Next thing you know the Vatican Guard will start hiring Vampires....
Posted on 09/27/2013 2:17:01 PM PDT by ClaytonP
It’s not a joke. It’s something that Pope Francis has thought about before: naming a woman cardinal. Those who know the pope, both before and after he took over from Ratzinger, say that the first Jesuit pontiff is not only surprising people with his comments, but also with his actions. And this has been happening throughout his first six months in the role.
Those who think that Francis – who has all the simplicity of a parish priest – is a naïve man are wrong. This pope isn’t an ordinary pope. He has come to St. Peter’s with concrete plans for the Catholic Church: he wants to revive Christianity by taking it back to its origins.
The symbolism of his actions began when he first appeared on the balcony at St. Peter’s, calling himself “a bishop” and asking the people to bless him. Since then, he has wasted no time in making unexpected decisions, which have shocked those both inside and outside the Church.
And he will continue to do so, especially with his plans to appoint a female cardinal. He knows that a woman’s role in the Church is an unresolved issue that cannot wait any longer. He was clear about this during his interview with La Civiltà Cattolica last week. “The Church cannot be herself without the woman and her role,” he said. “The woman is essential for the Church. Mary, a woman, is more important than the bishops. I say this because we must not confuse the function with the dignity.”
In other words, it was as if Pope Francis was saying: “The Church isn’t complete because the woman’s role is missing.”
How can he introduce that essential component? He answered the question himself during the interview: “We must therefore investigate further the role of women in the Church. We have to work harder to develop a profound theology of the woman.”
And that theology, according to the pope, cannot be construed within the Vatican’s walls.” The feminine genius is needed wherever we make important decisions,” he said.
He may pave the way with discussions that urgently put the issue of a woman’s role in the Church on the table, or better yet, “in front of the altar.” And one of those gestures could be the naming of the first female cardinal. Is that feat impossible? No, because canonical law states that cardinals don’t have to be priests, they can be deacons.
Some would argue that women are not allowed to be deacons as they were 800 years ago among the first Christian communities. But this is one of the reforms that Francis has in mind; it is not based on any dogma. A woman could become a deaconess tomorrow if he so desired.
As Phyllis Zagano of Loyola University in Chicago, an expert on the issue, wrote: “A female deaconess is not an idea for the future. It is an issue for the present and today.”
Zagano brought up the matter with Cardinal Ratzinger before he became pope. “This is something that is being studied,” he told her. Pope Benedict XVI did not follow through but Pope Francis might.
The Armenian Apostolic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church, which have close links to the Vatican, both have deaconesses.
Any woman who is appointed deaconess can indeed become a cardinal without having to change canonical law.
Cardinals serve as advisors to the pope and their primary function is to elect a new pontiff.
“Knowing this pope, he wouldn’t hesitate before appointing a woman cardinal,” said one Jesuit priest. “And he would indeed enjoy being the first pope to allow women to participate in the selection of a new pontiff.”
But watch you language. And lay off the moderators.
No, the church did not begin under the premise that the magisterium was supreme, but upon Scriptural substantiation, in word and in power. (Mt. 22:23-45; Lk. 24:27,44; Jn. 5:36,39; Acts 2:14-35; 4:33; 5:12; 15:6-21;17:2,11; 18:28; 28:23; Rm. 15:19; 2Cor. 12:12, etc .)
I am not actually sure why this upsets you so.
It is not a blog and the forum it is posed on is not the news forum.
Truth is JimRob, this is utter garbage, and you've been allowing jaundiced anti-Catholic nonsense like this for years, when you'd NEVER allow anything like it regarding Judaism etc.
You have some thinking to do sir. Lest you be considered a hypocrite.
Next thing you know the Vatican Guard will start hiring Vampires....
Why not an openly gay Cardinal? If your going to implode anyway, why not go out with a flare?
Well they have plenty of already closeted gay cardinals to pick from, one of them just needs to “come out of the confessional” ....
I’m thinking an atheist homosexual woman cardinal: Triple Threat!!!
If she works in an abortion clinic, that would be a bonus.
And even extra bonus if she converts to Islam AFTER becoming a cardinal and wears a hefty bag instead of the cardinal robes...
I myself have labelled this absurd, but on the other hand you have RCs excessively using FR as a daily Catholic news and promotion service, and then RCs whine about challenges to its elitism. Something about crying wolf too many times,
feh...
“Cardinal is not a Biblical position.”
You got that right.
Lighten up Harold...
To this I would repeat and add to what i said above, which is that I myself have labelled this “news” as being absurd speculation, but on the other hand you have RCs excessively using FR as a daily Catholic news and service, and then whining about challenges to their promotion of RC elitism, and too often resorting to ad hominem attacks and a low level of debate (though they are not alone). But there is something about crying wolf too many times.
Yet i have found the moderators to be quite tolerant to both sides, and far better than other sites, as is the format.
Here it is in all its glory:
To: ClaytonP; Admin Moderator
What kind of rumor-mongering, pot-stirring, unverified, Catholic hating, N00Bie troll, utter S**T are we allowing on FR these days?
Just asking.
11 posted on 9/27/2013 2:29:04 PM by AAABEST
You got that right.
Neither is priest nor pope...But what the hey, may as well shoot for the stars...
The article is crap, but gosh.
Still love you man.
Yeah, the article is crap. So is every article that gets posted here from the NYT, LAT, WP, CNN, etc, so we can critique them (and blast them to hell). That certainly doesn’t mean our admins deem them to be truth.
Thanks!
NO HE DOESN”T......this ois just to get BELIEVERS DOUBTING the CATHOLIC TEAHINGS.....NOTHING MORE.
oh my Grace!
I haven't read that since like 2007!
Didn't expect that to show up on FR!
Infallibility belongs in a special way to the pope as head of the bishops (Matt. 16:17–19; John 21:15–17). As Vatican II remarked, it is a charism the pope “enjoys in virtue of his office, when, as the supreme shepherd and teacher of all the faithful, who confirms his brethren in their faith (Luke 22:32), he proclaims by a definitive act some doctrine of faith or morals. Therefore his definitions, of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church, are justly held irreformable, for they are pronounced with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, an assistance promised to him in blessed Peter.”
http://www.catholic.com/tracts/papal-infallibility
Indeed, as the only leadership positions were (πρεσβύτερος=elder) or episkopos (ἐπίσκοπος=superintendent/overseers) and apostles and deacons, and none of which are titled hiereus (ἱερεύς=priest), which all believers are, offering up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (1Pt. 2:5,9)
Then we have the condemnation of love of title and praise, in Matthew 23:5-7: "But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi."
Contrary in spirit to this is the elaborate clerical garb in Catholicism and extended hierarchical levels, and love of titles, esp in Rome, with its Priests, Parochial Vicars Primates, Metropolitans, Archbishops, Diocesan bishops, Deacons, Cardinal bishops (being a cardinal by itself does not confer power of governance), Cardinal priests, Cardinal deacons Protodeacon, etc., and when announcing, "we have a Pope: the most eminent and most reverend lord, Lord Jorge Mario, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Bergoglio" (but who has not signed his name "pope.").
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