[Destro]

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

[Cicero]

Cardinal Ratzinger is an extraordinary man, and on top of everything else he is a genuinely creative theologian. His early work, "Christian Brotherhood," is worth reading whether or not you are a Catholic, and he has also done some ground-breaking work on ecclesiology.

But there's not a chance in the world that he will be the next pope. Let's just hope they find someone with similar potential. Many pressing issues remain to be dealt with, and non-Catholics as well as Catholics will be effected by the choice that is made.

[Kolokotronis]

"If Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope, it is safe to assume that the reconversion of Europe would be his aim."

GOOD!

"But is this guardian of Vatican orthodoxy ready to consider compromise on matters of doctrine for the sake of a united Christian front against secularism and jihad? It is an enticing prospect."

What is that supposed to mean? American Christians are on the march! The Vatican can lead, follow or get out of the way; it makes no difference to us. The same goes for the Orthodox Patriarchates. The finer points of Doctrine (unless of course one is an Episcopalian or some other "mainline, inclusive, diversity type protestant) have little or nothing to do with it.

[happygrl]

The Christian Church needs to get over Europe.

Christianity is thriving in Asia and Africa, not to mention North America.

It is also having a resurgence in Russia.

Was it a crisis when the light of the Church went out in Asia, the last 1500 years, when it had reached China and India within a generation after Christ ?

No.

Europeans need to get over themselves.

I hope the next Pope is African.

[Taggart_D]

[...the implication is that anybody who defends Christian orthodoxy is now excluded from public life...]

Not much has changed in the last 2004 years.

[ETERNAL WARMING]

Please see: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?m=any;o=score;s=Citizens%20mobilized%20to%20stop%20ACLU%20%28seeks%20to%20consign%20group%20to%20%27ash%20heap%20of%20history%27%29 THere is a way we can fight back!

[HipShot]

Ping.

[Lexinom]

"We must defend religious freedom against the imposition of an ideology that is being presented as if it were the only voice of rationality, whereas it is only the expression of a narrow rationalism."

I'm not Catholic, but this is right on the money. The churches - Catholic and Protestant alike - sometimes invite their own marginalization by allowing themselves to be driven by feeling and emotion rather than truth. The seeker-sensitive movement and contemporary Christian music are perfect examples of a religion reshaped in the image of man, built on the shifting sand of human taste rather than the firm rock of God's Word.

That is one fact that bolsters these secularists' smug a priori assumptions that they are the purveyors of ultimate truth.