The liberal media is hoping that Pope Benedict XVI will stray far enough from the supernatural roots of the Church (its "mystical body") to fall into worldliness. They are at high dungeon in their belief that a mystical sense was what led John Paul II to stand unflinchingly against such things as abortion, homosexuality, and euthanasia. And now they are hoping that Benedict XVI, as a rationalist, will be more compromising.

That won't happen (he will not be "worldly," and already has affirmed as much), but there are questions about how he will differ in his treatment of the supernatural. His predecessor and former boss, John Paul II, was very open to it. He was more mystical than intellectual (although he was plenty intellectual). Will Benedict XVI prove to be the opposite?

The issue pushed itself to the fore last weekend when an Italian news agency, quoting a priest it would not name, claimed that a short time before he was elected Pope -- when he was still prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (which oversees miraculous claims) -- Benedict XVI made negative remarks about the most famous of the current supernatural claims, Medjugorje in Bosnia-Hercegoivina (which even next week will be the focus of a NBC "Dateline" presentation).

It was a startling and questionable report in that the Pope, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prevented Medjugorje from being rejected by a local bishop.

But if there is any credence to be placed in such a news item, the question would become whether the Pope, when he was prefect, was simply acting under the behest of John Paul II, a Medjugorje supporter, when, as prefect, he defended the site of apparitions, or whether he too had a positive view and has changed his position.

The other option, of course, and perhaps even the likeliest, is that the news report was simply erroneous. Thus far, the news agency, AFB Worldwide, has not responded to our request for substantiation of the quotes from the curiously anonymous priest. What is certain is that the liberal faction of the Church is now openly hoping that Benedict XVI will be less mystical than John Paul II -- and, like AFB, some are already reporting it as a fact.

Christian Weisner, chairman of "We Are Church" -- an international movement that among other things promotes the idea of female priests -- was quoted by AFB as saying that the new Pope shuns the kind of "outpourings of popular religiosity" that the former pontiff encouraged. "He is dominated by the theology of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, and Greek philosophy regarding the body and soul," Weisner asserts in the same article, adding that Benedict XVI is "in no way" a mystical man.

Author John Cornwell, who lambastes John Paul II for his mysticism (the visits to Lanciano, the focus on Fatima, the belief in a coming huge event), feels or at least hopes the same way.

"He is no supernatural Pope," claims Cornwell, a vitriolic anti-Catholic author, in the current issue of Vanity Fair. "It was Cardinal Ratzinger who, after the announcement of the third part of the secret of Fatima in May 2000, published a commentary distinguishing between the meaning of public revelation, to be found exclusively in Scripture, and private revelations, the prophecies and apparitions of seers... Whatever Joseph Ratzinger's drawbacks may be, that message emphatically redefines the papal office after the 26-year reign of the mystical super-Pope."

In fact, Cardinal Ratzinger indeed had indicated more skepticism to the supernatural than did his predecessor, but just this week the new pontiff asked Catholics to focus their attention on the May 13 anniversary of the first Fatima apparition.

In his commentary on the third secret, Pope Benedict had said that "private revelation is a help to this faith, and shows its credibility precisely by leading me back to the definitive public Revelation." Quoting St. Paul in the first letter to the Thessalonians, he noted that Christians are told not to despise prophecy, but to "test everything, holding fast to what is good" (5:19-21). That is the oldest of Paul's letters.

More, the Pope has said that "interior vision does not mean fantasy, which would be no more than an expression of the subjective imagination. It means rather that the soul is touched by something real, even if beyond the senses."

It is for this reason, stated the future Benedict XVI back five years ago, in his third-secret commentary, that visions are often granted to children: because they are clearer vessels for heavenly transmission.

"Interior vision is not fantasy but, as we have said, a true and valid means of verification," he stated in 2000 -- adding that "the history of the entire century" could be represented in the image in the Fatima prophecy, which was not so much a photographic detail of future events as much as a synthesis of situations "in an unspecified succession."

Clearly, Joseph Ratzinger believes in the famed third secret. He also noted that private revelation, as in the case of Corpus Christi, has affected the liturgy itself. The charism of prophecy is to be scrutinized, he said, "not scorned."

But at the same time, Cardinal Ratzinger emphasized that a good Catholic did not have to accept private revelations (that is, any revelation since the time of Scripture), and warned about prophecies that were overly predictive and don't promote "faith, hope, and love." In fact he said that the definition of prophecy is not to foretell future happenings so much as to proclaim the truth of current times, convey the Will of God for the present, and thus to show the correct path to the future. "A person who foretells what is going to happen responds to the curiosity of the mind, which wants to draw back the veil on the future," he stated -- somewhat in divergence from John Paul II. "The prophetic word is a warning or a consolation or both together," he said, adding that "signs of the times" have to do with recognition in every age of Jesus.

And, referring to Fatima and the famous miracle of October 13, 1917, there was this interesting passage in Pope Benedict's book, God and the World: "Whatever happened or did not happen on that October thirteenth, from a purely scientific point of view, we have no way of knowing for certain. What matters is that the people were visibly moved by the unique experience of that moment. They were able to realize, something is happening. And in some way or other the sun became for them a sign of the mystery that lies beyond it."

Did he have any personal questions about the great sun miracle? Or was he simply describing the non-physical workings of the mystical? Does he believe in Medjugorje? Does he believe or disbelieve in other claims to the supernatural at places such as Akita in Japan and Garabandal, Spain?

As prefect of the Sacred Congregation. Cardinal Ratzinger not only oversaw the preservation of Medjugorje -- which he monitored, and reportedly visited incognito -- but also allowed the approval or partial approval of apparitions such as Betania in Venezuela, Cuapa in Nicaragua, Kibeho in Rwanda, and Amsterdam in Holland -- the latter apparitions that had been rejected by previous bishops and even warned against by previous administrators at the Vatican itself. 

Reports are that Pope Benedict's successor as prefect of the Congregation will be Archbishop William J. Levada of San Francisco. Our correspondents there tell us that Archbishop Levada has been cautiously friendly to claims of the supernatural. "He is very open to apparitions," says one source who has sponsored Medjugorje-style events in the area.

"He holds to the correct position of the Congregation, that Medjugorje is still open, but that official pilgrimages led by priests, which could  appear to have an anticipated positive decision, are forbidden," says another lay activist in that area. "He published a number of years ago, in our archdiocesan newsletter, that people were free to go as individuals." 

Still, the questions remain. If Archbishop Levada becomes prefect, will he maintain that position on apparitions, or will Pope Benedict stiffen his own views and translate that down to the new prefect?

Levada, who worked on the Vatican staff of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1976 to 1982, has an intimate understanding of the issues facing the U.S. Church, having served as the Archbishop of Portland from 1986 to 1995, and since then as the Archbishop of San Francisco. He is thus well-acquainted with the eruption of mysticism in the America, from visions and locutions to weeping statues.

If he becomes prefect, he will now have a great effect on how such phenomena are viewed.

That's the bureaucratic end of matters.

But, oh, let's get back to the mysticism:

There's that controversial St. Malachy prophecy -- that the current Pope would be connected to the olive in some way. Many have pointed out how Cardinal Ratzinger took the name Benedict and that the Benedictines have a major branch known as "Olivetans" -- with the symbol of an olive branch, in seeming fulfillment of the 12th century ancient prophecy, which listed the succession of 112 popes (with esoteric descriptions that seem uncanny).

Now let's add this, as pertains to "the personal coat of arms" of the potential new prefect, Archbishop Levada:

Says the San Francisco archdiocese's own website, "These arms are composed with the three main colors of the Portuguese flag: red, gold (yellow) and green. The olive tree is taken from the arms of the Oliveira family, from which the name of Levada is derived."

5/12/05

[see also: As prefect, Benedict said prayer altered third secret]

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