The institution of the Papacy and its own persuit to hold onto power

In a recent ceremony welcoming the new European Union Commission envoy at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Alois Ratzinger, had the audacity to use the public meeting as a pulpit to lecture about the dangers of secularism and the important role Christianity has played in Europe. While Ratzinger recognized the violent and bloody role Christianity has played in Europe, his remarks exposed how even the institution of the Papacy will pursue its own interests at the expense of retarding the advancement of civic institutions like the European Union and the American Republic. Secularism and the neutral role of a sovereign power like the European Union and the American Republic is perhaps one of the most important political developments in the field of politics and government in the last 500 years. It is the defining element that illustrates a liberal democracy and the promotion of a pluralistic social cohesion of members from several different religions.

The comments by Joseph Ratzinger come as no surprise as he has a long history of protecting the interests of the Catholic Church and hence his own power and position within that institution. During his move up the Vatican hierarchy, Ratzinger undermined the political and religious work of liberation theology. Seen as a threat to the authority and ultimate power of the Vatican and due to his appointment as a Cardinal by Pope Paul II from communist controlled Poland, Ratzinger declared that liberation theology was the "fusing of the Bible's view of history with Marxist dialectics."

One of the main reasons why the conservative and orthodox members of the Roman Catholic Church like Ratzinger attacked liberation theology is because the theology challenges the meaning of resurrection. The conservative forces of the Church believe that the resurrection of Christ serves the purpose of showing that a better life is possible in the afterlife. Liberal theologians, however, believe that God became man in Christ and he was a person of the oppressed and persecuted classes. In his actions as Christ, God showed that man could liberate himself, enjoy salvation in life, and not have to wait until an afterlife. This is the greatest source of contention and criticism of the conservative wing of the Roman Catholic Church.

Ratzinger’s long time hostility towards any institution that challenges the power of the Vatican came through in his recent speech when he said, that “anarchic and random grouping” rather than a “coherent” body based on a historically “precise anthropological vision” could threaten the European Union. Although he was voicing his displeasure over the European Union’s exclusion of mentioning God or Christianity in the former European Union Constitution and subsequent Lisbon Treaty, the remark by Ratzinger is also voicing his concern of the growing Muslim and non-Christian segments of the European Union’s population.

Just as he worked to discredit the theological movement of liberation theology and the traditional (anthropological vision) it challenged of the meaning of resurrection, Ratzinger’s recent comment indicates the Vatican is aware of the growing power of the European Union, which could ultimately undermine the Vatican’s position in Europe and Italy. The recent remarks by the leader of the Catholic Church, whose institution treats women as inferior beings, highlight that the institution of the Papacy needs to first take the plank out of its own eye, before it can take the speck of dust out of the European Union's eye.