[flaglady47]

This was the question asked me:

“Doesn’t Gods Spirit transcend racial, national and geographical boundaries? I think you place God in a small box of your own construct to make a statement like that.”

To which I responded and was excoriated for by certain Freepers:

“Well, what percentage of Africa is Roman Catholic? Where are the bulk of Catholics to this day? It’s in the Western culture, because that is where it primarily started. If you pick a Latin American or African Pope, you are going to get lots of social justice philosophy mixed in, just wait and see. I don’t want to chance it. I want a conservative Western Pope. He can then minister to the whole wide world, including Africa and Latin America and the Orient, but I want the Pope to be a Westerner.

And I’m sick to death of political correctness (or in this case, spiritual correctness). Some of you can continue to try to guilt trip me with your PC ecumenical, globalist philosophy by ceding a western church and its spiritual culture to other foreign lands for the Head of the Church, but you won’t succeed. And I’ll bet a Pope’s chalice that there are a bunch of readers on this thread that agree with me 100 percent, many of whom may be afraid to admit it though. So sad that it has come to this.”

It looks like I’m being proven right in my first assessment, in particular re the Latin American propensity towards “social justice”. I’m starting to get very bad vibes here. There is such a thing as the ostentatious display of how much one emphasizes ministering to the poor to the exclusion of other aspects of the faith that are also important. And the decorum and majesty of the Church being minimized. I want Pope Benedict XVI back. He realized the mistakes of Vatican II that he had a hand in, and was trying mightily to backtrack on a lot of what came out of it. I’m afraid Pope Francis will not do the same. No emphasis on the Latin Mass is my guess. Oh dear, I so much wanted a traditionalist, and methinks Pope Francis may not fit that mode well at all.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Trads were hoping for and expecting the Angelic Pope of Catholic prophecy, who would set the Church right and restore what was lost. Instead they fear we got an "anti-Pope" who will continue the auto-destruction started by Paul VI (and briefly opposed by BXVI). And from the current vantage point, its too early to tell if PFI is a true saint in the mold of St. Francis, or just another "Spirit of VII" prelate who doesn't give a damn about restoring what was lost since VII.

I'm a PFI agnostic. I choose to watch and pray. He could turn out to be either and I'm still willing to be pleasantly surprised despite my initial mixed gut impressions. Chances are he's just another Pope, one that will fall squarely between the hopes and fears.

[MinuteGal]

You were certainly correct in the post you took all that heat for.

I, too, have minor uncertain vibes on this Pope at the moment..... the cascade of 'umbleness' right off the bat makes me a little nervous.

We'll see.....he definitely has my heartfelt prayers. It ain't easy being Pope!

Leni

[tiki]

To which I say, do not despair, the Holy Spirit chose him for a reason. It is not our’s to say that God was wrong. If Pope Francis does not improve the Church or , Heaven forbid, does things that make things worse, then that is God’s plan. God knows what will happen and He has already dealt with it. What we have to do is keep our eyes on the prize and live our own vocations as well as we can with the help of God.