Pope Benedictus XVI (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
With the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, the Roman Catholic Church must look to the future for a long-term pope. It was good that after the papacy of John Paul II that the church chose to maintain stability with Joseph Ratzinger. Like his predecessor, Ratzinger is an excellent scholar, and I hope that he has some time during his last years to write more.
There is always talk in the West about the Roman Catholic Church appointing a more liberal Pope. This almost certainly will not take place. Roman Catholics in Western Europe and in the United States forget that they are not the only Roman Catholics on earth. Their ignoring other Roman Catholics in the world betrays the ethnocentrism of Western elitists. The church is growing fastest in South America and in Africa, where the bishops are more theologically and morally conservative than many American and European bishops. With more cardinals coming from those regions, the possibility of an African or South American pope is real. While I am not a Roman Catholic, I believe another conservative pope would help the church continue to root out heretical bishops in the U.S. and in Europe, and perhaps make sure that Roman Catholic institutions such as the University of Notre Dame are not openly opposing the teachings of the church. The damage done by the 1960s and 1970s to the Roman Catholic Church in the West was partially reversed by John Paul and by Benedict. Much more needs to be done. Africans and South American bishops in both the Anglican and Roman communions often think of themselves as missionaries to a secular, rebellious Western society. The Roman Catholic Church in Europe and in the United States needs missionaries, and a pope from South America or Africa who does not compromise on matters of faith and morals would be a good start.
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Feb 12, 2013 @ 17:42:47
The king of the damned.
Feb 12, 2013 @ 19:38:49
“What sounded the death knell on Pope Benedict was his personal involvement in the bribery and money-laundering practices of the Vatican Bank, comically known as The Institute of Religious Works (IOR); and how that dirty connection gave the anti-Ratzinger faction in the College of Cardinals the lever they needed to dump the obstinate German from the papal throne.
[. . .]
During my second speaking tour in Rome, in the spring of 2010, I met with several senior Italian senators and officials of the parliamentary Radical Party. They all said the same thing about why Joseph Ratzinger had been made pope, and what awaited him. To quote one of those:
‘Nobody becomes pope without a sordid past, because only with such liabilities can he be controlled by the Curia. It’s the same in any big company. Well, Ratzinger made many indiscretions as a Cardinal and made many enemies. His signing letters ordering criminal concealment was just one sin. He was to be the scapegoat for all of the trash that the church knew would surface.’
[. . .]
It was easy to despise Joseph Ratzinger: the Hitler Youth raised, reactionary bigot who sacked liberal and independent thinkers in his church as the Cardinal-head of the Vatican Inquisition, and who told American Bishops that purgatory awaited any of them who did not cover up priestly child rape. Even among fellow Cardinals, he was known as “Joe the Rat”. –Kevin Annett
For better or worse knowledgeable Catholics are more likely to accept the above than the story put out for the masses. For one thing it sounds more like the way of the world–e.g. Obama? And there is also this: Bishop Williamson.
Apparently the Pope considered Williamson’s questioning of the Holocaust a mortal sin! This is pretty outrageous as we are talking history not revelation, the Church Fathers, etc. It is ultimately a scientific question or an historical question to be resolved by careful research–but this is currently illegal in Europe in many nations.
Finally a fair number of older Catholics were not happy with him as Pope. Though hardly considered important his relationship to pedophilia was not ideal. Recently he spoke an apologia for child pornography which you may have hear or read.
Unless we know the real truth about the events of history we can not appreciate the beautiful actions of some. Within the Catholic Church there are I am sure genuine saints. But these do not make the headlines or generate large sums of money. So “who’ cares? Pope John xxiii was a good guy and chosen in the belief he was almost dead! But then he didn’t. And scared the Curia. The current Pope seems pretty typical of Catholic Popes. Worldly. Like most of the hierarchy.
Feb 12, 2013 @ 22:12:46
I doubt you have a copy of God and His Demons on your bookshelf, but the book is not without its merits. I think Christians need to be better informed about the dark side of their Church than anyone else. At least those that are mature and educated. When I first read your article there was a moment when I thought to myself, did I seriously misjudge this pope? But before long various memories rose up and disputed your advertisement for his character.
Both as a cardinal and as a pope he played a disgraceful role in dealing with child abuse. He wrote clergy in America that they would spend time in purgatory if they failed to conceal instances of pedophilia! He did all in his power to hide this rather wicked aspect of the Church.
Occasionly one comes across a case of parents who knew nothing about the serious delinquincy of their child. Obviously they chose not to know. If I told you that on more than one occasion (in the 20th century) the Catholic Church has had persons assassinated whom they believed threatened a vested interest, you would probably question the sources and so on–because that would not be something you wanted to know. Of course the assassin was given absolution –I believe before hand.
Large worldly organization like the Catholic Church, the Federal Government of the USA, Monsanto, BP and so on have generally found those with criminal minds best serve their needs in certain positions. I think this is fairly well known by persons who study organizations and national governments. Do people really believe that Richard Nixon was a rare president guilty of misdeeds–and pretty minor ones at that at least as far as most people know. Do we really want to present the Christian faith as one where pink angels circle above the heads of priests and ministers ensuring that holiness?
Feb 14, 2013 @ 00:19:31
“Diplomatic Note was issued to Vatican just prior to his resignation
New Pope and Catholic clergy face indictment and arrest as “Easter Reclamation” plan continues
A Global Media Release and Statement from The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State”
Brussels: http://itccs.org/
It looks something more than old age and decreptude were behind the Pope’s resignation. And as an earlier comment mentions, the child abuse aspect is not involved–for the obvious reasons that too many high public officials in Europe and elsewhere might get drawn into the net.
“The historically unprecedented resignation of Joseph Ratzinger as Pope this week was compelled by an upcoming action by a European government to issue an arrest warrant against Ratzinger and a public lien against Vatican property and assets by Easter.”
As you may recall this whole mess came up briefly during Pope John Paul I reign; his determination to straighten things out financially is said to have led to his premature death. I believe this is outlined in a book called In God’s Name.
I doubt this event is stirring up a great deal of skepticism anywhere. However, it may get derailed as officials and others outside the Church realize that they are themselves in danger. It will be interesting to see how things proceed. I am not even sure the proceedings can be legally upheld.
Perhaps this is even something of a nasty hoax.
Feb 21, 2013 @ 02:17:05
While we are on the subject of Catholics and conservatism, let me draw your attention to a Catholic of whom you may not have heard. He came from the Polish nobility and was born in 1877; and like most of the conservative Catholics you mention with commendation (Pope Benedict, Pat Buchanan, Rick Santorum, Paul Ryan and others–five of the Supreme Court Justices are also Catholics and members of Opus Dei, but I am not sure how you view them) he rose to the heights in status and power. As a young person he dreamed of being a Jesuit priest and believed he had followed their path in his work. His name was Felix Dzerzhinsky. And he became very well known in Soviet Union where he was director of the Cheka! I am sure if he had come along later in a different nation he might well have risen to the heights in the Vatican or Mussolini’s fascist Italy or for the matter Hitler’s Germany–as you know these latter were also Catholics though that is not usually emphasized. So while conservatism and Catholicism seem to go well together they may not produce much of a Christian. It is a well known fact especially in places like Ireland that Pope Benedict protected the pedophile priests even as a Cardinal–attendance there at Mass in the last ten years has fallen dramatically! With Opus Dei we have a great emphsasis on wealth and power–but I doubt they worry much about child abuse. When Pat Buchanan ran for President, it was discovered that he was something of a slum landlord–and while talking buy American drove a Mercedes Benz, Dirty hands are as much a part of Christian hierarchy Protestant as well as Catholic as they are in all centers of power. Perhaps that is why Jesus avoided those places?
In any case Iron Felix hunted down the heretics (that Lenin pointed out) just as you mention Pope Benedict did the ones his dogma and spies indicated–so at least we now know you can be a pedophile and yet not a heretic which is something. Since ecumenical councils trump popes, recent popes have been schismatic. You yourself have expressed strong commitment to councils so you can see what I mean. I am sure after each council there were always plenty of dissenters as there have been since Vatican II.
Feb 21, 2013 @ 16:28:15
Unfortunately, political considerations get involved in religion–and there has been traditional animosity between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. That is no excuse for murdering people, just as the Bosnian situation is no excuse for murder. As for church councils, of course there were dissenters–at once council a crowd held up signs and shouted “Theotokos!” and another crowd carried signs that said “Christotokos.” Catholics assume that God preserved the truth of the faith even though there was much political infighting at the councils. Read Athanasius for some sincere reasoning concerning conciliar decrees that was theological rather than political. I remember that report about Pat Buchanan–unfortunate, since I agree with many of his views, especially his recent antiwar stances.
Feb 21, 2013 @ 18:57:59
Today at ‘Lew Rockwell’ there is an article by Judge Napolitano expressing deep sorrow over the abdication of Pope Benedict. All this leaves me quite puzzled. For some reason if the pedophilia or homosexuality (sex with seminarians by their director, for example) involves a Catholic priest or prelate it is regarded as okay by Christians–at least conservative ones. Or simpy overlooked. I could appreciate this if it were only rumors, but it is clear from documents and court cases that it is fact in fact!
So I have evolved an hypothesis to account for this. Conservatives by and large were raised in very strict patriarchal families where the mother and children feared the father. In most cases the children were harshly disciplined and scared. Sometimes I hear conservatives on local radio talk shows brag about getting beaten by their fathers. Needless to say I am sure they beat their children, too. [As a note here, the ladies of the night in Washington report that the most common request they get from their clients(Senators and Representatives) is to be beaten--masochism]
How many of these men and in some cases women werer sexually abused as children. From all sorts of sources including first hand testimony I hear about this phenomenon. I can only conclude that it is common place. And no respecter of class. In which case I guess if the pope protects these offenders it is okay with conservative Christians–no milll stones on order!
Of course there are other problems with the now former Pope Benedict, but I have yet to hear from one of the conservatives in their own words why this behavior is acceptable. I am anticipating something like “human weakeness”. Or he did so much good?
Now to take a very Catholic nation the great drop off in attendance of Mass in Ireland has been directly related to the attitude the Church has taken to sexual abuse there by priests, bishops and cardinals. And much of this occurred while Benedict was either Cardinal and knew about it and later was Pope and knew about it. Yes, I realize he has a reputation of being quite a scholar but scholarship and sanctity have no known relationship. As you indicate his maitre was pursuing heretics–but oddly that pursuit does not receive near the attention in the New Testament from Jesus that the kind treatment of children does. Thus–
Just as liberals are twisted in one way–shall we say left; so conservatives are twisted in another way–right, of course. Neither position seems particularly sane or in touch with reality. But there is no point in telling either group. Because both tend towards the fanatic and the blind. Entering the realm of politics can be hazardous, and when it is joined with religion it becomes lethal. People are cruely treated and killed.
In my opinion the actual life conditions that follow upon either religious or political decrees are what matter. I am no respector of theories unless they further humans beings in achieving the purposes of their lives.
Feb 24, 2013 @ 02:15:49
Conservative Christians do not tolerate pedophilia or homosexuality in their clergy–certain clegy may protect their own, and to the extent that they did, they should be severely punished. If it can be proven that ahy bishop–all the way up to the Pope–protected such corrupt clergy, they should be punsihed. There are rumors of a significant homosexual minority in the Roman Catholic Church who may have functioned to protect such priests. I do not know if those rumors are well-founded–I am not Roman Catholic and do not have any inside information on the RC Church. It is irresponsible to say that conservative Christians tolerate pedophilia and homosexuality among their clergy–I know of many instances in which a preacher was fired for engaging in such behavior as soon as that behavior was discovered. The RC Church should have done a better job in keeping bad priests away from churches. We do not know how widespread such protection of pedophile priests extended–I’ve heard of a few dioceses in the US, but by no means even close to the majority, where there was a coverup. There is no justification for the claim of a broad coverup in the dioceses of the US or of any other country. If the RC-hating mainstream media knew of such, it most certainly would have reported it.
Feb 24, 2013 @ 02:45:50
The Guardian home [mainstream news] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/11/pope-resigns-sex-abuse-survivors
News
World news
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict resigns: sex abuse survivors hope move eases prosecution
“David Clohessy, executive director of Snap, condemned the pope’s “terrible record” on child sex abuse and said he hoped he would “finally show some courageous leadership on the abuse crisis” in his remaining days.
Clohessy told the Guardian: “Before he became pope his predecessor put him in charge of the abuse crisis. He has read thousands of pages of reports of the abuse cases from across the world. He knows more about clergy sex crimes and cover-ups than anyone else in the church yet he has done precious little to protect children.”
I believe the Guardian is considered one of the leading European papers. But this is everywhere.
And yes there is a significant element of gays in the Vatican–but again nothing new in that.
Feb 24, 2013 @ 02:33:10
You are not well informed on this matter. I can not go into all the places where this has been a problem; but if you check out what has happened in Ireland that will be a start. Not only is pedophilia wide spread in the Catholic Church iat is wide spread everywhere. Again as in politics there is going to be a lot of cover up. Sometimes people think this is doing good. Sometimes it is merely protecting themselves and their buddies. I am speculating now that your job, your environment, etc. have shielded you. If, as I have found, conservative Christians–perhaps thinking they are doing a good deed– hiding sexual misconduct, I think it important that this be known. I am not making things up. Of courser the Pope knew about these things and quite often the bishops. I am very surprised by how little you are aware of these things as there have out of court settlements going on for year.
Nor is this a modern phenomenon either. Probably there is a good deal less sexual misconduct now than in the past. But sex trafficing is huge everywhere. I know a lot women who are sensitive to these things.
Just Google a little. keep in mind that main stream media is corporate; they are not doing a good job of keeping people informed. I think a good dose of skepticism would do you a lot of good.