Ratzinger's Faith: Part II

Ratzinger's Faith: Part II by MSW.  MB:  The key question is the most ancient - to what extent does the individual Catholic make up his or her own mind and to what extent does he have to obey what the Church tells him.  What Ratzinger/Benedict does not grasp is that in the modern world, this question is answered favoring the individual and likely always has.  A papacy that no one listens to has neither power or authority.  The key to being a good pope is to embrace the fact that belief cannot be forced.  Once he realizes that the individual members have the last word on both following Church teaching and deciding whether to do so, he can be free to really use natural law as an examination rather than an intellectual cheat for Roman authority.  Ratzinger's blind spot is that he does not see how tenuous his position really is.