U.S. Catholics Mixed On Pope

Elation Tempered With Apprehension Over Divergent Views

(CBS)  One thing is already clear about the choice as pope of hard-line conservative Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger: His selection is evoking strong reactions in the U.S., depending on where individual Catholics are coming from.

On The Early Show Tuesday, Sharon Toffey Shepela told co-anchor Harry Smith she views the selection with "apprehension, first of all."

Shepela, who's with the liberal Catholic group, Call to Action, says her organization "has been following his career in Rome, and has seen that he has been very authoritarian, has been responsible for suppressing debate within the church."

Don't tell that to Leon J. Suprenant, whose feeling is one of "elation."

Suprenant, president of the conservative Catholics United for the Faith, told Smith the quick pick of Benedict "shows a real consensus among the cardinals (in the conclave that elected him), which was a really diverse body this time. And so there was really a sense that he was the man. And then also, he's just such a talented man in his own right. There is…a sense that he brings a lot of gifts (to the papacy)."

And, in the middle is moderate Catholic activist and retired marketing executive Jerry Morrissy. "I saw this more as a challenge for the American Catholic Church," he sayds. "Here's a man who's really been playing defense for the last 20 years, and is going to now be the quarterback. That's a shift in his role, and one wonders how that's going to work, and whether he will shift gears from some of his previous, what I would call defensive positions, particularly because I believe the church in this country is at a critical point and needs some real transformation."

Shepela is hoping the new pope will "listen and to try to bring people together. He has been divisive, I think. And we're hoping that he will rise to the occasion of this papacy."

Suprenant disagrees: "The pope is, by nature, a uniter and not a divider, except he firmly believes that unity must be founded on truth. Now, I know him personally. He's soft-spoken, very pastoral and kind, engaging, compassionate, but…if you're on the wrong side of a moral issue, he's not going to say 'That's OK.'"

Morrissy believes the Catholic Church needs "to change the way we are going about declaring our mission and to spread it to the next generation particularly, which is a particular interest of mine."

Shepela picked right up on that: "(Young people) are not in the pews in my church. And this is a real issue, I think. The concerns that Call to Action has been working on of ordination of women, optional celibacy, contraceptive issues, these are issues on which the laity and the priests have spoken clearly."

Suprenant wasn't deterred: "I am full of hope, because young people were attracted to Pope John Paul II and they will be attracted to Joseph Ratzinger, because he speaks the language of Jesus Christ."

Smith also spoke with the Chicago's Archbishop, Cardinal Francis George.

He pointed to one area on which there's no disagreement: Calling the new pontiff "a man with a sense of history.

"The choice of the name is indicative of that," says George. "He wrote a lot of his doctoral work on theology of history.

"There is a keen sense at this time of historical challenges to civilization and to the Catholic Church, particularly in the West. And I think that's what we need now, because that's where the challenge is coming from, not the east so much anymore.

"The West has a crisis of faith. This, I think, is a man who can address that very clearly. We'll hope and see that, you know, how many people will respond."