Although I have seen howls of indignation from certain right-fringe corners of the Catholic cyberspace, personally I was tickled to see that Pope Benedict XVI met at Castel Gandolfo last week with his onetime colleague and friend, Fr. Hans Küng:
"[W]hy did Benedict, 78, open his doors to Küng? The first answer may be as simple as the desire to catch up with an old friend and colleague: the two men had taught together at the University of Tübingen, and both had served as theological advisers during the Second Vatican Council. Küng , 77, was quoted in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Tuesday as saying the Saturday dinner meeting at the papal summer residence in Castel Gondolfo was ‘a reciprocal joy to see each other after so many years.’ A Vatican statement said that the pair’s standing doctrinal disputes were not broached. Among the topics reportedly covered were the relationship between faith and science, and interfaith dialogue.
"But if this was simply a personal catching-up or theological rap session, Ratzinger might have invited Küng for dinner during his two decades as a Rome-based cardinal. Instead, it appears that the new pope wants to establish an ongoing open dialogue with those who may have different views. The Küng dinner is, in fact, Benedict’s third potentially controversial encounter in the past month. In late August, the pope met with the Italian writer Oriana Fallaci, who has penned fiercely anti-Muslim books since 9/11, and then two days later he welcomed Bishop Bernard Fellay, the excommunicated head of an ultraconservative movement founded by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
"It’s hard to know the specific motivation behind Benedict’s desire to meet with each of these surprise visitors. But it is by now clear that the new Pope is conscious that his job description has radically changed. As Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for 20 years, Cardinal Ratzinger had been responsible for keeping certain arguments on theological lock-down. But when you become father to a flock of 1 billion, your dining-room door must be kept as open as possible."
I think in these stories of Pope Benedict’s meetings with various individuals, representative of different movements of concern to the Church, we can see one difference in pastoral approach between John Paul II and Benedict. John Paul was a master at connecting to crowds of people and, by doing so, showing them how they were united; Benedict is proving himself to be a connector with individuals, and perhaps, by his approach, will show individuals — and possibly their representative movements — how they can connect themselves to the wider human family and ultimately to Christ.