By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 19, 2006; A10
One year ago, when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger stepped onto a balcony of St. Peter's Basilica as the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI, conservative Catholics rejoiced and liberals sulked.
Today, as Benedict marks his first anniversary as pope, the liberals are still unhappy. But so are some conservative activists.
"Among those who greatly admired Cardinal Ratzinger and were elated by his election as pope, there is a palpable uneasiness," the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, an influential conservative, wrote recently in the journal he edits, First Things.
Based on Ratzinger's 23-year record as a vociferous defender of orthodoxy as head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Catholics on both sides of the debates over celibacy, homosexuality and the role of the laity expected him to lead a forced march toward ideological purity.
There has been a taste of that, most notably in Benedict's approval of a document saying men with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" should not be ordained as priests. But, on the whole, the first year of his papacy has been surprisingly mild.
"He has not turned out to be the pope that many progressives feared and many conservatives cheered," said Christopher M. Bellitto, a church historian at Kean University in New Jersey.
For example:
· His first encyclical -- often considered a guide to the direction a pope intends to take -- was a gentle reflection on "God Is Love."
· Benedict has merged a few offices, but he has not undertaken a housecleaning of the Vatican bureaucracy, which is probably the fastest way for a pope to reshape the church.
· To the puzzlement of conservatives, Benedict chose the pragmatic archbishop of San Francisco, William J. Levada, as his successor at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Then, he named Bishop George H. Niederauer of Salt Lake City to succeed Levada in California, drawing howls from conservatives who believe that Niederauer is too "gay friendly," in Neuhaus's words.
"It's not just a question of what [Benedict] has done. It's a question of expectations, and here we are a year in and what he hasn't done," said Philip F. Lawler, editor of Catholic World News, a conservative news service. "When he was elected, there was an expectation from Catholics on all sides that he would be more of an activist, and that hasn't happened."
Those expectations mounted again last week as rumors circulated that the pope would allow priests to celebrate more frequently the Tridentine Mass, the centuries-old Latin liturgy that was replaced by Pope Paul VI during the Second Vatican Council of 1962 to 1965.
Breaking with a tradition established by his predecessor, John Paul II, Benedict did not issue an open letter to priests on the Thursday before Easter. That prompted speculation in conservative circles that he would instead issue a "universal indult," or general permission, for the Tridentine Mass.
But Holy Thursday came, and went, with no decree.
"This was one of the things that was expected of Pope Benedict from Day One, and that would be completely in keeping with his writings before he became pope, and why it hasn't happened yet nobody knows," Lawler said.
The reason for Benedict's unexpected mildness, in the view of some scholars and clerics, is that the job changes the man. A stern enforcer of church doctrine in his previous role, Benedict is now shepherd to the world's 1.1 billion Catholics and, therefore, primarily a pastor.
"I'm sure he has surprised some of the very conservative people, but that's because they didn't really know him. They just saw one side of him, which was his responsibility as guardian of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," said Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, archbishop of Washington.
"I think this Holy Father is a man in the center, and we're seeing that now," the cardinal said.
During his first year as pope, Benedict has reached out to the followers of Marcel Lefebvre, a far-right French bishop who was excommunicated in 1988. But he also invited the left-wing dissident theologian Hans Kung to a cordial private dinner at his summer estate. At a synod of bishops last fall and at the installation of new cardinals in March, the pope allowed frank discussion of such controversial subjects as married priests.
"Benedict, at the one-year mark, has been far more open to dialogue than expected . . . and more open than the Wojtyla papacy was," said Bellitto, the Kean University historian, referring to John Paul II.
The Rev. James Martin, associate editor of America, a liberal Jesuit magazine, said the biggest surprise so far is the encyclical, titled Deus Caritas Est in Latin, which came out at Christmas. Rather than a condemnation of sexual sins, it was a meditation on love and an exhortation to charity.
"It was not doctrinal. It was not legalistic. It was completely accessible to an ordinary reader -- and it really had a lot of conservatives and liberals scratching their heads," Martin said.
In contrast, the instruction on homosexuality issued in November by the Congregation for Catholic Education, the Vatican department in charge of seminaries, was the kind of document all sides had expected. To Martin, it helped clarify what is changing, and what is not.
"He sees himself as a pastor -- not the enforcer any longer -- but he still believes what he believed when he was in the enforcer role," Martin said.
Although conservatives welcomed the document, they have complained that some bishops are interpreting it to mean that candidates for the priesthood must be psychologically mature, not that they must be heterosexual. In a February essay, Neuhaus warned that unless there is a "decisive response" from Benedict against this "definitial slicing and dicing" by bishops, "it is more than possible that the effective leadership of this pontificate, now just getting underway, will be gravely weakened."
The Rev. Joseph Fessio, a former student of Benedict's and the publisher of his books in English, said he understands the impatience among fellow conservatives for a more active papacy but is not worried because "it's early yet."
When the encyclical on love appeared, "a lot of people said it wasn't the condemnation we expected, it was very open to others. That's true. He talks about the love of Eros. Here's the 'Panzer Cardinal' talking about erotic love!" he said.
But, Fessio noted, the encyclical also says that when erotic love is purified, it leads to exclusiveness and permanence. "And what does that mean? He's saying that that kind of love is only between a man and a woman, so he's rejecting homosexual unions. And he said it's exclusive and permanent, so he's excluding divorce and promiscuity."
"So on the surface it was non-controversial -- but underneath he was laying the groundwork, the principles, for conclusions that are controversial," Fessio said, adding: "I think this second year is going to be the one to look it."
