The election of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI in April 2005 caused dismay among liberal Catholics throughout the world. As Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger had enforced a conservative line on almost every issue — the ordination of women, intercommunion, birth control, gay sex, Liberation Theology. He was a scourge of moral relativism and seemed sceptical about uniting the Catholic and Protestant churches, describing the Church of England as not a Church ‘in the proper sense’.
As time passed, however, these bien-pensant, Tablet-reading Catholics warmed to the new Pope. The stern, moralising Prefect seemed to have been transformed by his elevation into an amiable, non-judgmental pontiff who liked cats and played the piano. There were some changes in the Curia but none suggested a new hard line.
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