baggage handlers

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Apr 15, 2005

John Allen reports that some cardinals are fingering their collars uneasily at the prospect of a Ratzinger pontificate:

On the other hand, several cardinals have said privately that they're uncomfortable with the prospect of a Ratzinger papacy. It's not just that some don't believe his strong emphasis on the protection of Christian identity in a secular world ought to be the guiding light of the next papacy, but there's also a real-world concern about the election of a figure with his "baggage." Fairly or unfairly, Ratzinger is to some extent a lightning rod for Catholic opinion, and in a church that's already divided, some cardinals worry about exacerbating those divisions. One said April 12: "I'm not sure how I would explain this back home."

Help me out here ... what aspect of "protection of Christian identity in a secular world" that Ratzinger has championed would be considered controversial (among senior prelates), and discomfiting to have to explain "back home"?