Sin without the guilt.
Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Posted on 04/14/2005 9:02:52 AM PDT by quidnunc
During the papal interregnum, divided Catholics await the new Holy Father to guide them in their third millennium, in which clergy in Roman-era headdresses send news releases via e-mail. Can conservatives save the church by sticking to 20 decades of received tradition? Or will liberals energize an embattled global parish only by ending priestly celibacy or seeing condoms as a tool in stopping AIDS?
Yet the new pontiff, both his personality and ideas, will affect even those of us who are not Catholics.
The pope is not a CEO who serves at the pleasure of his board. Nor like a president or prime minister does he come up for periodic re-election. The pope in modern times is not often impeached like an errant judge to save the reputation of the judiciary. For better or worse, he is permanently indistinguishable from the Catholic Church — and with a billion followers, the idea of Catholicism, if not Christianity itself, waxes or wanes along with him.
A magnetic pontiff galvanizes the wavering. But a colorless bureaucrat or a right- or left-wing radical cannot only lose believers, but within a few years literally could end the church as we know it.
Critics of Catholicism may believe that, in a globalized world of 6 billion, a single old man in robes is irrelevant, but why then in 2005 did his death draw the largest funeral in recorded history?
John Paul II was a savvy leader in ways that transcended his personal magnetism and institutional authority. He stood by 2,000 years of tradition in not budging on abortion and gay marriage. That way he kept conservative Catholics in the fold who otherwise might have been puzzled by the pope's adamant opposition to the armed removal of Saddam Hussein, capital punishment… .
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
FYI
This is going to sound nuts, but we need a conservative pope from France. The church is growing in Africa and South America, but is dying in Europe.
I've been think a similiar thing - not necessarily France, but that the next pope is going to have to reach out to all Europe since the church is dying there. S.A and Africa are pretty vital and growing, but the old base, Europe and US, are fading away.
It's for this reason that I think we'll see a European pope, Italian or French or whatever..
LQ
Your point is not a small one. From a strictly pragmatic point of view, Ratzinger should be elected. Germany and Austria are in equally dire straits.
But then I'm thinking like a human and not God...
A conservative pope will be able to reach out to Europe much as a jellyfish can reach out to a tree. Why would anyone think Europeans are likely to listen to a pope that doesn't condone birth control, divorce and homosexuality?
The millions of lapsed or 'liberal' Catholics aren't waiting for a charismatic Pius figure to call them back to the Church - they want it all lite, Protestantism with incense, robes and Mary.
What he actually said was that war is a failure of diplomacy and urged a peaceful solution.
Christianity is dying out in Europe. What some Euros haev told me is that they just don't beleive it anymore. No pope is going to change that.
While the European Church is certainly in drastic decline, I don't know if we can say it's actually "dying." The Holy Spirit is more powerful than any particular generation of humans. I just hope the new Pope holds firm to Scripture and traditional moral teaching.
Agree. JP II came from Poland which was not in need of Catholic renewal - so a European Pope for that reason is not supported. The individual has to matter most - what vision of God's salvation plan does he bring to the Chair.
But how about a third-world pope? How delightfully liberal in itself that would be, for the Europeans. Non?
All Catholics should pray for the strong guidance of the holy spirit, and a revival of faith in Europe. It might even occur as a youthful rebellion.
For myself, I hope for another man who is a great parish priest, magnified, as John Paul II was.
Mrs VS
When I attend the traditional Latin Mass across town its standing room only. When I go to Mass at the "modernized" Mass at the church down the street there are empty pews all around me.
Uh huh...
Sin without the guilt.
Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Because they'll respect someone who takes himself seriously and seeks to engage them. Even non-believers have a hunger for authenticity.
IMHO, the next Pope needs to reach out and slap the west with both hands full of "tough love". Traditionalism and orthodoxy sells well here, as long as the liberalistas and not allowed to accumulate too much authority.
Agreed. I posted a similar comment a few days back on another thread. The Church needs a good, conservative European to bring Europe back into the fold of Christianity more than it needs a third-world pontiff to affirm what is already taking place. Let us pray the Cardinals' are inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Actually some of the private prophecies speak about a very holy Pope from France that will work to restore the Church. Supposedly this will happen only after great sufferings for the Church, and I think that the Pope is to leave Rome because of a threat to the city. Then he will die in exile and the next Pope will be the holy Pope who will restore the Church. However, I'm not sure if all of these prophecies are accurately portrayed in the book I read.
It's been a while since you've been to an evangelical protestant church, hasn't it.
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