Almost forgot- we have a new pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, heretofore to be known as Pope Benedict XVI. I know absolutely nothing about him, although his appointment (ascension??) did spawn this most unfortunate headline:
‘Germany will be very proud’
Because we all know all of the good that can come from a unified, united, and proud Germany. Flame away, I’m German.
Already, for me, at least, the election of a new Pope is paying dividends, as Andrew Sullivan’s steady stream of posts on the man virtually assure that I am no longer the most hysterical man in the blogosphere.
At any rate, it seems to me that Andrew’s chief objection is that the new Pope tends to adhere to church doctrine. Strange sin to get worked up in a lather over. If he were running for President, I might have an issue, but as the leader of his church, it seems to me that is what he is supposed to be doing.
At any rate, Andrew, you are American now, so you can do what all other good Catholics are doing- ignore him when it comes to matters of conscience:
When the pope or official Catholic teaching differs from one’s own conscience, the conscience should be the guide, said 72 percent of Catholics surveyed, with just 18 percent saying the pope must be obeyed.
That is the same finding as twenty years ago when CBS News pollsters first started asking that question.
In this most recent survey, 82 percent of Catholics said you can disagree with the pope and still be a good Catholic; 15 percent said the opposite.
At any rate, here is to a long and healthy reign for Pope Benedict the XVI.
More here in the same vein from Jeff Goldstein, whose radio show I will be a guest on this week.
KC
Amen.
the UNPOPULIST
Hate to niggle (or do I?), but “heretofore” means “up to this point,” whereas “hereafter” means “from this point on.”
You should be glad I was here to catch that.
Kimmitt
Wow, there is some serious vitriol out there.
ape
Yes, the Pope is Catholic. But he isn’t JUST Catholic. Sully is correct in pointing out that he is a political figure. Ratzinger attempted to intervene directly in the US election in fabour of Bush.
The Vatican tries to act like a major nation-state in international affairs, recently intervening in Argentinian politics.
Ratzinger, as Sully explains nicely, concerns himself with secular political issues, not just the church, and it’s therefore not only Catholics who will be affected by his appointment.
DecidedFenceSitter
Eh, I think it was more the hope of change rather than an expectation of change. With JPII, we knew what we had, we had resigned ourselves (note a collective we is used) to those policies.
The dismay is just the fact that we had the possiblity of change, of something different, of a chance that we might improve our lot (as we view it), and thus we are upset that it didn’t pan out.
Similar to the 2004 elections its just the first few stages of the grief process. (And while that generally applies to more severe items, as events prove, people take their politics and religion seriously.)
norbizness
Dave Ruddell
“At any rate, here is to a long and healthy reign for Pope Benedict the XVI”
Interesting chocie of words, given that many Vatican watchers think that Ratzinger was picked becasue it’s figured his reign will be neither.
Mind you, many of those same people said tehre was no way that Ratzinger was going to be elected…
Rick
Wow. There is some serious vitriol in here, as well.
Cordially…
catholicgirl
I’d weigh in on this, but as a woman I’m supposed to be passive. And according to the new Pope, unsubmissive women are a detriment to society.
ape
catholicgirl – right on!
bow to your biology!
worship your biology!
any attempt to evade biological conditioning will result in the collapse of the family and everybody becoming gay.
what a moron ratz is:
“..This theory of the human person, intended to promote prospects for equality of women through liberation from biological determinism, has in reality inspired ideologies which, for example, call into question the family, in its natural two-parent structure of mother and father, and make homosexuality and heterosexuality virtually equivalent, in a new model of polymorphous sexuality.”
vis.pcn.net/doc/040731x_en.htm
if I see you there evading the determinism of your biology.. oh god.. those lads are looking HOT.. must buy soundtracks of hit musicals.