Posted on 01/02/2005 1:59:29 PM PST by wagglebee
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the chief architect of Pope John Paul II's traditionalist moral policy, has long been a bugaboo for liberal Catholics. But they had stopped worrying that the German might one day ascend to St. Peter's throne. His hard-line views and blunt approach had earned him the epithet of panzerkardinal and too many enemies. Well, their worrying may now resume. Sources in Rome tell TIME that Ratzinger has re-emerged as the top papal candidate within the Vatican hierarchy, joining other front runners such as Dionigi Tettamanzi of Milan and Claudio Hummes of Sao Paolo. "The Ratzinger solution is definitely on," said a well-placed Vatican insider.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
I met Arinze too, when he visited Notre Dame in November of 1999. I was really impressed with him and would love to see him as the next pope. The Church is dead in Europe, but it is growing in Africa and I think the papacy should reflect this.
The last thing the Church needs right now is a series of lame-duck popes. There is no guarantee that Ratzinger would reign more than a handful of years before being called home himself. Cardinal Schonborn on the other hand could realistically be expected to reign as long or longer than John Paul II has (he's 55 I believe).
What do you think?
Schoenborn is 58.
I think Arinze may have personal piety and charm (like JPII, who has run his whole papacy on this), but he is a little too Muslim-friendly, as well as somewhat ambiguous in other areas. I agree with another poster who said that the person who gets elected will probably be a complete unknown. And this could be good - or bad.
Didn't Cardinal Schonborn come out looking pretty bad after the homosexual scandal in the seminary? From what I have read, he denied the problem and then, when finally forced to admit it, he didn't deal very firmly with the perpetrators. Do you have other info?
I hope so! But I doubt that we will know for some time. I don't think JPII is going anywhere. I'm not quite sure how much in charge he is anymore - mainly because he was never a strong administrator to begin with, so it's hard to say if anything has changed - but as long as he is alive, he'll be Pope. And with modern medicine, that could be a long time.
As for the Pope's health, one concern that I have had for some time is that he will slip into a comatose state without any written directives concerning life support or papal duties. As you said, much of the administrative functions have long been handled by others; however, there are still documents that require the Pope's signature and an incapacity could make things complicated.
That's been one of my concerns, too. However, I suppose (grudging admission) that God has His plans, too, so we'll just have to see how this works out.
I do know that it is not unheard of among the European royaly to euthanize terminally ill rulers to avoid such situations. King George V of England was actually given an overdose of morphine and cocaine in order to insure that his death would first be announced in "The Times" instead of less distinguished afternoon papers.
Damn, if I was, that would have killed my chances.
I would like to know your thoughts if you care to share them.
Arinze.......at the Opus Dei center in Chicago? That is all the information I need, thank you.
Next candidate?
Those Brits! LOL!
Any chance that an American could be elected, or is that an impossibility, given the world climate of anti-Americanism? America does have the richest Catholic church body.
Either way, only two to go, if you believe St. Malachy:
http://www.catholic-pages.com/grabbag/malachy.asp
Americans can't get elected when there ISN'T anti-Americanism.
There's always been the attitude that American prelates weren't "cosmopolitan" enough, though I don't see how a Polish cardinal would fit that category either. Italians got the nod for 400 years because Italian curias would pick Italian bishops for the diplomatic service, and almost every Pope had been a nuncio somewhere in the world for at least the last 200 years up until JPII.
The door's wide open for a non-European again, and the bishops may want someone like an Arinze who has some dealings with the Muslim world.
The following excerpt is from John Bishop's interview with Michael Davies which appeared in Christian Order. It was Michael Davies' last interview:
_______________________________________________
Michael Davies: I’ll tell you a good little story that Count Capponi told us at our general assembly of Una Voce. Cardinal Kasper went on an ecumenical mission to Athens last year.
John Bishop: Cardinal Kasper? Oh he is the German.
MD: Yes. He and his fellow German, Lehmann, were made Cardinals. You see there is no chance of Cardinal Ratzinger being made Pope. The job of Kasper and Lehmann is to go to the conclave and stop anyone Ratzinger supports from being made Pope. It is interesting, Pope John Paul II wouldn’t appoint Kasper and Lehmann at first and a week later he did.
JB: Yes. Their appointment came as a shock to a lot of orthodox Catholics.
MD: Well do you know where the pressure came from? The Polish hierarchy. Because they get so much money from the Germans. So Kasper and Lehmann said, ‘You scratch our backs and we’ll scratch yours.’
JB: Is that genuine? An inside story?
MD: Oh yes definitely. The Polish hierarchy put the pressure on. But anyway Kasper went on this ecumenical mission to Athens, attended the Greek Orthodox liturgy in the morning and in the afternoon he was having lunch. Then the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Athens, who is a good friend of Count Capponi and Una Voce, asked his Eminence how he had enjoyed the liturgy in the morning. "Oh wonderful, wonderful," said the Cardinal, "I thought I was in heaven." Then the Archbishop said that he thought perhaps that they should make some changes to the Greek liturgy because, perhaps for modern people today, some of it is too mystifying. Kasper said, "No that would be a mortal sin. You mustn’t change a thing. Keep it exactly as it is." And the Archbishop said, "Then why did you destroy your liturgy which was the equivalent of ours?"
JB: What is going on here? Saying what they think people want to hear. Now you see them now you don’t. This is perfidy.
MD: Oh yes. Well the policy of the Vatican, largely due to this Pope, a lot of people practically worship this Pope, and think he is inspired, but his ideas on ecumenism are just totally disastrous. He really knows nothing at all about Protestant Churches and he hasn’t achieved anything at all and nor did Paul VI. The Catholic Church in its practice has become more and more Protestant and the Protestants haven’t budged an inch.
Ratzinger considers himself very liberal. He is defending the positions of his Pope, like an honorable attorney general. AFAIK, he has not shown a knack for adminsitration or tact. We've had a philosopher Pope, now we need a competent adminsitrator. Recall how Ratzinger issued, and than backpedalled, a statement calling Protestantism "substantially deficient"? The issue of homosexuality in the crisis-plagued church?
On the other hand, anyone who zings 'rats can't be too bad. :^D
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