waiting for a new benedict

alasdair macintyre must be smiling--he's finally got his longed-for return of benedict. perhaps not in the form he was hoping, however.

for those who haven't heard yet, cardinal joseph ratzinger was elected this morning as pope. he took the name benedict xvl.

and for those who didn't get my obscure reference above, it is from the end of macintyre's famous book 'after virtue' where he concludes his long mediation on moral fragmentation in modern society with this: "what matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us. . . we are waiting not for a godot, but for another--doutless very different--st. benedict.

well. i'm not sure this benedict is focused on the construction of local forms of community which can sustain the virtues of the faith through the fires of the 21st century. miroslav volf, in his book on the trinity, deeply engaged with ratzinger's views on the church (chapter 1: ratzinger: communion and the whole). now i'll reread that section with a whole new interest in what he thinks church is and ought to be. i worry, as i'm sure many will, that benedict xvl will uphold john paul ll's centralizing tendencies within the church as a whole when for my money a robust recovery of the doctrine of subsidiarity is needed.

anon, and +peace