I alle fall er «Der Spiegel» imponert. De skrev mye negativt om paven før hans besøket i Tyskland, men nå leser vi om hvor imponerte de er over han klare tale og «fingerspitzgefühl». Her er noen utdrag:
It has been billed as Pope Benedict XVI’s most difficult trip abroad to date. But so far in Germany, the pope has not sought to shy away from controversy. His bluntness has surprised many — and could transform the visit into a rousing success. …
… many Vatican observers have noted that it could end up being the most difficult trip of his six-year-old papacy. And it could ultimately resemble his trip to Britain last October — a trip which began with heavy criticism of the Catholic Church and widespread protests only to become a wildly successful visit and a boon to Benedict’s image. …
It was, however, his speech to the German Bundestag which has been the most parsed since his arrival. Even before he got to Berlin, Vatican observers, studying the speech on the plane on the way to Berlin, were astounded at what they read. It was as if the old Joseph Ratzinger had returned, the theology professor who never really wanted to become pope.
He did not mince words. He spoke about nature and reason and demanded from the parliamentarians an increased sense of moral responsibility for ecology and equality. It was a very political speech. It was courageous. And it was unique.
A politician’s «fundamental criterion and the motivation for his work as a politician must not be success, and certainly not material gain,» the pope said. «Politics must be a striving for justice, and hence it has to establish the fundamental preconditions for peace.» A politician’s success, he continued, should be «subordinated to the criterion of justice, to the will to do what is right, and to the understanding of what is right.» Pointedly, he added «we Germans … have seen how power became divorced from right, how power opposed right and crushed it.»