"A New Kind of Pope..."
My opinion of the selection of Cardinal Ratzinger to become Benedict XVI (and I hope that I'm proven wrong) is best summarized by Andrew Sullivan's (editor of The New Republic) quote from his blog:
THE POLITICAL ANALOGY: I was trying to explain last night to a non-Catholic just how dumb-struck many reformist Catholics are by the elevation of Ratzinger. And then I found a way to explain. This is the religious equivalent of having had four terms of George W. Bush only to find that his successor as president is Karl Rove. Get it now?
posted by A Viewpoint From Victor @ 11:23 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
thanks for sending me the link victor
it was good read
Victor, I'm not sure I totally understand or agree with Sullivan's assessment. Can we really compare George Bush to John Paul II? Maybe we can, but I am not ready to do so. I think analogies get sticky and, of course, they all break down somewhere...especially when trying to compare the Roman Catholic Church to the United States Government. The US Government is set up to shift every 4-8 yrs. Things happen fast. The Church, on the other hand, is a slow moving organism that is reluctant to jump into anything. Unfortunately, discerning the Holy Spirit is a much more difficult task than counting presidential votes (except for maybe Floridians and Ohioans - no offense). And to be honest, I don’t find this really unfortunate at all. Although I don’t agree with 100% of Catholic Theology, I do appreciate the fact that I know where they stand and that they don’t take lightly the task of doing theology.
It is a hard thing to put on the papal hat in the wake of JP2. No matter what, Ratzinger will always fall short. JP2 was liked for many reasons. One of them was his devotion to conservative theology and morality. Others liked JP2 for his commitment to social justice and the abolishment of the oppressive communist regime in Poland and elsewhere.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I am not at all surprised at the elevation of Ratzinger to the papacy. It was he whom I suspected all along. The Church, unlike a government, acts as the mouthpiece for God, not the people. I don’t ever suspect the Church will elect a pope due to worldwide popularity, but rather it elects who God wants, not us. I would’ve liked to have seen a Latin American pope, but I really didn’t think it was likely. The Church doesn’t move that fast. It is slow, sometimes obnoxiously slow, but, for the most part, it is slow in the interests of safety and security.
There you have it, incoherent thoughts from a rambling idiot (me) on Sullivan’s comparison of JP2 to GW. I guess I get a little critical when the Church (or churches for that matter) is compared to a manmade Government such as the United States.
I agree with you Victor, if this were the case (the analogy of Sullivan) then I hope to be proven wrong…but I don’t suspect that this is a fair analogy to begin with and I have faith that God will direct the church towards God’s will. However, I don’t hold out that much will drastically change in our lifetime, for the church is SLOW….peace to you brother, hans
Hans, the analogy was in the change (or lack thereof) from the predecessor to the replacement.
ie: The CHANGE from JP2 to Ratzinger in analogous to the (hypothetical) CHANGE of GB2 to Rove.
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