Though it might seem fanciful that the top levels of the Roman Catholic Church would take seriously a petition spearheaded by a zealous young student like Kenney, he had an ally in Rev. Joseph Fessio, the founder of the St. Ignatius Institute at which Kenney was a student. Fessio, known as an arch-conservative, was a former student and close friend of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI who was at that time one of the most powerful men in the church.