Extrapolating very slightly, if at all . . . from one of Mark’s recent long posts about my . . . pet issues . . .
and re:
We don’t trust the MAN Joseph Ratzinger (though I hear he’s a very good teacher and a very good man. We trust God.
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I’m more than a little skeptical about how far that
ROYAL ‘WE’
would apply, actually.
I'm sort of serious. I think it was in First Things where there was a almost a damning with faint praise of some of his encyclicals. Of course, J2P2 is a tough act to follow.
I know one of my favorite guys studied under him in Rome and thinks the world of him, as a guy. And some of us are delighted at the outreach to the Anglicans, which is a creative and interesting thing to do.
But look at the language I'm using. It's not all boogedy-boogedy "vicar of Christ" stuff. That'll come out if he has to declare and define something. In the meantime he's a guy of intelligence, piety and learning, and he seems to be pretty warm and modest. All good things in anybody, but especially in someone in a position of responsibility and authority.
Some people insist upon being superstitious. They INSIST upon it. Precisely because we have a hierarchy and different roles and responsibilities, we don't have to tell them, go away and don't come back until you think as we do. We can love them, teach them, administer the sacraments to them (I mean not ME, personally ...) and pray for them, and we can trust God.
Just as we don't save souls or make converts (because GOD does those things) we also don't have to and can't shepherd every individual soul in every step of his or her way.
Some physicians are horses patoots. That doesn't mean I no longer subscribe to the germ theory. Some Catholics are superstitious. (I know PLENTY of Protestants who are hag-ridden with superstition.) So just because they get it wrong, doesn't mean it's wrong in itself.