jesuit weekly America .
Quelling challengers. Even before Pope John Paul II drafted him for the Vatican, Ratzinger helped spearhead a church investigation that culminated in the 1979 revocation of Swiss theologian Hans Kung's license to teach Catholic theology. Largely responsible for inspiring the Vatican II reforms, Kung was fired because of his works challenging papal infallibility.
Then archbishop of Munich, Ratzinger arrived in Rome in 1981, quickly taking aim at Latin American liberation theology, which encouraged poor Catholics to push for social and economic reforms from undemocratic regimes, sometimes through alliances with Marxist movements. In 1984, Ratzinger's office declared that liberation theology "subordinates theology to the class struggle" and represents "a perversion of the Christian message." A year later, he silenced Brazilian priest Leonardo Boff, barring him from publishing or teaching for more than a year. Ratzinger feared liberation theologists, says Harvard Prof. Harvey Cox, because they empowered Catholic laity outside the aegis of the official church: "A stickler for church authority, he saw the emergence of an alternative ecclesial structure."
Ratzinger's most well-publicized move against a theologian came in 1987, when he revoked Charles Curran's license to teach at Catholic University of America in Washington. Curran had opposed the church's ban on birth control and its opposition to masturbation and homosexuality, and he argued vigorously for his right to dissent from what are known as the Vatican's "noninfallible" teachings. "In some ways, it was better that they dropped the atomic bomb on me and said I'm no longer a Catholic theologian," says Curran, now at Southern Methodist University, "as opposed to have them keep biting away at me."
Recent Ratzinger instructions, calling members of other religions "gravely deficient" in 2000 and directing U.S. bishops last year to deny Communion to pro-abortion-rights politicians, were often controversial. "Now, Ratzinger has to redefine himself," says Allen. "From top cop to everybody's pope."
This story appears in the May 2, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.