Ratzinger--Unbending in His Beliefs but Gracious

VATICAN CITY —  Cardinal Joseph A. Ratzinger, head of the Roman Catholic agency to preserve doctrinal purity, may be unbending in orthodoxy but he is gracious in style.

Some critics and observers from afar call the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as one put it, “a curmudgeon’s curmudgeon.” But those who know Ratzinger describe a far different figure.

Even Father Charles E. Curran, the Catholic University professor recently stripped by Ratzinger of his title as a Catholic theologian, calls the cardinal a “very urbane, cultured gentleman” and says he holds no animosity toward him.

‘Unfailingly Civil’

Describing the cardinal’s interrogation of him last March, Curran said: “Ratzinger was unfailingly civil and courteous. He was cordial, with a half-smile on his face. . . . But there was never any real dialogue about any change of (the congregation’s) position.”

“I can’t imagine his offending anyone,” said Father Christopher Schoenborn, who is a professor of dogmatics at a university in Switzerland. “I never heard any sharp words from him” against U.S. Catholics, the former Ratzinger student added.

“He looks at issues rather than the person,” agreed Father Joseph Fessio, editor of Ignatius Press, a small Catholic publishing house in San Francisco. The company specializes in theological works and has published “The Ratzinger Report,” an extensive interview with the cardinal on the state of the church conducted by an Italian journalist in 1984.

Born in Marktl am Inn in Bavaria, on April 16, 1927, Joseph Alois Ratzinger is the son of a policeman and a hotel cook.

Family Interest

Ratzinger’s brother, George, also a priest, conducts the boys’ choir at Regensburg, West Germany, where the cardinal still maintains an unpretentious family home. His sister, Mary, is the cardinal’s housekeeper and cook, both during the infrequent times they are in Regensburg, and in Rome, where Ratzinger lives in a modest apartment a short walk from the Vatican.

Associates say he is not interested in sports and has no hobbies, save for brisk walks in the mountains, where he goes briefly to escape Rome’s wilting summer heat.

The cardinal is said to enjoy classical and sacred music and reportedly is a first-class pianist. Friends say he lives frugally, in the scholarly German fashion. If he has any indulgences, 1952998777occasionally a bottle of mineral water imported from Bavaria.

“He’s utterly ordinary, to a certain extent,” said former Ratzinger student Father Vincent Twomey, a lecturer at St. Patrick’s College, a pontifical seminary in Maynooth, Ireland. Twomey recalled how on a visit home to Regensburg not long ago the cardinal acceded to a request from the local fire brigade to bless the fire engine.

Ordained at 24

Ratzinger was ordained a priest at age 24 in 1951, the year he finished his doctoral dissertation in theology at the University of Munich.

The priesthood attracted him, Ratzinger has said, because he thought God was calling him to service that could be accomplished in no other way. And he found a strong appeal in the aesthetic beauty and mystery of the Catholic liturgy.

Ratzinger distinguished himself early on as a scholar. After completing post-doctoral work in 1957, he taught at the German universities at Freising, Bonn, Munster, Tubingen and Regensburg. Meanwhile, he wrote books on Christology, church history, liturgy and homiletics (preaching).

The cardinal has the soft, uncallused hands of a scholar. He stands 5-foot-7 and is of medium build. His dark eyes and eyebrows are set beneath a full head of white hair.

An easy smile and formal but warm graciousness greet a visitor who has ascended the creaking elevator to his second-floor offices in the buff-colored Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith building just off St. Peter’s Square.

Red and Gold Furnishings

The cardinal exits down an echoing corridor to an inner office to fetch his reading glasses in order to respond to a question about a news item. Momentarily, he returns to the meeting room with its red brocade-covered walls, red-satin chairs trimmed in gold, and huge portrait of Pope John Paul II looking on.

He cannot grant an interview, Ratzinger explains apologetically, but he can give “impressions” for 15 minutes. And he poses for a photograph.

The prefect, dressed in the simple black cassock of a priest, exchanges pleasantries in English about Los Angeles. He asks if Father Junipero Serra, the Franciscan friar who founded the California mission chain and is a candidate for sainthood, was from Los Angeles. He says he has never been to California--only Texas.

Annual Reunion

Ratzinger had just come from an annual fall reunion with his former graduate students. About 30 paid their own way to a three-day event at a retreat house in a small Bavarian city about 50 miles east of Munich.

The reunion lectures this year, delivered by three former Ratzinger students and the cardinal himself, centered on theology and the teaching authority of the Catholic Church--a timely topic in light of current Vatican action to bring unruly theologians to heel.

Frank and open debate marked the discussions, according to participants, who said the cardinal did not insist that students agree with his thinking.

“It was a relaxed but scholarly atmosphere,” Twomey said. “There was humor, lightness and seriousness all mixed up--he encouraged it. And, in dealing with cases or interrogations, he is very patient (and) . . . doesn’t decide before the case is mature.”

“After the meetings,” added Fessio, “we opened some beer and wine and all talked. He’s just such a down-to-earth person.”