Interesting...

[neebs]

This is a quote from a washpost.com article about the new pope:

The Rev. Richard P. McBrien, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame, said Ratzinger's homily indicated that he believes the pope's role is to "protect the sheep from the prowling wolves of unorthodoxy and relativism. He wants to defend the fact that truth is absolute and the church must speak the truth and be faithful to it."

McBrien added, "If Cardinal Ratzinger were really campaigning for pope, he would have given a far more conciliatory homily designed to appeal to the moderates as well as to the hard-liners among the cardinals."

"I think this homily shows he realizes he's not going to be elected. He's too much of a polarizing figure," McBrien said. "If he were elected, thousands upon thousands of Catholics in Europe and the United States would roll their eyes and retreat to the margins of the church."

Interesting, because Ratzinger IS the new pope--Benedict XVI.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

They should have listened to the guy from Notre Dame. But nooooo why would anyone care what the non-crazy Catholics think??

[neebs.livejournal.com]

I just talked to my boss, who's a Rev. (not Catholic, but still) and she just went OFF on what a not-so-great decision this was for the Catholic church because of the super conservative views this guy has on women's roles and church reformation and such.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh well.. that's what the Catholic church is for. If we weren't crazy conservative, we'd have to leave it up to the Born Agains, and they just give Christians a bad name, so the Catholics take the charge in being absolutely ridiculous. That, and only in America will Catholics dislike this position.. and they don't like American Catholics anyway because we play sports and work on Sundays.