ROME
Daily News
August 23, 2005
Benedict XVI passes his first big test, but internal reform matters more than drawing crowds, writes Damian Thompson in London.
By attracting a million people to his open-air Mass outside Cologne - and effortlessly holding their attention - Pope Benedict XVI has passed the first big test of his pontificate. But this public relations triumph probably matters far less to him than the task of internal reform that lies ahead.
He knows how stage-managed these events are - and he has no intention of attending as many of them as John Paul II. Underlying this pope's quiet charisma is a determination to rejuvenate an institution that, throughout the West, has been gravely damaged by sexual scandal, episcopal incompet-ence, ugly services and falling mass attendance.
Hence his admission at a prayer vigil on Saturday night that there was "much that could be criticised'' in the church. "We know this and the Lord himself told us so: it is a net with good and bad fish,'' he said.
The worst of those bad fish are, of course, sexual abusers. Will Benedict deal with claims of abuse more swiftly than John Paul?
"We shall soon find out: sitting on the Pope's desk is a file of allegations against Fr Marcial Maciel, 85, Mexican founder of one of the most powerful new orders in the church, the conservative Legionaries of Christ.
If Maciel is found guilty and the Pope immediately punishes him, the shock to the church will be immense.