Getting to Know the Pope

The excellent "Against the Grain" blog—part of the now heavily visited www.RatzingerFanClub.com site—has a nice roundup of recent pieces about Pope Benedict XVI, titled "Getting to know Pope Benedict XVI..." One interesting tid bit: the new Holy Father is a cat-lover. He truly is a man of wisdom and sensitivity!

Comments

[Danny]

Finially, an article from the mainstream media about the new pope that actully makes some good points:

The Vatican bells had barely stopped clanging when the Rev. John Thomas, resident of the left-leaning United Church of Christ, was denouncing the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Though Thomas once served as his denomination's envoy to other Christians, he abandoned all pretense of the politesse that's expected at such ecumenical moments.

"Cardinal Ratzinger's long tenure in the Vatican has been marked by a theological tone that is rigid, conservative and confrontational," said Thomas, whose denomination will consider a resolution supporting same-sex marriage at its July convention.

The pope has lacked "the warm pastoral heart" that bishops need, Thomas charged, his "harsh treatment" of liberal theologians as head of the Vatican's orthodoxy watchdog agency was "profoundly troubling" and his attitude toward non-Catholics has been "narrow," "constrained," "insensitive" and "demeaning."

In other words, this pope is no liberal Protestant.

Why is it so hard for people to accept that this pope is Catholic? My favorite line about this new pope was a women interviewed who said, "I simply think this man is too old to be pope. How is the Catholic Church ever going to progress if it continues to root itself in the past?" As Bugs Bunny would say, "What a maroon!" Some continue to suggest that the Catholic Church is finished unless it 'modernizes' in the same sense the United Church of Chirst and others have. Oh really?

While Catholic liberals believe it would be both wise and just for the church to loosen up on doctrinal demands, Benedict might draw the opposite conclusion from U.S. Protestant trends. Since the mid-1960s, liberal denominations like Thomas' United Church of Christ have suffered a steady slide in membership, while conservative groups like the Southern Baptists have continued to expand. And in the past generation, Southern Baptist agencies have actually moved from moderate conservatism to stricter conservatism. Penn State historian Philip Jenkins noted in his book "The Next Christendom" that the same trend is true globally. While flexible, modernized churches stagnate, evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity are growing in the developing world — as is Islam. These groups have been dogged in preserving doctrinal and moral tradition. If Benedict plays to conservative Christians in the United States, he'll be working with the growth sector of the religious world today.

[Sandra Miesel]

I had noticed Pope Benedict's interest in cats. Even better, cats like him. Perhaps he could have his own kitty in the papal apartments. It would be relaxing company but perhaps trigger unhappy comments about Cardinal Richlieu.

[Ed Peters]

What about Richilieu and cats?

[Sandra Miesel]

Thanks to THE THREE MUSKETEERS, Cardinal Richelieu stroking his cat has become an image of subtle malevolence.

[Teresa Polk]

Be careful. You'll have people shipping kittens to the Vatican: 56,191 e-mails and 57,191 papal kitties. Meow!

[Tom Harmon]

Ugh. This, no doubt, means that I'm allergic to the Holy Father.

[Sandra Miesel]

Someone on another blogs says that the Pope already has two cats. Let's have pictures!

[Teresa Polk]

That's wonderful! I can't wait to see the cats sitting in the window of the papal apartment (no doubt on the evening news)!