In an usually public clash between two high-ranking Catholic prelates, one of the leading African bishops at the recent Synod on the Family has denounced the idea that Cardinal Walter Kasper is the “pope's theologian.” Cardinal Wilfred Napier of Durban, South Africa said such a notion is a “real worry” because of Kasper's dismissive remarks about Africans:
Napier was responding to Kasper's comment that “Africans should not tell us too much what we have to do” because:
Africa is totally different from the West. Also Asian and Muslim countries, they’re very different, especially about gays. You can’t speak about this with Africans and people of Muslim countries. It’s not possible. It’s a taboo. For us, we say we ought not to discriminate, we don’t want to discriminate in certain respects.
The story was big news because Kasper has become the leader of efforts to change Catholic teaching on divorce and remarriage. Progressive Catholics, eager to preserve the reputation of their champion, rushed to his defense. Grant Gallicho of Commonweal wrote “Of course, there is nothing condescending, or xenophobic, or discriminatory, or—and let's just use the word that the most strident critics want us to think of—racist about Kasper's remarks.”
Cardinal Napier, along with many other Africans, would beg to disagree.
For my part, I'd like to reassure the good cardinal. The story he linked to offers only the vaguest support for calling Kasper the pope's theologian:
From the first days of his pontificate two years ago, Francis singled out Kasper for high praise; ever since, the retired German cardinal is frequently known as “the pope’s theologian.”
Ever since frequently known? Can we get a quote or some other evidence for this awkwardly phrased claim? Perhaps the reason the reporter, David Gibson of the Religion News Service, doesn't offer any is because he is its main promoter. It was a story of Gibson's from June 2014, “Cardinal Kasper is the ‘pope's theologian'” that popularized the title. Curiously, no source in either story uses the phrase—it is an honor Gibson himself confers on the cardinal.
It is time that the truth be plainly stated: Kasper is much more the media's theologian than he is the pope's. Francis did indeed endorse Kasper's book on mercy and give him a prominent role in the Synod on the Family, but the media has gone much further in promoting the Cardinal's person and proposals. In recent days, the pope has shown some signs of turning against his ideas—calling Kasper's hopes “overblown expectations.” This fact has been ignored by the American media despite the reports of Vatican veterans like Sandro Magister.
I do not begrudge the media their desire to promote a change in church teaching. Some of its members, like David Gibson, work for organizations paid to do just that. Still, so long as there exists a person who holds the official title of Papal Theologian (his name is Wojciech Giertych and he is the designated theologian of the papal household, in case you hadn't heard), so long as Francis continues to distance himself from the proposal of communion for the divorced and remarried, so long as the title “pope's theologian” is applied to Kasper more by reporters than by anyone else, the fact remains: It would be more accurate to call Kasper the “media's theologian” than the pope's.
Matthew Schmitz is deputy editor of First Things.
