Better put some ice on that!"
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".
We will pray for you as you undertake this journey.
According to MSM reports, you will be walking against a massive herd of people who are EXITING the Church.
Keep one hand firmly fixed on the handrail...(the back of the pew ahead of you)!!!
I'm the only Catholic in a family chock full of Protestants. I became a Catholic as an adult. Backslider as I may be, I've never regretted the decision.
As another poster noted, I suggest your pray over this and follow the Lord's will.
Jewish common-sense comes to the fore.
Happy to have Judaism as our 'parent' in the Covenant.
Oh, please. Are you seriously suggesting equivalency? The formulaic slop played at teen masses is the antithesis of radical; it's conventional down to the core. Bach's music will still be astonishing hearers when no one remembers what a teen mass even was.
my 15-year-old son, with whom I have been struggling to keep him interested in his faith, is suddenly very interested in the church because he gets to play two weekends a month.
I sympathise with your situation, but respectfully suggest your real problem here is bad religious formation. Your son needs to have it put to him that right worship is about far more than self-expression. When the "faith" we practice is utterly self-referential, it's nothing more than self-worship. Self-absorption is the dominant secular value, and I'm not surprised to read that your son too is slurping it up. But the Church's job is to rescue us from that prison, not to affirm it.
Your understanding comports with mine.
It was John XXIII who promulgated a directive which forbade Ordinations of homosexuals.
That's called "prudence."
I will pray for him.
He chickened out, and blamed a Deacon for the whole thing.
We continue to be disappointed.
All of the Novendiales Masses were in the vernacular, so far as I'm aware. Significantly, both of public Masses celebrated by Cardinal Ratzinger -- the funeral Mass and the Missa pro Eligendo -- were in Latin. Fair warning.
You've obviously read your Ratzinger...
Fabulous!! Where do you live?
My thoughts exactly :)
You don't need to read any more than that.... I'll trust what comes out of the Boston Diocese when hell freezes over. This Diocese is absolutely compromised by open homosexuals that the church not only let in, but now pretty much run this diocese and trade sex for favor and position.
I think the rank and file Catholics have no idea how bad some of its diocese's have been corrupted.
Woah. Only 24 hours after his election, he's getting the talk from the liberal swine.
Better put some ice on that!"
The Catholic Church is the ONLY world organization that has consistently held the line against the darkness of the 20th and now 21st centuries. For all the lies told about it, it stood tall against Communism... For all the lies told about it, it stood tall against the attacks on the very social fabric of civilization!
I am so sick of listening to every Tom, Dick and Mary bitch about the Church. Every enemy of personal liberty has the Church in its sites... every enemy of human dignity and standards and morality has the church in its sites.
The people of the church are not without fault, but the church has held the line and done so appropriately and humanely, and is the last refuge for those who know secular humanism, communism and moral relevatism are the ways to ruin.
Warning? Perhaps Ratzinger will see the wisdom of a Tridentine Rite.
I don't know if I would agree with the fact a Gay can't be a Catholic... a sinner can certainly be a Catholic. Obviously if they are actively engaging in homosexual activity they are acting in violation of the church doctrine.. but so is every catholic woman on birth control and man using a Condom.
The question isn't whether someone is Gay, or Using Birth Control, or whatever.. the question is, do they desire and strive to change themselves to better serve the will of God and accept their sins, or are they hell bent on trying to change the church to accept their activity as normal and blessed?
25% of the admitted homosexuals voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004... does that make them any less republican?
I do not condone homosexuality, I do personally believe that in nearly all cases it is a self destructive hedonist behavior driven by a mental disorder. However, I do not those who engage in the activity are not part of the church.. If everyone who sins were disavowed from the church... there would be no church.
If they expect the church to accept their behavior as anything other than sinful, they probably should not be part of the church, because they obviously have a distortion about where doctrine comes from.... Same holds true for those who are promiscuous and/or engage in premarital sex.... etc etc etc.
ARCHDIOCESE OF MUNICH-FREISING (MONASENSIS ET FRISINGENSIS) :
"An archdiocese in Bavaria. This archdiocese originated in the ancient Diocese of Freising. The Church of Freising dates back to St. Corbinian, who, after his consecration came in 716 to organize the Church in Bavaria. On a mountain near Freising the saint erected a Benedictine monastery and a school. He was succeeded in the government of the abbey by his brother Erembert. When St. Boniface in 738 regulated ecclesiastical affairs in Bavaria by the creation of four dioceses, Erembert was chosen first Bishop of Freising, which see was made suffragan to Mainz. The sanctuary of Our Lady, which existed on the mountain near Freising before the coming of St. Corbinian, became the cathedral, and was served by the Benedictine monks."
The name München means "monks", BTW.
Reuters is really coming out strong against the new pope.
They have several articles bashing him.
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