Gerald at the Closed Cafeteria notes and translates a column from the Austrian press on the last year of papal news and action:

Even more so than John Paul who grew up in Catholic Poland, Benedicts focuses his attention on the person grown up without faith. Because men do not find faith through rules, this Pope foregoes even more than his predecessor stern admonitions – sexual morals were no topic in Cologne – and instead explains the basic contents of the Faith first. There seems to be a misunderstanding that Ratzinger has become milder as Pope. He made it clear that he insists on proclaiming, without compromises and with discipline, the Faith and morals of the Church. It would seem irresponsible to him to give people who are searching an erroneous or incomplete ‘manual’ for their peace of mind/soul, therefore there is no compatibility issue with a theology of love.

It seems that he is taking his time, which may be tied to the impression that time is working in the Church’s favor: In many places ‘mass-Catholicism’ is still decreasing, but, more importantly, the firm core of the Church has been growing. The most visible example: the rapidly growing movements within the Church that have topped the 100-million-mark – 10% of Catholics.

At the beginning, it’s frequently not the Catechism that’s the focus of such seekers, but curiosity, maybe longing. It leads to prayer in many people, in forms often fallen out of use elsewhere – from the Rosary to Adoration – from which stems a very emotional encounter with God. These people experience Church not as a merciless construct of rules or as a narrow organizational platform for social activism, but as framework of a direct encounter with salvation that they experience as welcome, comfortable and joyful. Correspondingly, their approach to rules and recommendations of the Church is warm and thankful. This is, despite side effects on the fringes of the Church, a dream come true for the Church.