Cardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith

National Catholic Reporter, Nov 17, 2000 by John L. Allen

More important is the question of what conclusions Ratzinger draws from the war. Having seen fascism in action, Ratzinger today believes that the best antidote to political totalitarianism is ecclesial totalitarianism. In other words, he believes the Catholic church serves the cause of human freedom by restricting freedom in its internal life, thereby remaining clear about what it teaches and believes. It is a position he defends ably, but it is strikingly different from the conclusions of many of Ratzinger's German theological peers who also lived through the Nazi era.

If his childhood under the Nazis was one stream of influence on the young Ratzinger, the other was his intellectual awakening in the seminary and graduate school. Ratzinger's mental reservoir was filled with images and arguments from the various thinkers he encountered. Four such men have had great intellectual impact on Ratzinger: Augustine, Bonaventure, Guardini, and Balthasar.

A school of philosophical thought fashionable today says human identity is formed by a mental "bundle," referring to a unique set of memories arranged and recalled in idiosyncratic fashion. To understand Joseph Ratzinger, therefore, we need to understand what was in his bundle.

Almost as much as John Paul II is Polish, Joseph Ratzinger is Bavarian. In 1998, when he presented his new autobiography to the German-speaking world in a press conference, he did so in the Kloster Andech monastery in Upper Bavaria. Introducing Ratzinger, Abbot Odilo Lechner said in praise of the cardinal, "You have always made it clear that heaven and earth are bound together in a special way in Bavaria."

When the Roman Empire fell, Bavaria was divided into three sections: the north occupied by the Franks, the west by the Alemanni, and the south and east by the Baiuvarii, the tribe that eventually gave the territory its name. This division still exists today, as Bavaria is an amalgam of three distinct regions: Franconia in the north, Swabia in the west, and the "real Bavaria" in the south and east. Ratzinger's family comes from this "real" Bavarian stock.

The Wittelsbach kings of Bavaria were opponents of the Protestant Reformation, and during the sixteenth century Bavaria became an officially, and strictly, Catholic state. Even today one could parachute into Bavaria at random, landing at however remote or isolated a spot, and be within eyesight of a Catholic church or shrine. Jesuit Michael Fahey, a student of Ratzinger's during his days in Tilbingen, says this is a critical point in understanding Ratzinger. He is spiritually and culturally Bavarian, which means he is most comfortable in an all-Catholic setting. An appreciation for diversity was not something he imbibed growing up, and a preference for homogeneity remains part of his character. ...

Today Bavaria is known as one of the most culturally traditional and politically conservative pockets of the country. Despite its economic success, Bavaria has resisted urbanization to a remarkable degree. In the early 1990s, almost half of the population still lived in locales of less than 5,000 population. Ratzinger grew up in a series of those Bavarian hamlets, and his family has deep roots in the Bavarian soil.