Ratzinger Reactions

Ratzinger, the very author of anti-women's-ordination screed Responsum Ad Dubium, pope.

Crystal Chan, a wise woman I am privileged to know, wrote:

"Our faith does not depend on any pope, any bishop, any priest. We are who we are, and the more we can tap into this wellspring of hope, the more we can act out of that hope - and not out of fear.

We are more powerful and resilient than we think we are. In the words of Clarissa Pinkola Estes, "We were made for these times."

We were taught to live compassionately, justly, and in spaces of deepest peace and reliance on God. Like Jesus.

Jesus' path of absolute love got him killed. We always knew that, but we're seeing that truism played out again today in our Church. In our world. But through that path of Christ, life sprang forth in wholly unexpected ways.

We are called to be healers and lovers of all God's creation, but we must really, truly believe that we have this call etched on our soul. Once we do, we can be a more effective servant for Christ and God's amazing Dream."

The point is not who sits in Peter's chair, because the Pope is not the Church. Sifting through papal bulls for the glimmers of God's light, explaining to friends why we stay in the faith, struggling for dialogue with people who think dissent is relativism, is nothing new to many thousands of Catholics like me. May this disappointment ignite us with passion to crack the cement of the world so the Spirit's flower can emerge.