An Analysis of the Emperor Benedict Meme
Apr. 20th, 2005 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jamesqThe hostility towards Pope Benedict XVI (and I've spread a little of it myself recently) is a little surprising. I've been paying attention since before John Paul II died and it wasn't a surprise to me that Cardinal Ratzinger was selected - and if it hadn't been him it would likely be someone like him. There is a limit to just how liberal a cardinal can be.
Now this hostility is mostly confined to the net. I haven't seen it on any other sort of media, but I'm in Alberta were being a reactionary is (strangely) considered to be a good thing.
So far, Pope Benedict (I'm going to drop the XVI for now - we all know I'm talking about the current, living pope and not one of his predecessors from the last two millennia) has been compared to Emperor Palpatine (aka Darth Sideous, number one evil dude from the Star Wars movies). He's also been called a Nazi. Here are some of his other nicknames:
Progressives around the world are understandably upset, and I can see why. Benedict wasn't just a conservative in the church, by all accounts he was the conservative. Whether he continues to be only time will tell. He could announce tomorrow that the Roman Catholic church will ordain women, allow priests to marry, quit worrying about condoms and that he, Pope Benedict, is gay.
I won't hold my breath though.
He did have this to say:
But I digress - I was talking about this wave of hostility towards the new Pope.
True, Pope Benedict is probably not going to change things. In fact he's much more likely to dig the church's heels in even more and start throwing his weight around politics. However, we should probably wait until he actually does so before making Darth Benedict comments.
So where is this hostility coming from? I think it's hostility towards the church in general. Hostility that couldn't be directly acknowledged without seeming to be towards John Paul II.
The current church is very much the late Pope's baby. He stacked the college of Cardinals with like-minded men (I think something like three cardinals were not appointed by JPII). He made Ratzinger his right-hand man/enforcer. Anything Ratzinger did as a cardinal was certainly done with JPII's approval.
But still, complaining about John Paul II always sounds like whining (even if you have valid complaints and I do). He was a frail old man, and for many of us, he was the only Pope we ever knew. And what a stage presence! Like the song says "Tell me, are you a Christian child?" "Ma'am I am tonight". It didn't matter how reactionary the church became, I was always willing to forgive JPII even though he was largely responsible for it.
So within hours (possibly minutes) of Benedict's ascension, the bloggers of the world unite to take him to task for his politics and everyone with a picture and a copy of PhotoShop has taken his vaguely similar appearance to Emperor Palpatine and created something that would make SomethingAwful proud.
Obviously the hostility was simmering below the surface waiting for the right moment - the moment when we could get it all out of our system without sounding like we were criticizing a dead old man still warm in the grave - a man who will likely be sainted in our lifetimes.
John Paul came to power before the web, before the the proliferation of cable stations, before everyone and their dog had the technology to make their voice heard worldwide. He had time to ease into a role without having to worry about anything other than the media that existed over a generation ago. The status quo was maintained and the hard questions were not asked.
Benedict came to power when all assumptions are questioned. The univeral popularity of John Paul will not be his, nor do I think it will be available to any future pope. The same thing happened to celebrities, politicians and royalty. Now it has come to the papacy.
Now this hostility is mostly confined to the net. I haven't seen it on any other sort of media, but I'm in Alberta were being a reactionary is (strangely) considered to be a good thing.
So far, Pope Benedict (I'm going to drop the XVI for now - we all know I'm talking about the current, living pope and not one of his predecessors from the last two millennia) has been compared to Emperor Palpatine (aka Darth Sideous, number one evil dude from the Star Wars movies). He's also been called a Nazi. Here are some of his other nicknames:
The HammerNow the last one is almost sort of accurate - he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which was originally the Inquisition. As for the Nazi comments, he was a teen in Germany during WWII - he didn't exactly have a choice.
The Enforcer
German Panzer
God's Rottweiler
Cardinal Rat
Grand Inquisitor
Progressives around the world are understandably upset, and I can see why. Benedict wasn't just a conservative in the church, by all accounts he was the conservative. Whether he continues to be only time will tell. He could announce tomorrow that the Roman Catholic church will ordain women, allow priests to marry, quit worrying about condoms and that he, Pope Benedict, is gay.
I won't hold my breath though.
He did have this to say:
"We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as definitive and has as its highest value one's own ego and one's own desires."Needless to say, I disagree with him that relativism is a bad thing. In a relativist world, you're free to be catholic, but in a catholic world, you're not free to be relativist.
But I digress - I was talking about this wave of hostility towards the new Pope.
True, Pope Benedict is probably not going to change things. In fact he's much more likely to dig the church's heels in even more and start throwing his weight around politics. However, we should probably wait until he actually does so before making Darth Benedict comments.
So where is this hostility coming from? I think it's hostility towards the church in general. Hostility that couldn't be directly acknowledged without seeming to be towards John Paul II.
The current church is very much the late Pope's baby. He stacked the college of Cardinals with like-minded men (I think something like three cardinals were not appointed by JPII). He made Ratzinger his right-hand man/enforcer. Anything Ratzinger did as a cardinal was certainly done with JPII's approval.
But still, complaining about John Paul II always sounds like whining (even if you have valid complaints and I do). He was a frail old man, and for many of us, he was the only Pope we ever knew. And what a stage presence! Like the song says "Tell me, are you a Christian child?" "Ma'am I am tonight". It didn't matter how reactionary the church became, I was always willing to forgive JPII even though he was largely responsible for it.
So within hours (possibly minutes) of Benedict's ascension, the bloggers of the world unite to take him to task for his politics and everyone with a picture and a copy of PhotoShop has taken his vaguely similar appearance to Emperor Palpatine and created something that would make SomethingAwful proud.
Obviously the hostility was simmering below the surface waiting for the right moment - the moment when we could get it all out of our system without sounding like we were criticizing a dead old man still warm in the grave - a man who will likely be sainted in our lifetimes.
John Paul came to power before the web, before the the proliferation of cable stations, before everyone and their dog had the technology to make their voice heard worldwide. He had time to ease into a role without having to worry about anything other than the media that existed over a generation ago. The status quo was maintained and the hard questions were not asked.
Benedict came to power when all assumptions are questioned. The univeral popularity of John Paul will not be his, nor do I think it will be available to any future pope. The same thing happened to celebrities, politicians and royalty. Now it has come to the papacy.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-21 08:07 pm (UTC)What shocked me wasn't the criticisism of Benedict. I think the criticism is valid - he was and is the most obvious focus of conservativism in the Roman Catholic Church. No, it how quick and virulently it occured after he took power - that many people don't just have an instant viseral reaction to somebody even if he does look like Emperor Palpatine. My point was that there had to be a huge amount of hostility that was simmering under the surface for a long time, and now that there is a new pope, it all came to a boil.