Hugh Hewitt has a wonderful post right now about the stakes in the upcoming election of the new Pope. I think he has it pretty much together. The world is watching, and God's timing, mysterious as it is, is very, very important.
The thing I've never gotten is the backlash against the thought of an American Pope. Everybody says that it would never happen because it's too political. I'd always kinda thought that it wasn't really about politics wtih the Pope. His allegiance is (supposed) to be for God and God alone, so why would it matter what country he came from? Heck, you want to threaten someone politically, choose a Chinese Pope. I'm sure they'd just love that in Beijing.
Update
Here's a link to a story about the AP poll regarding what Americans want to see in the next Pope. I guess I can see why an American Pope might not be the most popular of ideas. (HT: Slublog)
Incidentally, if the next Pope were to reverse previous Catholic Church teachings on matters such as homosexuality, abortion, etc., it would completely invalidate everything they have said in the past about Papal infallibility (Humanae Vitae is often pointed out as an infallible teaching), the unchanging nature of Church doctrine, or that their commands come from God. I mean, I disagree with a lot of Catholic theology, but doctrines that directly contradict scripture? That'd take one heck of a Pope.
2 comments:
1) Thank God that American Catholics aren't electing the Pope.
2) I believe that the numbers would have been much different if the statistics distinguished between practicing and non-practicing Catholics. Among practicing Catholics, particularly among the youngest generations, the trend is towards greater orthodoxy and fidelity. It's the Baby Boomers who are the dissenters. (Book I'm reading right now: The New Faithful: Why Young Adults are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy by Collen Carroll.)
3) Georgetown University, which was quoted twice in the article, is one of many notoriously un-Catholic Catholic universities in America.
-Ryan Herr.
You bring up some valid points. The MSM has taken this opportunity to give air to the many dissenting opinions within the Catholic church.
But your point about the practicing vs. non-practicing Catholics, seems to me, to beg the question. At what point does someone cease to be a Catholic? While 100% fidelity to church teachings is asked, it is obviously not required to ensure that one can receive communion. But where does the line get drawn, then?
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