Andrew Sullivan came up with an analogy for a non-Catholic acquaintance to describe what the appointment of Joseph Ratzinger meant to many heterodox Catholics:-
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.
I suppose a more apposite UK analogy would be Tony Blair being succeeded after 3 terms by that infamous architect and enforcer of New Labour orthodoxy Peter Mandelson. Heaven (or at least Gordon Brown) forbid...
On the subject of the election, I was impressed by Tony Blair's interview with the dreaded Jeremy Paxman today, particularly in comparison with the stuffing Paxo dealt out to Charles Kennedy on Monday. I can hardly wait for the Michael Howard interview on Friday. Will we see a repeat of the 1997 classic, in which Paxman asked Howard the same question 12 times without getting an answer? Based on his tenacity with Blair on the subject of failed asylum seekers, and his merciless bullying of Charles Kennedy, it wouldn't surprise me.
Paxman's techniques may often whiff of egotism and showboating, and often ending up generating far more heat than light, but you can't knock the entertainment value.
posted by Kevin @ 3:53 PM
2 Comments:
I guess I don't get it. I mean, if you are going to be Catholic, wouldn't you want a leader who actually reads and follows what the Bible says? Why would anyone want to be Catholic and then change everything? Why not just taylor-make your own belief system and call it something else? No one has to believe or live by the Bible so why try to twist what it says?
There were a number of candidates for the Papacy, all of whom I am sure read the Bible very closely and would profess to follow what the Bible says. None of these people were offering to change everything, but some would be more willing to review the Church's policies than others.
The Catholic Church has undergone enormous changes in the 20th Century. Look at Vatican II in particular, and even arch-Conservative John Paul II's rapprochement with other faiths and apologies for previous atrocities which were condoned by Catholic orthodoxy at the time.
The issue is not whether the new Pope would change everything overnight, but is instead one of direction and openness to dialogue and reinterpretation in a world which continually yields new dilemmas and discoveries and innovations.
The statements made by Benedict XVI so far suggest that he wishes to consolidate the Church's centralisation under John Paul II, reducing the independence of national churches, and will not be open to dialogue with other interest groups within the Church.
If he lives up to these promises, he will be remembered as an extremely conservative Pope in an era of great change within Catholicism.
This traditional stand will have its supporters within the congregation, but it will also have its dissenters among the regular rank-and-file of Catholic worshippers, who have no wish to see the Church become a "dictatorship of relativism", but would prefer it not not to become a dictatorship of orthodoxy either.
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