Undoubtedly, history will most remember Pope Benedict XVI
not for any accomplishment or lack thereof, but for his courageous and humble
decision to become the first head of the Roman Catholic Church to abdicate in
seven centuries – and only the fifth in 2,000 years of Catholicism.
One cannot fail to be moved by the 85-year-old leader’s
recognition that he no longer possesses sufficient “strength of mind and body,”
leaving him unable “to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.”
He made the announcement on February 11. He will leave his
post on February 28. Shortly thereafter, a conclave of cardinals, the top
leaders of the Church, will meet to select a new pope from among themselves.
Benedict XVI’s resignation is a witness to aging and human
mortality.
No matter what our beliefs about religion, this simple but
profound action gives us pause to reflect on how we can accept our own human
limitations.
For the Huntington’s disease community, it also provides an
opportunity to recall the ethical, social, and spiritual dimensions of our
collective struggle.
Turning over the keys
In a world with many governments and institutions ruled by
old men unwilling to release their grip on power, Benedict XVI has voluntarily
relinquished control of the Church – the epitome of male dominance – to go live
in a building that has until now served as a cloistered convent.
In a global, image-conscious youth culture offering plastic
surgery and hair implants to the middle-aged and elderly, Benedict XVI has said
that it’s okay to age.
Many elderly people resist giving up freedoms such as the
pleasurable and powerful experience of driving a car until an adult child
worried about safety takes away the keys or gets a court order to declare the
parent incompetent.
Benedict has turned in the keys on his own, saving others
from potentially embarrassing and even dangerous predicaments and opening the
door to potentially more youthful leadership in greater tune with today’s
world.
According to the New Testament of The Bible, Jesus gave the Apostle Peter the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. The historical successor to Peter, Benedict XVI will pass on those spiritual keys to a new pope, another illustration of the profound humility of his abdication.
Each day, HD-affected people and their caregivers strive
together to strike a balance between the individual patient’s desires and the
need for proper care. We, too, face the terrible burden of wondering about the
right moment for the caregiver to take over the keys.
Gene-positive, asymptomatic people like me and those with
early symptoms wonder how long we can hold onto our keys, and we worry greatly
about burdening our families.
Ultimately, those keys represent our lives and our hopes for a peaceful death and the possibility of a hereafter – a place without the suffering of Huntington's disease.
Revealing frailty
Rather than leave the world the spectacle of a pope
struggling to hold onto the reins of power while ensconced in the palatial
papal dwellings, Benedict XVI may instead ultimately provide the world the
image of a retired pope hospitalized or sheltered in what could effectively
become a nursing home, with caregivers assisting him with basic needs.
If Benedict XVI develops or already has Alzheimer’s or some
other neurodegenerative disorder, rather than be hidden behind a Vatican
bureaucracy nervous about a transition of power and the Church’s image, his
condition will become known to the world.
His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, suffered from
Parkinson’s disease. Despite his symptoms, John Paul II kept up his busy
schedule of trips and public appearances. He also advocated for greater
research towards a cure.
The HD community has long understood the similarities
between the frailties caused by Huntington’s and those of Alzheimer’s,
Parkinson’s, and other disorders. We can stand with Benedict XVI as he faces
the possibility of his own neurodegenerative symptoms, and we will continue to
advocate for remedies for HD, still untreatable but the focus of intense
research efforts.
Revising bioethics
The social impact of Huntington’s disease and the efforts to
understand and treat it have thrust our community into the forefront of the
biotechnological revolution.
As I recently wrote, “The story of Huntington's is the story
of our time. Huntington's was one of the very first diseases for which a
genetic test was developed. As knowledge increases about numerous other health
risks, medical ethics must undergo profound revision, and a genetic-rights
movement must arise. To borrow one scholar's phrase, disease-gene carriers like
me are ‘moral pioneers’ on the genetic frontier.”
Benedict XVI’s witness to aging and mortality comes at a
time when the Church hierarchy, Catholic believers, and society in general have
struggled mightily with other life-and-death issues such as birth control,
abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and mercy killing.
Benedict XVI shored up traditional Church teachings on these
matters, but he also belonged to a generation of Church thinkers faced with the
challenge of formulating a system of Catholic bioethics to meet both the
ever-expanding promise and dangers of the biotechnological era.
Thus, Benedict’s witness to aging could
help the Church forge ahead with a carefully conceived and balanced bioethics.
By suddenly opening up the Church to the selection of a new
pope, Benedict XVI has created potential space for new ideas regarding
bioethics.
If a pope can humbly resign, perhaps the Church can humbly
admit the need for greater flexibility.
Responding to challenges
Pope John XXIII (1881-1963, pontiff 1958-1963), a simple man
of peasant origins not expected to make waves, surprised the world in 1959 by
calling the Second Vatican Council, which took place from 1962-1965. This June
3 marks the 50th anniversary of John XXIII’s death.
Vatican II brought the Church into the modern world by
carrying out the most sweeping reforms in the history of Catholicism. Those
reforms included the end of the universal Latin Mass (in favor of the Liturgy
in local languages), initiation of dialogue with other religions as well as
with antagonistic political creeds such as Marxism, and greater participation
by laypersons in the Mass and administration of the Church.
Vatican II responded to a great malaise in the Church in the
1950s caused by censorship of innovative ideas and an exaggerated dependence on
tradition and ecclesiastical authoritarianism. Today a similar malaise –
created by the current sex-abuse scandals and cover-ups involving priests,
bishops, and even cardinals – plagues the Church.
In the late 1960s, powered by the energy of Vatican II, the
Church seemed on the rebound.
Future reforms
As is well known, Benedict XVI worked hard to contain and
even reverse the trends unleashed by Vatican II.
However, unlike the 1960s, when so much seemed possible for
the Church, today the institution suffers from a crisis of credibility.
Liberal Catholics like me have again begun to urge that the
Church call for a Vatican III to address such issues as the sex-abuse scandal
and the ordination of women (for another example, click here).
The Church also needs reform on issues such as obligatory priestly celibacy,
the ordination of married men, and hypocrisy about homosexuality in an
institution with large numbers of mainly closeted gay clergy.
A Vatican III was virtually impossible under Benedict XVI as
active pope. However, his radical departure into retirement has now made a
council possible. It may not matter if the new pope is another conservative,
because Benedict XVI’s powerfully symbolic resignation, his witness to aging,
has signaled to the leadership that it can and should explore new avenues, new
modes of action.
Bioethics could and should become the centerpiece of a
Vatican III.
As the Church clamored for peace and social justice in the
1960s, today it can take a new and invigorating leadership role in helping the
world adapt to the challenges of the genome, the environment, new forms of
human relationship, and the immense caregiving burden created by science and
medicine’s ability to prolong the life of the body ahead of the mind.
In its long and often wise history the Church has evolved
gradually and deliberately. It can now begin to embrace the postmodern world.
We in the HD have also born witness – to immense suffering,
to an ambitious scientific effort to improve the lives of people through the
search for treatments and cures, and to hope. We have much of our own wisdom to
offer the Catholic Church, and the world, in the quest for a new bioethics.
(A similar version of this article appeared today in
Portuguese in the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.)
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