Benedict XVI turn I

Get it, Roman numeral I!!! Hilarious...

Nearly as hilarious has been the coverage of B16's first anniversary: The story: not much to tell. Nearly every single story points out that Papa Ratzi has neither burned liberals at the stake (for which they express their relief) nor enshrined the Catholic neo-cons in positions of absolute power (for which they express disappointment). All this means that the sum of their reportage focuses on B16's alarming fashion sense, which has included everything from Prada shoes to a Renaissance-era white-fur-lined stocking cap.

A treatment you might miss appeared in the Times of Malta of all places, which argues quite rightly that Benedict is a true Catholic conservative, which means the tradition he is trying to "conserve" is that embodied by the likes of Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo, rather than that invented in the past 27 years by JPII. (Note that B16 has said nothing of John Paul's "theology of the body," a theological innovation if there ever was one. And a crappy one at that.)

Of course, B16's newfound theological pacificism leaves liberals like me nothing to foam at the mouth about. (Luckily, the stunning incompetence of the U.S. bishops is another question altogether. See the next post.) The ship is still sinking, of course, and our professorial pope is not likely to do anything about it, but at least no one is running around with torches trying to set fire to dissidents in the meantime.

I think that's about as close to "the glass is half full" I can get...