GOD'S CHOICE: POPE BENEDICT XVI AND THE FUTURE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

by George Weigel

HarperCollins, 2005

320 pages, $26.95

Available in bookstores

Millions of people will long be able to pinpoint where they were the moment, on April 2, 2005, when they learned that Pope John Paul II had returned to his Father. The masses that converged on Rome for his funeral were a “gathering of the family,” as papal biographer George Weigel puts it. But these were no ordinary papal obsequies; many Catholics experienced the unique and yawning personal loss felt when a father dies.

“In a world bereft of paternity and its unique combination of strength and mercy,” writes Weigel in his latest book, “John Paul II had become a father to countless men and women living in an almost infinite variety of human circumstances and cultures. That radiation of fatherhood … was rooted in the Pope's singular capacity to preach and embody the Christian Gospel.”

God's Choice details the last days of Pope John Paul II and the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI. The book is both retrospective and prospective, trying to sum up the achievements of the Pope Weigel unabashedly (and rightly) calls “the Great,” while seeking to anticipate the challenges facing his successor.

Weigel argues that John Paul II rejuvenated the Church, making holiness exciting and appealing, especially to the young. He recaptured the true meaning of Vatican II, taking it back from those who hijacked the council's “spirit” in the name of various dead-end agendas. Weigel does not deny that the Church has problems but, in hindsight, the Church in 2005 is far more vigorous that some might have thought, in 1978, it would be three decades later.

As a title, God's Choice discloses Weigel's perspective: One cannot understand the Church apart from the primacy of God's will and man's appropriate response. Karol Wojtyla's fiat led an actor to the priesthood and the papacy. Joseph Ratzinger's fiat led a humble, if successful, priest-professor from the classroom to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Ultimately, that fiat led him to the Chair of Peter.

“Forty-eight hours before the Conclave of 2005 was sealed, the possible futures of Joseph Ratzinger came into focus,” writes Weigel. “By September, the 78-year-old Ratzinger would be back home in Bavaria — living with his brother Georg, surrounded by his beloved books, embarked on a retirement of writing and lecturing. … Or he would be marking his fifth month as pope. There is not the slightest doubt which future he would have preferred. God … had … other ideas.”

Weigel successfully blends a variety of styles (journalistic, diary-like and analytical) to ferret out a cohesive, still-unfolding narrative from behind recent events. As with any book rushed out three months after a historic event, some discussions seem wanting for depth.

For example, while Weigel is optimistic about Benedict XVI carrying on John Paul's legacy, he does not really consider whether Ratzinger, the introverted septuagenarian, can engage people as effectively as did extrovert Wojtyla, who had the advantage of starting his papacy 20 years younger.

This is a minor lack, for, on whole, God's Choice is an expansive read. It's got the power to enlarge the reader even as it entertains him.

John M. Grondelski, a moral theologian, writes from Washington, D.C.