Is Pope Benedict Left-Wing or Right-Wing?

[General White]

Which one is the Pope?. He has denounced both Marxism & Capitalism often http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/world/americas/14pope.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 supports Universal healthcare and is strongly Pro-Life.

I would say hes Left-Wing on economics & Right-Wing on Social issues falling into the category of Other.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Communitarian.

[General White]

Communitarian.

I agree.

[Goldwater]

Communitarian.

[morgieb]

Communitarian.

He's a hard-core Catholic remember.

[DC Al Fine]

Communitarian.

[RI]

Communitarian.

Ding ding ding. He's the embodiment of Catholicism. Hence, communitarianism.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Catholic social theory can indeed best be described as communitarian but that's not a perfect fit either since Catholicism perceives its social theory as being at least in part Divine in origin, hence superseding all others, hence not really being completely explicable in terms of them.

[7,052,770]

Overall left wing, but with several notable right wing stances

[RogueBeaver]

Communitarian.

[Franzl]

Certainly not "right-wing" in the sense that he would vote for Republicans.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Uber-reactionary.

[TNF]

Overall left wing, but with several notable right wing stances

[Goldwater]

It's weird that the majority of people think he''s right-wing, yet there was only one comment that suggested he was right-wing...

[DC Al Fine]

It's weird that the majority of people think he''s right-wing, yet there was only one comment that suggested he was right-wing...

The people who care enough to comment tend to be a bit more knowledgeable.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Overall left wing, but with several notable right wing stances

WTFLOL?

[© tweed]

wouldn't it be more meaningful to try to assess whether he is left- or right-wing within the context of the Church?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

wouldn't it be more meaningful to try to assess whether he is left- or right-wing within the context of the Church?

After all, Context is the King.

[TJ in Oregon]

wouldn't it be more meaningful to try to assess whether he is left- or right-wing within the context of the Church?

Within the context of the Church, it's also hard to really say. He participated in and helped to write the Second Vatican Council before he became pope. Since becoming pope, he's tried pretty hard to make peace with the more rouge traditionalist groups. I think one could say he's neither trying to move the Church in a leftward or rightward direction. He sort of is the standard. More than anything else he seems to be trying to simply solve a few of the numerous messy problems he's inherited.

[freefair]

Economically and Morally collectivist.

[Svensson]

Horrible, whatever his lean.

[Supermariobros]

How is he Right-Wing if he supports National Healthcare and Opposes Capitalism?. Sounds like Left-Wing with several notable Right-Wing positions.

[DC Al Fine]

Pope Benedict is a good example of why we use a two dimensional spectrum to describe political views.

[Velasco]

wouldn't it be more meaningful to try to assess whether he is left- or right-wing within the context of the Church?

Within the context of the Church, it's also hard to really say. He participated in and helped to write the Second Vatican Council before he became pope. Since becoming pope, he's tried pretty hard to make peace with the more rouge traditionalist groups. I think one could say he's neither trying to move the Church in a leftward or rightward direction. He sort of is the standard. More than anything else he seems to be trying to simply solve a few of the numerous messy problems he's inherited.

When Ratzinger was younger he was sided with the 'progressive' branch inside the Catholic church, as you say he collaborated with the II Vatican Council. Anyways his conservative drift was prior to his appointment as Pope. You must remember that he was Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine and Faith, a sort of contemporary Inquisition. This occurred in 1981, under the reign of John Paul II, and Ratzinger is remembered as an strict observant of Catholic 'orthodoxy' (I mean a hardcore doctrinaire, not talking about the Oriental churches). He was especially militant on subjects as birth control and homosexuality and he fought fiercely the Liberation Theology in South America. Some progressives theologians such as Leonardo Boff were suspended, censured or their writings revoked. It's ironic because back in the 60's he was friend of Hans Küng, another 'heterodox' theologian. It seems that his turning point into religious conservatism occurred in 1968, during a series of disturbances and riots at the Tübingen University, where he had a chair in dogmatic theology.

[Niemeyerite]

What people think: nazi.

What I think: right-wing, not nazi anymore.