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	Maine Catholics Voice Varied Reactions By Tess Nacelewicz Portland Press Herald [Maine] April 20, 2005 Maragarita Heward is overjoyed that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday. It's not just that he's from her native Bavaria and she once shook his hand; she had long admired Ratzinger and his stance on issues in the Roman Catholic Church. "I think, and have always thought, so highly of the man," said Heward, 56, of Gorham. "I don't think I've been this happy since the birth of my last child." But Paul Kendrick of Cumberland is unhappy about the choice of Ratzinger, who is known as a doctrinal hard-liner. "I wish I felt more optimism. It was really a disappointment today," said Kendrick, a member of Voice of the Faithful, a group of lay Catholics that seeks church reform and advocates for victims of sexual abuse by priests. "The major disappointment to me is that the issues that need to be discussed (in the church) won't be discussed," he said. Kendrick and Heward were among Maine Catholics who voiced a variety of reactions Tuesday to the first new pope since 1978. Bishop Richard Malone, who leads more than a quarter-million Roman Catholics in Maine, said the pope "faces many challenges" but "we believe that he is the choice of the Holy Spirit, who will guide and protect him." One of the ways in which the new pontiff is unusual is his heritage: He is the first German pope in centuries. "He's a Bavarian farm boy and I'm a Bavarian farm girl," said Heward, who came to Maine in 1969 as a student at the University of Maine and stayed on. She said Bavaria is a Catholic region where religion and daily life are intertwined. "It's a great day for Bavaria," she said. She said the new pope was once archbishop of the diocese in which she lived. She heard him preach in the 1970s when she returned for visits, and shook his hand once after church. "He's the warmest, nicest person," she said. Heward, who has a master's degree in theology, described the new pope as having "a strong religiosity" and said he is "a brilliant thinker and theologian." She said she has long defended him when others criticized him as a hard-liner. Since 1981, Ratzinger had served the former pope, John Paul II, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that job, Ratzinger defended church policy against reform and disciplined dissidents. The day before he was elected pope, he spoke to church cardinals, urging them to adhere to church tradition. Kendrick is concerned that will mean no discussion of such issues as married priests, women entering the priesthood and the church's stance against contraception when the use of condoms would help combat the AIDS epidemic in Africa. "I had hoped the new pope would be someone who would engage the Catholic Church more in the world we live in," Kendrick said. However, Monsignor Michael Henchal, pastor of St. Bartholomew's Church in Cape Elizabeth, said people who judge the new pope only by his past may be surprised. "The nature of his job was the protector of orthodoxy," Henchal said. "He was the enforcer, so to speak." Henchal, who said he has some of the new pope's books on theology on his shelf, said the pontiff's words in his first blessing were "very humble and very modest," and perhaps signal there is a dimension to him that many don't know. Monsignor Charles Murphy, the pastor of Holy Martyr's Church in Falmouth, who has met Ratzinger and once worked with him, said he has a quiet personality, unlike that of Pope John Paul. "He's a very self-effacing and shy person, not this dynamic crowd-gathering person," Murphy said. "He's a very retiring scholar." From 1978 to 1984, Murphy was rector of a seminary in Rome where Ratzinger would come to speak. In 1990, Ratzinger oversaw a committee on catechism revision, of which Murphy was a member. Cardinal Ratzinger didn't put on airs and enjoyed debating with committee members, Murphy said. "There was a very free exchange of ideas." "For American Catholics, I would say he would be a power they can warm to," he said. "He's a very smiling, genial person." Matthew Sanfacon of Augusta hopes to see Pope Benedict XVI in Cologne, Germany, in August at World Youth Day, to which Maine is sending a contingent. "We wish this pope well and we give him our blessing," said Sanfacon, 26. He said the new pontiff "has big shoes to fill" because his predecessor - "we call him JP II" - was beloved by young people because "he invited us, he welcomed us and he listened to us." He said the new pope needs to hear from young people about issues that are important to them, such as priests marrying, women's role in the church, and sexuality. "We want that listening," he said.
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