After a bit of reflection, it may be that worse (Ratzinger) may turn out to be, well, if not "better," at least the best of a lot of bad options. After all, it's not as if any of the leading candidates could have been expected to embrace a role for openly gay people in the Roman church. And a 78-year-old German characterized universally for his rigidity exerts a lot less charisma than a (relatively) younger, third-world, ground-breakingly black or Latino pope would.
According to Ratzinger's biographer John L. Allen Jr. (as quoted in the New York Times), "Having seen fascism in action, Ratzinger today believes that the best antidote to political totalitarianism is ecclesiastical totalitarianism," which won't sit well with the broad swath of American Catholics. Moreover, Ratzinger's frequent condemnations of "relativism" (the belief that other denominations and faiths lead equally to salvation) could eventually create a breach with those on the Protestant religious right, which is now having orgasms over his election (just when did conservative American Protestantism become so enamored of popery?).
Decidedly not part of the religious right, it was fun to see
Rev. Frank T. Griswold, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church
USA, offer this
"congratulatory" note to Ratzinger:
I offer my prayers for Pope Benedict XVI as he takes up the august responsibility of his office. I pray that the Holy Spirit will guide him in his words and his actions and that he may become a focus of unity and a minister of reconciliation in a church and a world in which faithfulness and truth wear many faces.
Take that, Ratzo.
More Recent Postings
4/17/05 - 4/23/05