The world, not simply the Church, needs a Benedict XVI working at the top of his form and being enabled to do so by his closest associates. Whether the question is challenging Europe to pull out of the demographic death-spiral caused by its debonair nihilism, or inviting Muslim leaders to seek an Islamically - faithful rapprochement with political modernity, or defending the dignity of human life against the dangers of a brave new world of bio-technically manufactured humanity, there is no substitute for the combination of insight and institutional authority that Pope Benedict brings to the world table. Yet he now faces a crisis in his papacy, for the wisdom of his voice is being muted by the decline in his authority attendant on the managerial incompetence of the Curia.

The Rottweiler Brigade has taken advantage of this crisis to rekindle its assault on Ratzinger's character, through stories retailed to credulous journalists about the pope's "distant, regal style". The must ludicrous of these calumnies came from Robert Fisk, who is "beginning to suspect" that Benedict XVI "might be a very nasty piece of work". The seriousness with which Fisk's judgments are to be taken may be measured by one phrase in his screed in the Independent, in which he claims that Benedict had shown his odious colours by his attitude towards "the pro-Palestinian Angelo Cardinal Sidaro [he means Sodano], John XXIII's secretary of state" [he means John Paul II's secretary of state], from whom Benedict has been "distancing himself" [Benedict allowed Sodano to stay in his Curial office until he was long past the normal retirement age, ratified Sodano's election as Dean of the College of Cardinals, and has permitted Sodano to stay in that post beyond age 80, at which point several previous deans have had the courtesy to resign, having lost their votes in any future conclave]. If his article were a paper in Vaticanology 101, Fisk would receive a grade of "F". Such stories are not only ill-informed and cruel; they get the problem backwards. For Benedict XVI has been reluctant to seek help and to enforce discipline, not because of ego or vanity, but because of his shyness, his respect for others and his unwillingness to add to their burdens, and his profound reluctance to cause pain. These are the qualities of the man that account for the administrative and managerial difficulties of his pontificate, not some bizarre notion of himself as a Theologian-Sun King.

The pope's March 10 letter to the world's bishops - explaining his motives in the SSPX affair, deploring the temporary rift in Catholic-Jewish relations, and promising a more effective curial use of modern communications - underscored Benedict XVI's intelligence, decency and humility. But no pope can govern successfully with an ineffectual Curia whose gaffes undercut the papal message and erode its authority. Both pope and senior churchmen must find new ways to work together if the promise of this papacy is to be fulfilled.