Is the Pope Catholic?

RichSpidizzy · #1 Apr 27, '05, 11:32 am

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Yes, of course. And critics are disappointed and annoyed that he is.

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Ordinarily that question is a rhetorical device, intended to suggest that someone has said something foolish, ignoring the patently obvious. But as cardinals of the Catholic Church gathered in Rome this week, many commentators seemed to wonder whether the next pope would hold firmly to the age-old doctrines of the Catholic faith: Would the new leader of the world's one billion Roman Catholics be ready to compromise on matters such as abortion, homosexuality and the ordination of women?

This editorial is one of the best I have ever read.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110006592

The fact that it appeared in a secular newspaper makes it even more remarkable. Of course, it was written by the editor of Catholic World Report and Catholic World News, but even still, WSJ didn't have to print it.

chb03c · #2 Apr 27, '05, 11:42 am

This is really stupid. People need to get a life.

sweetchuck · #3 Apr 27, '05, 11:50 am

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Originally Posted by chb03c

This is really stupid. People need to get a life.

Just curious, that's kind of vague -- what is stupid and who needs to get a life?

Lisa N · #4 Apr 27, '05, 1:31 pm

I suspect the "stupid" reference is with respect to people who think that Pope Benedict would throw over thousands of years of doctrine and forge a new path. I think the question "Is the Pope Catholic" brings out how many hoped he wouldn't be.

Lisa N

NightRider · #5 Apr 27, '05, 2:22 pm

Thank you so much for posting the link to this fine article--it was very well-written. Very succinct and to the point. I am quite pleased it was published because our Pontif is a great man, so very humble. This became very apparent to me, when I saw him on TV for Pope John Paul II's Funeral Mass and heard his homily for him, and also when I watched his own Papal Mass and heard the homily he gave for that. I am even more impressed with him now than I was before I got to see him in these Masses. He makes me proud to call myself Catholic!

msh · #6 Apr 27, '05, 2:48 pm

What a great article! Thank you for linking it!

gomer tree · #7 Apr 27, '05, 3:27 pm

Has there ever been a time in the 2000 years of the Church where there has been so much discussion about whether or not the Pope was going to compromise on so many "controversial" issues? I'm honestly curious. I know birth control was an issue in the 1960's, but the wide array of serious issues that people are dissenting over is kind of scary.

I just see our world becoming much more divided. I think we are in a time of choosing our course. The gray area is disappearing and things are becoming more black and white. This is more than discussions about married priests or taking the Eucharist in the hand. We are talking about abortion, homosexuality, birth control, women priests, cloning, euthanasia...

It just really strikes me that the two sides are diverging ever more widely. I think the devout are finally galvanizing and reacting against the culture, but at the same time those who are going with the culture are ever more strongly dissenting.

Is it just me?

La Chiara · #8 Apr 27, '05, 6:26 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by gomer tree

Has there ever been a time in the 2000 years of the Church where there has been so much discussion about whether or not the Pope was going to compromise on so many "controversial" issues? I'm honestly curious. I know birth control was an issue in the 1960's, but the wide array of serious issues that people are dissenting over is kind of scary.

I just see our world becoming much more divided. I think we are in a time of choosing our course. The gray area is disappearing and things are becoming more black and white. This is more than discussions about married priests or taking the Eucharist in the hand. We are talking about abortion, homosexuality, birth control, women priests, cloning, euthanasia...

It just really strikes me that the two sides are diverging ever more widely. I think the devout are finally galvanizing and reacting against the culture, but at the same time those who are going with the culture are ever more strongly dissenting.

Is it just me?

Your observations are right. Part of the problem is that there are so many more ways of providing information now. In addition to the traditional print media, we have television, radio, internet, e-mail. So information and opinions are easily disseminated in ways they never could be before. And perhaps because there is an information overload, people make snap judgments about where they stand and then close their minds to other information. They align themselves as "liberal" and then shut out facts that might make them question their liberal stands. At least that is what seems to happen with certain people in my family.

BayCityRickL · #9 Apr 28, '05, 10:26 am

I've lived under 5 popes (since Pius XII) and Pope Benedict is the first to come out of the Curia, if memory serves me correctly.

His homilies before and after election prove beyond any shadow of a doubt what a tremendous character (a word used so infrequently these days) this man has. They reveal the mind of a man who has been holed up in the Vatican bureacracy for twenty five years, and what a spiritual man he is.

Who would not want such a spiritual man to be the head of the Congregation for the ...whatever that was...of the Faith.

Long live the pope!

quijote · #10 Apr 28, '05, 11:26 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by BayCityRickL

I've lived under 5 popes (since Pius XII) and Pope Benedict is the first to come out of the Curia, if memory serves me correctly.

His homilies before and after election prove beyond any shadow of a doubt what a tremendous character (a word used so infrequently these days) this man has. They reveal the mind of a man who has been holed up in the Vatican bureacracy for twenty five years, and what a spiritual man he is.

Who would not want such a spiritual man to be the head of the Congregation for the ...whatever that was...of the Faith.

Long live the pope!

I've only been alive since Paul VI....however, I know that as a bishop, MOntini (the future Paul VI) worked for Pius XII (as a Sec. of State figure?). I forget how the story goes, but I seem to remember that Pius never made Montini a cardinal and that John XXIII made him one soon after becoming pope. That sort of classifies Paul VI as a "pope from the Curia"....wouldn't?

cheers