Many people around the world will have their own personal stories about Pope Benedict XVI. I remember this one.
On January 27, 1988, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger delivered a presentation in New York City titled “Biblical Interpretation in Crisis: On the Question of the Foundations and Approaches of Exegesis Today.”
This lecture was offered St. Peter’s Lutheran Church at 53rd St. and Lexington Ave. in midtown Manhattan. Richard John Neuhaus was pastor of the church at the time and this pre-dated his conversion to Roman Catholicism. The church itself sits below ground. At street level one can look through its glass walls down into the nave of the church as one walks by.
Cardinal Ratzinger was a controversial figure and seemed to daily become more controversial. In 1986 as Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger had signed the “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons.” This letter angered the lesbian and gay communities who were very visible leading protests around the church the night of the presentation on Scripture. I lived in a Jesuit community in New York at that time and several of us attended the lecture. Getting into the church meant walking past protestors carrying signs and chanting. We were handed leaflets that identified the protestors as members of the organization “Act-Up.” This group became known for very violent protests in these years.
The church itself was filled to capacity. Pastor Neuhaus was present overseeing the evening, but in attendance were other significant conservative Catholics, including Robert Bork and then Father Avery Dulles. Police were stationed around and in the building. Although Ratzinger spoke in English. I remember nothing of the quality of the English nor do I remember much about the content of the lecture because of what happened during the event.
Because the church was filled to capacity, many of us were seated behind the cardinal and, as best as I can remember, I was probably no more than 20 or 30 feet away from him. He stood at a podium overlooking the main body of the church and the rest of us were seated within its sanctuary. Within a few minutes of Cardinal Ratzinger’s beginning the lecture, individuals stood up all around the room and began yelling and screaming at him and calling him derogatory names. The person beginning the protest sat in the row in front of and to the right of me. I jumped as if reacting to a loud explosion and the loudness only grew. The yelling and screaming grew such that the words of protest could not be understood. Cardinal Ratzinger remained standing at the podium watching what was going on.
Many members of the audience – including some of the prominent Catholics present – began yelling back at the protestors (though I suspect their language was somewhat more mild – one could barely hear over the din). It took a few minutes but the police stormed the church and began removing the protestors who continued to yell and chant and scream as they were dragged outside the building. They continued their yelling and screaming and occasionally reached the windows to pound on them.
Cardinal Ratzinger never moved from the podium. Indeed, once the yelling began he just looked around at the activity with a big grin on his face. He seemed to be enjoying the whole thing. The cardinal completed his lecture, received a standing ovation, and the evening concluded. The lecture itself can be found online at this link:
All I recall about the lecture itself was that it was a deeply theological reflection on Scripture. All I recall about Cardinal Ratzinger was that he seemed perfectly in control of himself.
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