Why the Next Pope Needs to Be Italian

nytimes.com ^ | January 11, 2004 | ROBERTO PAZZI

[enuu]

You make an interesting point, because for probably the first time in history that could happen. PJP2 has appointed many Cardinals from both Latin America and Africa. Since you're not Catholic, FYI, Cardinals are sort of like the royalty of the church, they're an very small and select group of bishops who comprise the College of Cardinals, the body that elects the Pontiff. For the first time in centuries, Italy may have lost its stranglehold over this body. I'm not saying that's a good or bad thing, but it could certainly change the direction of the Church. Ironically, the very changes this nostalgia-blinded writer is promoting, could happen from a liberal Pope from one of many third-world countries just as easily as one from a "Latin cult of beauty."

His nationalistic fervor and penchant for fiction seems to have affected this guy's reasoning ability completely.

[Destro]

I don't see a hermaphroditic diety in the Bible.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

You've missed the point. Go back and read Genesis 1:27. Read Wisdom and Sirach.

[Dajjal]

The word pazzi is Italian for crazy. Hey, if the name fits!

LOL!!!

[Catholicguy]

The author of the piece condemns himself with his own inane rhetoric yet you see fit to use this as an opportunity to scratch your antiPapal itch?

Can't you at least wait until the post has somethung to do with your Church?

[Catholicguy]

And, no Ecuemnical Council is authoritative unless a Pope approves it and accepts its decisions.

No Pope. No Council.

[Destro]

My comments were more in line with good natured jesting.

[LadyDoc]

"What if," then, the new pope were to be Italian? We would surely have in bioethical and sexual matters a more modern and less conservative attitude, more sympathetic to the sufferings of the multitudes in Africa who are scourged by AIDS.

Translation: We want a liberal pro abortion pro gay pope who will "modernize" the church into political correctness.

As for the "sufferings of the multitude" in Africa.

Reminds me of the pro planned parenthood piece on the BBC this week: OH, look at all these Zambian ladies having unsafe abortions. We need not only to legalize abortion, but to spread publicity that we have safe abortion vans going into the villages to give abortions"

Sorry, but I've worked in Africa. A lot of these "unsafe abortions" are miscarriages that got infected. And why are they using money for "abortion vans" when the water supply is dirty, and babies die from lack of WHO Rehydration fluid, cost 3 cents a pint?

As for HIV, a lot of it is spread thru dirty needles (in areas without medical care, the local Ngangas, aka witchdoctor/herbalists, give shots of penicillin and vitamin B. They also use knives to give medicine (make a small scratch and rub in herbs to relieve pain) both of which spreads HIV. And a lot of the local western clinics don't sterilize needles, but use them over and over again.

Investing in wells, village health workers and sterilizing needles and knives would eliminate a lot of HIV. We did all this when I was a doc in Africa. But you know, when we were starting to do this, there already were "pill ladies" in all the villages--money for BC pills but not safe water. And ironically, the pills decreased breast milk, so increased the rate of malnutrition in babies (we used DepoProvera, given at baby clinics: Not as birth control, since breast feeding ladies by tradition didn't have vaginal sex, but to increase breast milk production to prevent malnutrition/marasmus).

[ffusco]

Why didn't he just honestly say that Slavs aren't as cultured and worldly as Italians and be done with it.

Well, Are they?

[Solon]

Well, Are they?

Which ones? - Northern or Southern.

[ffusco]

I prefer Illyricium.

[TexConfederate1861]

Ditto.....they are sowing what has been reaped.

[TexConfederate1861]

Well...that is real funny, considering there were at least TWO councils that had no Pope or Legate present, in fact there was one that DEPOSED a Pope!


More Western/Roman Propoganda. Not Canon Law, not Tradition, certainly not scripture.

[Conservative til I die]

So he wants the Pope to be Italian in the hopes him being a liberal?

The Orthodox warned you against placing the faith under the dictate of one fallible man rather than adhere to the councils of bishops.

No orthodox patriarch would have ever even thought to declare "God is the Father but is also the Mother."

More idiocy from Destro. I'm not sure why you're using the editorial of one idiot in the liberal NY Times to blanket the entire Catholic Church.

This guy speaks for the Church about as much as I do. And this guy's editorial is about as much a consequence as the Orthodox schism'ing from the Church as the sun setting does.

[Destro]

Because I can?

[cyborg]

Can I be offended too?

[Conservative til I die]

Because I can?

That's fine, but just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do something, or that it's a smart thing to do.

What if I decided to label all Orthodox people as "hateful" or "bitter" or some other negative description based solely on my thoughts about you? It would seem pretty silly wouldn't it?

[Destro]

It would not bother me at all to be honest. It may even be accurate.