Posted on 04/19/2005 5:13:20 PM PDT by Alex Marko
BOSTON (Reuters) - Liberal U.S. Catholics on Tuesday expressed dismay at the choice of a conservative new pope and doubted he will heal an institution racked by disillusionment and tarnished by a sex abuse scandal among the clergy.
The election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI rankled those who advocate married priests, a bigger role for women within the church and softening its policy on homosexuality, birth control, euthanasia and abortion.
Since taking over the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as the Roman Catholic Church's chief ideologue, Ratzinger has denounced homosexuality and even branded other Christian churches as deficient.
"Gay and lesbian Catholics are going to be very hurt by this election because Cardinal Ratzinger was the lightning rod for so much of the anger they felt under the previous pope," said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the New Ways Ministry, a national ministry for lesbian and gay Catholics.
Under the Pope John Paul II, American Catholics' attendance at weekly Mass declined as many were put off by what they saw as increasingly conservative Vatican doctrine.
The sense of alienation deepened with a well-publicized scandal over pedophile priests, which erupted in 2002 in the Archdiocese of Boston as court documents showed bishops shuttled pedophile priests from parish to parish.
Victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy reacted skeptically to word that Ratzinger was the new pope.
"Ratzinger is a polarizing figure to many, who seems to prefer combativeness to compromise and compassion," Mary Grant of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said in a statement. "It's ... crucial that the new pope follow the words and views of John Paul II who said 'there is no place in the priesthood for anyone who would harm the young."'
MORE OF THE SAME
Catholics for a Free Choice, a progressive group based in Washington, laid out an action plan for the new pontiff to pursue in his first 100 days with the goal of healing fractures within the church.
It urged the new pope to appoint a commission to review church policy on condoms, to establish a pontifical academy on women's rights in the church, and to welcome back those marginalized over the last quarter-century -- including gays and lesbians.
But those familiar with Ratzinger said to expect more of the same, and they doubted he would tailor his views to adapt to the liberal forces evident in the U.S. church.
"This is the guy who's been in charge of stifling dissent in the church," said lawyer Carmen Durso, who represented dozens of plaintiffs in clergy abuse lawsuits against the Boston archdiocese.
"This says to me that the Vatican ... is not prepared to move into the 21st Century, which it desperately needs to do," said Durso, who was raised Catholic but no longer practices.
Christine Schenk, a nun from Cleveland, Ohio, who favors opening the priesthood to married men, said she was disappointed and puzzled by Ratzinger's selection, but she saw glimmers of hope.
Schenk explained that Ratzinger had never ruled out the idea of married priests, and that the church is facing a deepening shortage of priests -- so he may be forced to act.
In a 2004 document, Ratzinger denounced "radical feminism" as undermining the family and natural differences between men and women.
Asked if there was anything in his background that gave her hope that Ratzinger would build a stronger partnership with women in the church, Quinn said: "We always hope for miracles".
"I an wondring if there are any left in the USA."
There are a few here in Missouri. We find them in the St. Louis area when we travel but haven't seen one in the Kansas City area yet. My husband (not Catholic) thinks they are so cute when they are in their habits. Wishes there were more of them. I wish he was Catholic! It took my dad 35 years after marrying my mom to convert. We are at 10 years, hopefully it won't take him as long! :0)
>> Liberal U.S. Catholics on Tuesday expressed dismay at the choice of a conservative new pope <<
There are no liberal Catholics. There are some leftists who pretend to be Catholics, but they are not Catholics.
Ping !
Just repentant ones.
Hey, that's the ticket.
Good find.
Then why should we care what you think? Would a rabbi pay attention to me, a Catholic, if I expressed what I thought Judaism should do? He would be polite, listen, and then likely give me a variant of "Thanks, but your opinion carries no weight in our community due to vast theological differences."
A "non-practicing" (read: "fallen away" or "apostate") CINO's words have no weight....they are just so much carbon dioxide being produced and distributed.
You know, it was posted before I could even search for it, lucky me. It's a great article. Kerry must be a little upset. Will he throw a tantrum like some of the lefties, rant on and on or throw more accusations? I suspect a little of both with a ramped up accusation machine, aimed at conservatives in Church life and secular life. Poor Mass state has suffered enough.
Didn't see your source document, could you post a specific link besides the Zenit page?
Catholics for a free death.
Amen
The Zenit page IS the source document.
I am not a Catholic, but I am glad the Catholic church hierarchy has a backbone and really doesn't give a hoot what the liberal, anti reglion types care about the pick. I have my disagreements with the Catholic church, but it does bring a smile to my face to see the liberals whine like a bunch of swines today.
Too many other churches, like the Episcopal church have lost their missions because they bow to compromise from every little special interest group that is offended by absolutes.
Yep, except for the percentage in this room.
The holy nuns who teach my children were screaming with joy a the news! Then they ran the Vatican flag up the flag pole and the students went into the Chapel to pray for the new pope.
Vive Il Papa!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll pray for you two.
I will pray for you. Freep me and let me know how it goes.
You need anything...freep.
My good G-D"Alex Marko"you do not know good G-D good G-D do not change!!!!truth is truth G-D is truth!!! life is life love is love good G-D do know 1 2 3 4 this is no!no!!no!!!no!!!!what persons do want this this is not important what G-D do want this is important!!!!I do feel many persons do not know truth!!!Benedictum XVI is very strong person this person do know Izrael good persons yes many news persons do not like this person I do will write no news persons O.K news persons do not know this person well!!!Thank you all
Interestingly, this is something that Cardinal Ratzinger has been working on for over 10 years with the American Bishops. He, and the Church, recognizes that orientation does not mean activity, but he wanted the Bishops to make observe the seminarians carefully, and make sure that there was no sexual activity of any kind with either men OR women.
I was just talking with my brother-in-law, who is a priest, and he said that they used to give them very good spiritual direction about dealing with celibacy, back when he was in the seminary in the late 60's. In the 70's, apparently the Church ceded this responsibility to the 'experts', in the Psychology crowd. Unfortunately, they also happened to be moral relativists, therefore many priests had terrible spiritual formation in the area of sexuality, and it also opened to door to allowing practicing homosexuals, since the 'experts' didn't see any problems with that.
These same 'experts' were the ones who told Dioceses all over this country that the priests they had sent to the clinics were 'healed' of the problem and it was ok to send them back into ministry. The biggest mistake the Bishops made was not chucking these bastiges out on their butts when it was discovered that they were not healed and had returned to their abusing ways. But they had inculcated the whole 'compassion' idea from their 'experts', and were way too pastoral to these men, and not nearly enough with the victims.
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