Deus Caritas Est

When "God's Rottweiler," Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, assumed the Chair of St. Peter, many thought that he would continue his supposedly hard-wheeling, rules and rituals approach to dissident theologians . As it turned out, his first encyclical, entitled "God is Love" was nothing like an ironclad declaration of war against heretics.

If you've taken even a quick glimpse at God is Love (AKA Deus Caritas Est), you can clearly discern that this beautiful document celebrates God's love and mercy. Those who really know Benedict XVI are not suprised. The fact is, the man who gave us Deus Caritas Est was never the rabid Rottweiler that the world media and pundits within the Church believed him to be. He's a pianist, a lover of Mozart, a thinker. Those who know him describe Pope Benedict as a gentle man with an aversion to conflict. Yet his humble disposition has never betrayed the firmness of his convictions. He is a man dedicated to the service of God and his Church, a guardian of truth. Fittingly, one clever member of the media dubbed him the "German Shepherd."

The Rottweiler image was what Weigel called "the cartoon of Joseph Ratzinger that had been sold to the western press by Ratzinger's theological enemies." No, far from painting a picture of an attack dog that's frothing with foam, slobbering for the next cut of dissident meat, Benedict's actions speak to the truth. And that truth is: God is love.