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Former Vatican Official on Differences Between John Paul II and Benedict XVI

Kishore Jayabalan, a former official with the Vatican's Pontificate for Justice and Peace and current advocate for market economics at the Vatican speaks about the difference between John Paul II and Benedict XVI with Post's Michelle Boorstein.

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"If that wasn't provocative, I don't know what is," said the Rev. Thomas Williams, a theology professor at the Regina Apostolorum University. "Some think he's being naïve, but I'm convinced he has a very good idea what will come from his statements and actions. . . . He wants to stir up a debate, but he's not a showman, he's not charismatic, not going to be fun to watch -- but he's going to be thought-provoking."

Benedict, who turns 81 Wednesday, travels overseas comparatively rarely, and the trip reportedly could cost dioceses and the Vatican as much as $10 million. In other words, he's coming for a reason. The trip materialized out of an invitation to address the United Nations and was planned around the 60th anniversary of the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights, Vatican officials say.

Benedict isn't well-known to many Americans, Catholic or otherwise, and he has said he doesn't know the United States well.

The Vatican has been abuzz, with an entourage of priests leaving for the United States (priest-diplomats, priest-liturgical experts, priest-speechwriters and priest-pundits, including Williams, who is flying in to analyze the event for CBS). This will be the first papal trip to Washington since 1979 and only the second to the White House.

When Benedict was elected pope three years ago, some Catholics went into panic over his reputation as orthodoxy enforcer. In his 25 years as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger -- his name before becoming pope -- was known for killing the careers of a few Catholic theologians who questioned too much.

He wrote that gay parents "do violence" to adopted children by their very existence. He said the idea that God created religious diversity on purpose threatened Christian mission work.

Although many have said they longed for his charismatic predecessor, John Paul II, many of Benedict's views are similar to the previous pope's. Whereas "JP2" was a skilled communicator, Benedict is described as a shy man who has wished for years to return to his German homeland to teach. However, since coming into office, he has tried to focus on the positive. His two major writings as pope focus on hope and love.

Benedict has also become deeply involved in frank discussions with other faiths, partly because he believes the theological distinctions were becoming blurry and partly because he believes such relationships can only exist if everyone is honest.

"He wants dialogue with teeth," veteran Vatican reporter John Allen wrote shortly after the 2006 blowup regarding Islam.

But Benedict has some hurdles to overcome before he will be seen, ultimately, as a uniter of faith and reason. A major one has to do with his view of other religions and secular society in general. It is essential to have structures and institutions to create justice, he has written, but governments and organizations can't provide love and charity.

"The pope says you can have perfect structures, but they will turn against themselves without a Christian soul," said Kishore Jayabalan, a former Vatican official on peace and justice issues who now works to promote conservative economics among Vatican officials.

Many in the Muslim world remain wary of the pope, particularly since the 2006 controversy.

"What people don't agree upon is whether he was deliberately trying to fire an opening salvo to lead to dialogue. Most Muslims don't think so. That's just been the fortunate consequence, because of the measured response of Muslim leadership," said Dr. Imad ad-Dean Ahmad, director of the Minaret of Freedom Institute and one of the non-Catholics invited to an interfaith gathering Thursday.

Interfaith activists often note how successful John Paul II was at dialogue and acknowledging the divinity of others, particularly Jews. Benedict is more "hawkish" on Islam, in Allen's words, and is more protective of traditional liturgy. He has revived papal garments from centuries ago and has characterized Gregorian chant music, for example, as more legitimate than contemporary spiritual tunes.

Even his supporters wonder if Benedict is too invested in structure as a way to inspire. They suggest that it's because he is so focused on Europe and its lost Catholic rites and routines. Meanwhile, Asia and Africa are growing with a messier, more vibrant Christianity.

"John Paul had a better grasp of the pulse of Catholicism today. . . . He threw himself into frontier Catholicism," said Lamin Sanneh, a Yale historian and convert from Islam who advises the Vatican on Muslim issues. "John Paul was a pope of movements. This pope is a pope of rule books."