The Conservative's Pope

When the puffs of smoke rose up announcing that Cardinal Ratzinger would become the next pontiff, there were many on the right who rejoiced.  An an arch-conservative, the freshly-minted Benedict was seen as a figure who would be more forceful on social issues.  No namby-pamby forgiveness from this guy.  Here was a pope who would declare the holy war between Christianity and Islam that the conservatives wanted.  Here was a pope who would smite liberals and position the Catholic Church firmly in the conservative Christian club.  Here was a pope to make Dobson proud.  There's only one problem.  Benedict doesn't think they belong in the club.

Pope Benedict XVI has reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations were not true churches.

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It restates key sections of a 2000 document the pope wrote when he was prefect of the congregation, "Dominus Iesus," which set off a firestorm of criticism among Protestant and other Christian denominations because it said they were not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore did not have the "means of salvation."

If this seems like a minor doctrinal dispute, read that last part again.  As a gnostic pointed out in his diary, Benedict has declared that Pat Robertson -- and incidentally, every other protestant -- is doomed.  This coming a week after he revived widespread use of a mass that many Jews find offensive.  When we think of conservatives, we usually think of folks pining for a version of the 1950s that never existed in the real world.  Benedict is far more ambitious; he's aiming for the Dark Ages.

With a quarter of all Americans considering themselves Catholic, what does this mean for the future of the conservative Christian block?  The fear of homosexuality and distortion of medical procedures that gave the Christian right its power four years ago was already heavily eroded.  Not only are the issues of the right losing power, but many churches have been getting tired of playing pawns to the Republicans.  

For the bulk of American Catholics, the pope's declaration will likely have no particular effect.  American Catholics have demonstrated a strong streak of independence, and that's not likely to change under this pope.  If anything, expect the actions of this pope to speed the trend of Catholics looking somewhere other than Vatican City when seeking spiritual leadership. Instead of pushing Catholics to the right, the pope's words will have more effect on those already in the Robertston / Falwell "core" of conservative Christians.  Being told they're going to Hell is... well, it's going to piss them off, that's what it's going to do.  

The odd result is that the conservative's favorite pope, may actually end up hastening the end of the Christian right as an effective political movement.