Benedict’s Appointees
Yet all that said, the fact remains that Benedict’s most consequential appointments to date don’t bear a strong ideological imprint. How to explain this?
One would probably do well to return to Pope Benedict’s homily on April 24, 2005, during his Inaugural Mass: “My real program of governance is not to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen, together with the whole church,” he said that day.
Most commentators assumed that this was little more than the pro-forma paean to unity that candidates who win elections always sing, and that his real agenda would emerge once Benedict got his hands on the levers of power. In fact, however, Benedict’s major appointments suggest that by and large, he actually meant what he said.
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