What do the conservatives want?

Gustav Seibt generalizes from German conservatism, in Suddeutsche Zeitung July 2, 2005, translated in Sign and Sight July 7, 2005.

True conservatism, originally an English invention, is a flexible stance whose purpose is to preserve the status quo through unceasing reform, a vital traditionalism whose essence lies in the old European liberty of the individual in clear, simple ways of life -- fruit of the anti-absolutist corporatist state. Reaction, on the other hand, thinks ahistorically, simply wishing to turn the wheel of time back, it is as doctrinaire as revolution, in opposition to which it arose in the first place.

Sounds rather complimentary but for the association with the corporatist state. By European I assume he means Continental as opposed to English.

Reaction is rational through and through, sometimes brilliantly, so it is intellectually often a match for the party of progress and its high-flying theories. The current fashion for "Sunday supplement Catholicism" is a literally fascinating recent by-product of that kind of reaction. It finds its most impressive current expression in the attitude of Pope Benedict XVI, who would prefer to take his Church back into the catacombs than to adapt to dubious modern trends.

German Sunday supplements must be a bit different from Parade magazine. I interpret him as saying our Pope will be more inclined to defend the Church and its teachings on its own terms rather than the contemporary world's terms, because the contemporary world's terms are themselves part of the problem.