Opinion

sg-newPope

<p> Immediately after Cardinal Tauran made the traditional <i>Habemus Papam</i> announcement, the media outlets from around the world I was following became totally silent for several seconds.</p> 
<p> "God works in mysterious ways," was the first reaction from a <a href="/topics//Latin_America">Latin America</a>n TV station, using a commonly used expression in that continent.</p> 
<p> "Who?" asked one reporter from a major American station.</p> 
<p> The announcement of 76-year-old Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis indeed came as a surprise to many. A first in many regards, as has been widely reported by now -- the first pope to take the name the Francis; the first pope of the Americas and the first from <a href="/topics//Latin_America">Latin America</a> specifically; and first Jesuit.</p> 
<p> Regardless of our religious affiliation -- or non-affiliation for that matter -- we cannot ignore the importance that the election of a pope has, not only for the 1.2 billion Catholics but also for the entire world. What kind of pope will Francis be, and what impact will this election have among Hispanics around the world?</p> 
<p> As Archbishop of Buenos Aires since 1998 and as Cardinal Bergoglio since 2001, his views have been held both as socially progressive and doctrinally conservative. He is known as a major proponent of social justice, which has become a central item in the agenda of <a href="/topics//Latin_America">Latin America</a>n Catholicism. Commentators from around the world have by now stressed that his personal choice for an austere life style and his choice of the name Francis are symbolic of his humility and spiritual poverty.</p> 
<p> At the same time, he has also been sharply criticized for having distanced himself as a theologian from the controversial Theology of Liberation, which flourished in <a href="/topics//Latin_America">Latin America</a> particularly in the 1970s and '80s. In this regard, he was not very far from Cardinal <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Joseph Ratzinger</a>, who as Prefect of the <a href="/topics//Congregation_for_the_Doctrine_of_the_Faith">Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith</a>, was entrusted by <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">Pope John Paul II</a> to formulate an official church response to this theological movement. Also, Cardinal Bergoglio's relationship with the Argentinian government of President <a href="/topics//Cristina_Fernandez_de_Kirchner">Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner</a> has been fairly strained on social issues -- particularly in recent years, when he became a major opponent of the South American country's legalization of <a href="/topics//Same-sex_Marriage">same-sex marriage</a>.</p> 
<p> But we must remember that no pope will ever be "modern," "radical," or "reformer" enough for those expecting major changes in the Catholic Church, nor "traditional" or "conservative" enough for those defending traditional church teachings. No pope will ever satisfy the entire gamut of expectations we place on his office.</p> 
<p> As the first <a href="/topics//Latin_America">Latin America</a>n pope, the election of Cardinal Bergoglio satisfies many who have expressed the need for the church to select a non-European cardinal and to shift the attention toward <a href="/topics//Africa">Africa</a> and <a href="/topics//Latin_America">Latin America</a>, continents in which the Catholic Church has seen major growth in recent decades.</p> 
<p> Likewise, we cannot ignore the impact that his election will have for the growing numbers of Hispanics in the United States. As a commonly cited statistic illustrates, more than 50 percent of Catholics under the age of 25 in the United States are Hispanic.</p> 
<p> There is tremendous joy and pride among Latin Americans and Hispanics everywhere over the election of Pope Francis. Yet, we cannot forget that the moment a cardinal accepts the position of pope, his race, ethnicity or national origin become secondary, as he embraces the role of universal leader of the church.</p> 
<p> <i>Mario Ortiz is director of Latin American and Latino Studies at Catholic University of America in <a href="/topics//Washington,_D.C.">Washington, D.C.</a></i></p>

Commentary

OPORT14

Ortiz: What will Pope Francis mean for Latinos?

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<p> Jorge Bergoglio, the son of Italian immigrants born in Buenos Aires, doesn't fit the image of a high and mighty churchman in charge of an empire of more than 1 billion people.</p> 
<p> He's a humble man and, at 76, not young. Until quite recently, he rode the bus to work and lived in a small apartment. He cooked his own meals.</p> 
<p> After the white smoke poured from the Vatican on Wednesday, and Cardinal Bergoglio took the name Pope Francis, he asked the people to pray for him.</p> 
<p> By taking the name Francis - one of Roman Catholicism's most humble and beloved saints - the new pope announced changes coming to Western Christianity's largest church, a church in crisis.</p> 
<p> The cardinals, in putting their trust in Francis, were directly responding to the challenge laid out by the former Pope Benedict XVI.</p> 
<p> Before he stepped down, Benedict repeatedly warned that the church was in crisis, among the hierarchs and the laity. The example on most people's minds, regardless of their faith, is the hypocrisy among the church leaders who moved sexually abusive priests from parish to parish to cover up their crimes and allow them to continue ruining the lives of children.</p> 
<p> Benedict also warned that such hypocrisy had accelerated a drifting faith among the people (and this applies to all Christians), where some attend services and see not a holy miracle but a pageant.</p> 
<p> This is endemic, particularly in the stridently secular big-government West that regards Christianity as a competitor, an obstacle to overcome, if not an outright threat to squash.</p> 
<p> Shortly after Francis was chosen, I phoned two experts to explore Benedict's warning in the context of the church's new leadership.</p> 
<p> The first was Larry Chapp, professor of theology at DeSales University in <a href="/topics//Pennsylvania">Pennsylvania</a>.</p> 
<p> "Benedict made it very, very clear," Chapp told me, "that the crisis in the church, from the sexual abuse crisis, to the mismanagement of the Curia, to the crisis in the Vatican, to the crisis of secularism in Western society, all of these crises have one root cause:</p> 
<p> "The leadership of the church lacks proper faith in Jesus Christ. They're not living in a sense an evangelical life of poverty, chastity and obedience. They're not living a radical life of devotion to the poor and the outcast and the marginal.</p> 
<p> They're too concerned with worldly things. Now they've picked the man Francis who in a sense will reorient the church toward fundamental things of faith. I think this is critical. Yes, the cardinals responded to the challenge."</p> 
<p> Prior to the selection, there was much talk that the cardinals would chose either an evangelist or a bureaucrat.</p> 
<p> "Instead, they elected a man of faith," Chapp said. "They went and found the holiest man in the College of Cardinals and made him pope. It wasn't what people were expecting. But they saw his holiness and faith as priority No. 1. And that's astounding."</p> 
<p> Rod Dreher, a former Roman Catholic turned Orthodox Christian who writes on religion and culture for The American Conservative, said Francis should do something dramatic to address the sexual abuse and other scandals.</p> 
<p> "He can have a come-to-Jesus moment with some of these cardinals and bishops who have been the most egregious facilitators of abuse, covering it up.</p> 
<p> "If the pope could make an example of a few of those guys and forcibly retire them, send them to a monastery," said Dreher, "this would send the message to the people and the wider world that the days of covering these things up are over."</p> 
<p> It would allow the new pope to publicly and forcefully come down on the side of the faithful.</p> 
<p> "To stand with the people against the aristocratic class, so to speak, within the church . to show there's a new regime in town and that the bad old days are over," Dreher said. "We need a clean break with the cover-ups."</p> 
<p> As the scandals and the cover-ups have cost Catholic leaders the moral authority required to act as good shepherds, the onslaught of a strident secularism, particularly in the West, has weakened Christianity generally.</p> 
<p> Is it our ravenous consumerism? Our hunger requiring shiny new objects and ever-stronger sensations?</p> 
<p> "Benedict spoke of the dictatorship of relativism, the idea that there is no absolute truth, that truth is whatever you think truth should be," said Dreher. "This is the acid burning through the spiritual life of the West."</p> 
<p> What bothers him most is his fear that the young have drifted away.</p> 
<p> "Social science tells us that among young people, there are many who have no church or faith at all. They don't feel the need for God anymore. We've become so rich, so craving of sensation, that we think we don't need God, or that the god we think we need looks a lot like ourselves.</p> 
<p> "This is the great competitor for the <a href="/topics//Roman_Catholic_Church">Roman Catholic Church</a> and all Christian churches now: consumerism and narcissism and the almighty self."</p> 
<p> But can Pope Francis hold against such forces?</p> 
<p> "The church is countercultural now. It has to be," Dreher said.</p> 
<p> He recalled the words of <a href="/topics//Flannery_O'Connor">Flannery O'Connor</a>, the great Catholic writer: "You have to push as hard as the age that pushes against you."</p> 
<p> Now, Dreher said, "I hope this pope pushes back hard against the age."</p> 
<p> And so do many of us.</p> 
<p> <i><a href="/topics//John_Kass">John Kass</a> is a columnist for the <a href="/topics//Chicago_Tribune">Chicago Tribune</a>.</i></p>

OPKASS14

Kass: Pope Francis should heed warnings from Pope Benedict XVI

<p>Its pretty cheeky to offer reading suggestions to a new pope, especially a Jesuit one. Pretty much by definition, Jesuits read deeply and well.</p>
<p>Still, on the off chance that, in his busy pre-papal life, Pope Francis never got around to reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Reform-Papacy-Unum-Sint/dp/B007K5D0NM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1363090819&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=archbishop+john+quinn">this book</a> on the papacy by Archbishop Emeritus John R. Quinn of San Francisco, I think it would be a useful addition to his reading list.</p>
<p>OK, some of you may be saying to yourselves: San Francisco! He must be one of those fringe lefty bishops.</p>
<p>Hardly. He served as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the same position that Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York now holds. So Quinns fellow bishops obviously held him in high esteem. Years ago, I read his book, which details the need for a restructuring of the papacy, to devolve to dioceses and regional bishops conferences some of the functions now too tightly held by the Vatican.</p>
<p>Its not a radical treatise from nowhere, but a thoughtful response to Ut Unum Sint (That They May Be One), a 1995 encyclical by Pope John Paul II. In an op-ed Monday, I briefly made an argument for restructuring, in journalistic shorthand. After I wrote it, I came across <a href="http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/former-san-francisco-archbishop-calls-papal-reforms-ahead-conclave">this piece</a> on Quinn in National Catholic Reporter Online, which provides an excellent summary of his thought, just in case you dont have time to read his book.</p>
<p>Its becoming increasingly clear that updating the structure of the Vatican needs to be a significant area of concern for Pope Francisamong many.</p>
<p>Its hard to imagine what is going through his mind as he begins to grapple with all the many facets of governing a church of 1.2 billion members. He can use a lot of help and a lot of good will. Maybe reading Quinns book will be helpful in this one area of concern. Even better, maybe he can give Quinn a call and ask him to come to Rome, with all his restructuring ideas, and talk face-to-face with Pope Francis about how to implement some of them.</p>

Keeler: A reading list for Pope Francis I

<p>This is a pope who gives me hope. But for a few minutes, I have to admit, I was holding my breath.</p>
<p>The last time we had white smoke on day two of a conclave, I was pretty certain -- long before the "Habemus papam" announcement -- that the new pope was going to be Cardinal Joseph <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Ratzinger</a>. And it was.</p>
<p>That gave me a feeling that our church wasn't going to be tending to its woundedness, but clinging to a pinched vision of church that wasn't going to lead the way forward.</p>
<p>So, when the white smoke went up this time, I feared the cardinal electors had chosen some old-guard Italian. Some news reports had said Cardinal Angelo Scola might have 40 of the necessary 77 votes. That sounded too much like the Ratzinger scenario of 2005.</p>
<p>The first sign that my glumness was misplaced was the given name of the new pope: Jorge Mario Bergoglio -- of Argentina.</p>
<p>Finally, a pope from a part of the world where the church is growing, and not from Europe, where it is shrinking. That's what I'd been hoping for.</p>
<p>The next surprise was even more heartening than mere geography: the name he chose.</p>
<p>In an op-ed on Monday, I expressed the hope that the new pope would recognize the brokenness of our church -- with the sexual abuse scandal and intrigue and dysfunction in the Vatican. And I didn't even mention the scandal of the ongoing exclusion of women from significant roles in governing the universal church. If the new pope were honest, I dared to think, maybe he'd think back to St. Francis of Assisi, who thought he heard Jesus telling him: "Repair my church." And maybe he'd decide the church is so much in need of fixing now that the best name he could take would be Francis.</p>
<p>And he did.</p>
<p>Of course, I thought as the afternoon wore on, this Jesuit pope could have named himself after St. <a href="/topics//Francis_Xavier">Francis Xavier</a>, one of the original Jesuits. Or St. Francis de Sales of France. Or maybe all three. But New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan soon made it clear the pope chose this name in honor of Francis of Assisi and his love for the poor. I hope his choice also reflects a sense of the need for repair, for Franciscan humility, and maybe even the Franciscan love for our great blue globe and all its creatures.</p>
<p>Another thing to love about him is that he's the first pope from the Society of Jesus. In my book, any new person I meet who happens to have SJ after his name gets 10 positive points right at the start -- for intelligence and scholarship. The late Jesuit Scripture scholar Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini of Milan, though he wouldn't have broken the European mold, would have been a wonderful pope, I always felt.</p>
<p>The other thing to like about our new pope is that he was not exactly a central figure in the many lists of papabili put forward by various experts trying to guess which way the conclave might be going. This is a surprise I think we're going to like -- and not just because it confounds the wise.</p>
<p>In his first moments on the balcony, Francis quipped that he's a bishop of Rome called from afar -- a gentle echo of what Karol Wojtyla said in 1978 when he emerged on the balcony as <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">John Paul II</a>, the first Polish pope. Now we have our first Latin American pope.</p>
<p>And Pope Francis got me a little emotional when he humbly bowed and asked the vast throng to pray for him, before he gave them his blessing.</p>
<p>The secrecy of the conclave will probably make us wait a good long time before we learn any important details of what went on in the <a href="/topics//Sistine_Chapel">Sistine Chapel</a> -- and how we all got it wrong. For now, I'm just content to rejoice that this Italian railway worker's son from Buenos Aires chose the name Francis.</p>
<p>His native city's name has been translated as Fair Winds, and we can all pray that this Jesuit who has picked a Franciscan name will bring to the church the fair and healthy winds of change that it so badly needs right now.</p>
<p>Grace and peace to you, Pope Francis.</p>
<p><i>Bob Keeler is a former religion reporter and editorial writer for Newsday.</i></p>

News

OPKEE14

Keeler: Pope Francis is a surprise pick with a welcome name

Keeler: Pope Francis has a welcome name

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  <p>Argentine Jorge Bergoglio has been elected pope, the first ever from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium. We asked Long Islanders what they were looking for in a new pope. Tell us what you think Pope Francis should do at <a href="http://opinion.newsday.com/letters/?p=110">Take the Podium </a> or by <a href="http://www.newsday.com/opinion/what-do-you-think-pope-francis-should-do-1.4810024">sending us a video response.</a></p> 
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   <p>HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM</p>— Pontifex (@Pontifex) <a href="https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/311922995633455104">March 13, 2013</a>
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   <p>New pope not just first from outside Europe, also first Jesuit. European history marches on...</p>— Alexander DePalma (@AP_Euro_DePalma) <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Euro_DePalma/status/311956642914770944">March 13, 2013</a>
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I think Pope Francis should...

<p> In winning election as Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio defied the papal pundits, even though they should have seen him coming. His rise marks the decisive shift within Roman Catholicism toward <a href="/topics//Latin_America">Latin America</a> and the developing world. In theological terms, he represents continuity, yet he is the first non-European pope in more than 1,000 years, and also the first Jesuit.</p> 
<p> He is a doctrinal conservative who battled <a href="/topics//Same-sex_Marriage">gay marriage</a> in Argentina and fellow Jesuits who were more liberal. But he also rebuked priests who denied baptism to children born out of wedlock and has spoken strongly for social justice. He is the first pope to take the name of the saint known for his devotion to humility and to the poor. He is likely to weigh in often on behalf of the world's poorest regions.</p> 
<p> "We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least," Bergoglio told <a href="/topics//Latin_America">Latin America</a>n bishops in 2007. "The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers."</p> 
<p> That his election was a surprise is, in itself, surprising. It was widely reported that he came in second to Cardinal Joseph <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Ratzinger</a> -- <a href="/topics//Pope_Benedict_XVI">Pope Benedict XVI</a> -- in the 2005 conclave. <a href="/topics//John_Allen">John Allen</a>, the well-sourced Rome correspondent for the <a href="/topics//National_Catholic_Reporter">National Catholic Reporter</a>, cited a prelate who said that Bergoglio had given Ratzinger "something of a horse race."</p> 
<p> Bergoglio's support stayed intact in the ensuing eight years, and one church official said that he received roughly 30 votes on the first ballot on Tuesday, a strong showing in the 115-member conclave that placed him in a commanding position to win early after only five rounds of voting.</p> 
<p> In the run-up to the conclave, however, he was pushed down the list of probable victors, partly because of his age -- he is 76 -- and partly because some cardinals wondered whether he had the toughness to take on a Vatican bureaucracy in desperate need for reform. This will now be tested.</p> 
<p> More liberal American Catholics seeking change in the church's stance on the role of women and sexuality cannot expect much movement from Pope Francis. He is a traditionalist, although the same could be said of all other potential winners. Francis was an early critic of liberation theology, which united Catholics and movements on the political left in <a href="/topics//Latin_America">Latin America</a>.</p> 
<p> Yet an American bishop noted that the choice of Francis would not be greeted as a clear victory by conservatives, either. On liturgical issues, he has opposed those who seek to roll back changes instituted by the Second Vatican Council.</p> 
<p> This bishop also noted that in his first speech as pope to the crowd in St. Peter's Square, Francis laid heavy stress on his role as the "Bishop of Rome," rather than emphasizing his standing as the leader of the church. This could, the American bishop said, be a signal that Bergoglio is sympathetic to forces in the church unhappy with the concentration of power in the papacy who have called for a decentralization of authority away from the Vatican.</p> 
<p> The conclave also pointedly stepped away from cardinals with close ties to the Curia, as the Vatican bureaucracy is known, and also from the early Italian favorite, Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan.</p> 
<p> In the end, it is Pope Francis' standing as a Latin American and as an advocate of the poor that may well define him.</p> 
<p> His connection to Argentina is not without ambiguity. He has come under criticism for not speaking up strongly against the brutal Argentine junta that ruled the country from 1976 to 1983. Yet he is unlike some past leaders in the Latin Church who allied themselves with privilege.</p> 
<p> He gave up the archbishop's mansion in favor of a small apartment, and used public transit. He's worked in his nation's slums and asked his priests to do the same. He has outlined the shortcomings of unregulated capitalism, and of the <a href="/topics//International_Monetary_Fund">International Monetary Fund</a>.</p> 
<p> For many Catholics, a great deal of hope rests on the new pontiff's choice of the name Francis, the saint who disdained formal authority, devoted himself to a simple life, cared passionately about the marginalized, and saw actions as counting far more than proclamations.</p> 
<p> It is said that St. Francis once declared, "Preach the Gospel always. If necessary, use words." For a pope, it's a challenging approach.&nbsp;</p>

Parker: Pope Francis is a new center of gravity

Dionne: Pope Francis is a new center of gravity for the Catholic Church

<p>For Catholics, the days leading to <a href="/topics//Easter">Easter</a> are a time of spiritual renewal. In choosing the name Francis in his first act as pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina sent the world a hopeful message that he will be a man of action and compassion as he tries to reform a troubled church.</p>
<p>For Catholics, for other Christians, for people of other faiths and for nonbelievers, this man of firsts represents an opportunity for a shaky pillar of Western civilization to influence the world for good. His namesake, Francis of Assisi, said more than 800 years ago that he heeded a divine call to "repair my church." We wish Bergoglio the strength and courage and wisdom to do so as well.</p>
<p>At 76, he seems to possess the political skills and life experiences to do that. He has spoken forcefully to the Argentine government and has been around the Vatican long enough to appreciate how bureaucratic infighting has weakened the financial oversight role of the church.</p>
<p>He brings other firsts in addition to his name. He is the first pope from the Society of Jesus. Bergoglio's choice of Francis is also a likely nod to <a href="/topics//Francis_Xavier">Francis Xavier</a>, a student of the order's founder, Ignatius Loyola, and its first missionary. The Jesuits are credited with righting a church badly shaken by <a href="/topics//Martin_Luther">Martin Luther</a> and the Reformation movement.</p>
<p>And he is the first pope from <a href="/topics//Latin_America">Latin America</a>, where 46 percent of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics live.</p>
<p>In his first spiritual invocation, he asked for a moment of silence, he asked for prayers for himself, and then he recited with the throng in the square the simplest of Catholic prayers. He seems less a prince of the church than a servant of it. Unlike his predecessor, <a href="/topics//Pope_Benedict_XVI">Pope Benedict XVI</a>, Bergoglio seems ready to step firmly and joyfully into the future.</p>
<p>Those surprised that Bergoglio embraces the same doctrinal views as his predecessors had misplaced expectations. These are the teachings of the church and deeply held by the cardinals who elected him. The new pope opposes abortion and euthanasia and has spoken against <a href="/topics//Same-sex_Marriage">same-sex marriage</a> laws in Argentina. What we can expect is that he might have a different tone or appreciation for the deeply held contrary views on these moral issues.</p>
<p>Francis of Assisi was the patron saint of merchants, as well as those who loved the <a href="/topics//Earth_(musician)">Earth</a> and its creatures. Should Bergoglio continue on that path, he could offer the world a message about the balance that is necessary between the drive of capitalism and the need to protect the poor and weakest -- and about conserving and celebrating nature.</p>
<p>As the church gains plaudits using the latest technology to spread its religious message, there is a need for it to look deeply into technology's dangers as well. Robots, automation and the ascent of artificial intelligence have the troubling potential to devalue and dehumanize the worth of those pushed aside by its dominance.</p>
<p>If Bergoglio provides such leadership, it would help the church regain credibility and moral suasion in the world -- and elevate its platform to speak about social injustice, the environment and a fairer distribution of world resources.</p>
<p>It is an opportunity the world can pray, or at least hope, will not be lost.</p>

VPPOPE14

In the new pope, a Francis for our times

Editorial: In the pope, a Francis for our times

Francis Cropped

<p> Argentine Jorge Bergoglio has been elected pope, the first ever from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium. He chose the name Pope Francis.</p> 
<p> For Catholics, the days leading to Easter are a time of renewal. In choosing the name of Francis as his first act, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina sends the world a powerful message that the new pope will be a man of action and compassion as he takes the reins of a troubled Roman Catholic Church.</p> 
<p> Earlier this week, Bob Keeler wrote an op-ed about his wishes that the new pope choose the name Francis.&nbsp;Read that column here:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://bit.ly/WHZRCK">http://bit.ly/WHZRCK</a></p> 
<script src="//storify.com/NewsdayOpinion/reactions-to-white-smoke.js"></script>
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 [<a href="//storify.com/NewsdayOpinion/reactions-to-white-smoke" target="_blank">View the story "Reactions to Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio's election as Francis I" on Storify</a>]
 <h1>Reactions to Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio's election as Francis I</h1>
 <h2>As white smoke blows from the Sistine Chapel, Catholics and church watchers around the world react to the election of the new pope. Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was selected by the conclave. Reactions varied among the Twittersphere.</h2>
 <p>Storified by <a href="http://storify.com/NewsdayOpinion">Newsday Opinion</a>· Wed, Mar 13 2013 14:41:17</p>
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  Some of the most recent tweets include...
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  Pope Francis reportedly said condoms "can be permissible" to fight spread of AIDS http://gu.com/p/3edqj/tw h/t @PiersMorganNicholas Kristof
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  Update: Twitter corrects to say 130,000 tweets per minute about new pope (not 130 million per minute) - http://bit.ly/Ya9oRaMatthew Keys
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  God bless Pope Francis -- a good, humble servant of God from the New World!Sarah Palin
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  New graphic: 39% of #Catholics worldwide live in Latin America; Argentina has 11th largest Catholic pop in world http://pic.twitter.com/1ZyGJZwjSdPew Forum 
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  Crucial reminder RT @rachelbnolan: Cardinal Bergoglio will be the first Latin American pope. El Papa=the pope. La papa=potato.Ezra Klein
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  "Let us pray, always, for one another."-Francis 1, 1st South American Pope/tho AP reports he's the son of Italian immigrants.Ann Curry
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  New Pope's first question: "How much do you guys charge to move a couch from Argentina to Italy?"Julius Sharpe
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  Even the Catholic Church understands the importance of the Latino vote better than the GOP.Mike Still
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  Lots of tweets about the new pope from people I know don't care about religion. I think we are all hoping for some change.K
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  There was some confusion about whether&nbsp;Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio's new name, Pope Francis I, referred to Francis&nbsp; Xavier or Francis Assisi.&nbsp;
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  So it's Pope Francis but does he mean Assisi or Xavier?Peter Martin
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  @JamesMartinSJ is this after S Francis of Assisi and his love for the poor, or famous Jesuit St Francis Xavier?Nic Dion
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  St. Francis Xavier or St. Francis of Assisi? Has the Vatican confirmed either?Jaweed Kaleem
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  White smoke first rose from the Sistine Chapel shortly after 3 P.M. The greeting from Pope Francis I came shortly after, where he spoke before a crowd at the Vatican.
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  Raw: White Smoke Signals New Popeassociatedpress
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  PHOTO: Thousands celebrate in St. Peter's Square; awaiting announcement of new #pope http://twitpic.com/cb2lc9NBC Nightly News
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  BREAKING: 115 cardinals in the papal conclave have elected a new leader for the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.#pope http://pic.twitter.com/wC80XjwmbCNews12LI
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  Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio elected pope: http://bit.ly/YblmXLnewsday
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  HABEMUS PAPAM - Francis 1st is the new pope - François 1er est le nouveau pape (LIVE Revelation)videogamestivi
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  The new Pope signaled early that he would continue Benedict XVI's tweets from the @Pontifex handle.
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  HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUMPontifex
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  So, the new Pope will be Tweeting. RT @Pontifex HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUMTrina Morgan
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  They will follow MT @AndrewBloch: Crowd at St Peter's Square awaiting first tweet from #Pope http://twitpic.com/cb37jsGordon MacMillan
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  Politicians, public figures and Catholics seemed pleased.
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  Overjoyed for Catholics everywhere and hopeful that Pope Francis will help foster peace and spirituality across the globe. #HabemusPapemChuck Schumer
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  I'm told by a source in the gop /POTUS meeting that there was stirring on the room when news of white smoke got to themDana Bash
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  I send my warmest blessings to @Pontifex His Holiness Pope Francis I as he answers the call to the highest ministry of the Catholic Church.Rabbi Sacks
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  The first Jesuit pope fills me with joy. God is a God of surprises!James Martin, SJ
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  Obama on Pope Francis: "I look forward to working with His Holiness to advance peace, security, and dignity for our fellow human beings."Barack Obama
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  Yay for Pope Bergoglio!! He's adorable. ????NiC0LE P0LiZZi
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  Pope Francis! Bringing a bit of South American flair to the papacy #fbNathan Tran
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  Mika Brzezinski says to #PopeFrancis, "Please show the world the kind face of the Catholic Church I love." MORE: http://on.msnbc.com/ZIPF9Bmsnbc
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  @andersoncooper New Pope &amp; current.No matter if conservative or liberal,having a LatAm Pope is a change.He will reunite the Church.God blessLorena Matus
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  Habemus Papam! Welcome, Pope Francis! #papaLaura Cole
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  I wish Pope Francis I the best of luck as the new leader of the Catholic ChurchAdam Wozniak
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  Pope Francis! Argentinian Cardinal Bergoglio. It must be exciting to be a Latin American Catholic today.Arwen Mosher
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  ?Welcome Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., POPE FRANCIS, Argentinian, Man of the people, 500 million in parish? http://pic.twitter.com/m6fsiWKsgUMONICA
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  So Francis takes the bus to work, doesn't live in the Cardinal's Mansion, and cooks his own meals? #regularguy #loveit #newPopeCatholic Problems
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  I'm very happy there is a new pope god bless pope francis and all Catholics around the world.Dana Anderson
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  Some of the initial reactions, however, were hostile.
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  I love how there is nothing on tv but the announcement of the new Pope! #saidnooneeverAlexandra Creech
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  All you guys talking about the pope only for today tomorrow you guys are going to forget about him #HonestTweetT-Raww®
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  Have struggled to articulate thoughts on #newpope as 'cultural' Catholic; my mom said it best: "The Church does not intend to make changes."Jennifer Newell
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  RT @pegobry: Dear people on Twitter who are shocked to learn the new Pope opposes gay marriage: please tell me about your planet.daveweigel
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  New #Pope pointless without a change in #Vatican policies to end #sexism &amp; #homophobia. @Pontifex #Pontifex #Catholic #Bergoglio #FrancisPeter Tatchell
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  SHOCKING! An anti-homosexual, anti-abortion and anti-contraception white male was elected the new Pope!Chris
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  The new pipe should've kept Jorge #francisGood Guy Greg
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  The new pope just looked so unhappy walking out. I pray to God he brings us some good. #popeMAC
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  Pope Francis I? What?! We? I can feel the Rapture :((Sophia Perez
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  Do the pope's hipster glasses have a twitter account yet?jarais
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  Very quickly, the hashtags and memes began to trend, including #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope
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  #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope Mean Popes...."ummm you can't pray with us." "On Sundays we wear white!"http://pic.twitter.com/4nkY2SHVcqSeb M
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  Honey I shrunk the pope #ReplaceMovieNamesWithPopeJoshua Alexandre
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  Harry Pope and the prisoner of Vatican #replacemovienameswithpopeJola
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  And the next pope is: #GRUMPYCAT! http://pic.twitter.com/KBlMfIOXvmMark Albert
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  #ReplaceMovieNamesWithPope The Pope Wears PradaAnna Kate Rose
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  #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope Charlie and The Chocolate Pope. :PRonan Bennett
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  We have white smoke! A new pope is about to be selected!!! #mlbmemes http://pic.twitter.com/jmFMcOyJXZMLB Memes
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  popes of the caribbean: on argentinean tides. #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPopeIlana Shire
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  #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope Jurassic Pope.Levi Bochantin
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  #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope The Pope Games. http://pic.twitter.com/UcYsIRxgRiGlen Coco
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  Pope Fiction #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPopeEileen
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  Pope Chainz The 2nd http://twitpic.com/cb2xncFUNNY PICS
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World reacts to Pope Francis: From 'who?!' to 'yaay!'

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio chosen as Pope Francis and the world reacts

pope crowd-copy

<p> Whatever else may be riding on the outcome of this conclave, the important gains in Catholic-Jewish relations that the past two popes achieved—brilliantly and theatrically in the case of John Paul II and more quietly and steadily under Benedict XVI—are not in danger.</p> 
<p> Given the painful history of two millennia, it’s one of the good news non-stories of the conclave. There’s no cardinal in the Sistine Chapel who inspires fear among Jews, but they’re watching it with interest, along with much of the rest of the world—secure in the knowledge that the progress of recent decades isn’t going to melt away.</p> 
<p> “This is an internal Catholic process,” said Rabbi Eric Greenberg, director of interfaith affairs for the Anti-Defamation League. “We do have a stake in Catholic-Jewish relations. We have a stake in this partnership. So, of course, we’re interested.”</p> 
<p> Quite apart from the theological and historical dimensions of Catholic-Jewish relations, there’s the matter of the scarlet-tinged drama of solemn oaths sworn in Latin and huge doors closing around a secret that even 5,000 journalists can’t penetrate. “It’s such a fascinating spectacle,” said Rabbi James Rudin, the senior interreligious advisor to the American Jewish Committee. “You guys really know how to put on a pageant.”</p> 
<p> Both rabbis have written recent books on the evolving relationship. Rudin’s include “Cushing, Spellman, O’Connor: The Surprising Story of How Three American Cardinals Transformed Catholic-Jewish Relations.” Greenberg completed the co-editing begun by the late Rabbi Leon Klenicki, along with Catholic scholar Eugene Fisher, for “The Saint for Shalom: How Pope John Paul II Transformed Catholic-Jewish Relations.” But their feel for the breakthroughs of recent decades is personal, as well as literary.</p> 
<p> They were both there, for example, during John Paul’s epochal 2000 pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which I covered for Newsday, along with Paul Moses and Matt McAllester. At the time, Greenberg was still a layman, writing for The Jewish Week. Rudin was there for the American Jewish Committee. And their personal relationships with Catholic dialogue partners—including some cardinals—have been strong. So it was comforting to hear that they both have a relaxed attitude toward the outcome, no real horse in the race, and a confidence that the work of both John Paul and Benedict, which has carried the relationship forward, despite momentary bumps and missteps, is not at risk.</p> 
<p> “Nobody is going to repeal any of the reforms regarding Catholics and Jews,” Rudin said. “That’s not the problem. The problem is how will it be emphasized, and will it be put in the margins.” Rudin doesn’t seem at all concerned. “I don’t see any retrenchment.”</p> 
<p> What Rudin does see, as a friendly observer of the papacy, is the challenge of keeping the church abreast with changing technology, to make sure the pope’s voice doesn’t get drowned out by all the other voices in the blogosphere. “The pope has to compete to be heard,” Rudin said. “He’s competing for the ears of the devout.”</p> 
<p> Both rabbis spoke warmly of Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, whose brown-robed Franciscan simplicity and tough-minded reforms have people mentioning his name often. And Greenberg has worked closely with another American whose name keeps getting mentioned, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York.</p> 
<p> “We have a terrific relationship with Timothy Dolan, from the moment he arrived in New York,” Greenberg said. “Wherever Dolan is, I think there is going to be a terrific relationship between Catholics and Jews, whether he’s in New York, whether he’s in Rome.”</p> 
<p> There’s been plenty of justifiable handwringing over some huge problems facing the church—from the sexual abuse scandal to the management of its clanking curial bureaucracy. But it’s important that there’s real trust, from those who should know, that this area of tremendous advances seems safe, no matter who eventually steps out on that iconic balcony, gives his blessing to the city and the world, and agrees to sit in the Chair of Peter.</p> 
<p> While we wait for that moment, here’s a good analysis by John Thavis of the general way the conversations are likely to be going: http://www.johnthavis.com/conclave-day-1-praying-and-politicking</p>

Will Francis change Catholic-Jewish relations?

Keys to the conclave: How will the new pope influence Catholic-Jewish relations?

163555764 - crop

<p> WASHINGTON -- All things considered, I'd rather be in Rome. Wouldn't everyone?</p> 
<p> <em>Tout le journalism monde</em> has descended on Rome since <a href="/topics//Pope_Benedict_XVI">Pope Benedict XVI</a>'s surprise retirement last month. The ensuing Vatican intrigue has been appropriately sumptuous: Was it the gay cabal? Blackmail? Did the butler do it?</p> 
<p> And now what?</p> 
<p> The 115 cardinals electing the new pope finally made their choice Wednesday after weeks of finger-drumming by the international press. The Vatican's tiny communications office had been driven batty by 5,000 reporters who arrived with deadlines and little to report.</p> 
<p> The Vatican, despite Pope Emeritus Benedict's relatively recent foray into the Twitterverse, apparently is not yet on the 24/7 news clock. The cardinals, according to one source in Rome, declined to be rushed by journalists. Meanwhile, reporters stateside daily embarrassed themselves by projecting their own values on to the centuries-old institution -- insisting that the church has to modernize on issues ranging from women priests to <a href="/topics//Same-sex_Marriage">same-sex marriage</a> to abortion. One colleague recently intoned a popular, if overwrought, sentiment: If the church doesn't change its position on women in the clergy, the church is doomed.</p> 
<p> This is all laughable to anyone vaguely familiar with Catholic teaching. The <a href="/topics//Virgin_Mary">Virgin Mary</a> is at the center of the church and is otherwise known as the mother of God -- hardly a secondary role. Women who want to become priests may need a different church as the all-male priesthood is considered doctrinal. One doesn't easily amend that sort of thing.</p> 
<p> For now, such issues are not of prime concern to the church or the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. Rather, Vatican concerns tilt more toward alleviating poverty in the developing world and ending the persecution of Christians.</p> 
<p> And, of course, getting its own house in order.</p> 
<p> No one needs a primer on the scandals that have plagued the church the past few decades -- or the more-recent discoveries of financial mismanagement and the so-called "gay cabal." The new pope immediately will have to yoke himself to these burdens. Amid such troubles, not to mention managing a world religion, an assortment of eccentric personalities and a vast charitable and diplomatic empire, he will need a sense of humor.</p> 
<p> The modernization of the church about which so many recently have opined is unlikely to make headlines soon. What <em>is</em> imperative is that the new pope be a strong communicator, or an "Evangelical Catholic," as author and commentator George Weigel termed it. This means, among other things, adapting to the global news cycle.</p> 
<p> This is no century for introverts.</p> 
<p> The recently retired pope much preferred study and writing to meeting and greeting, his tweets notwithstanding. Efforts to humanize him via stories that he loved cats were somewhat outdated and mildly annoying. Worshipers seeking solidarity with the Vicar of Christ often sent Benedict photos of their cats. When a prominent television personality visited the pope, he gave Benedict a gift -- a Baccarat cat.</p> 
<p> Benedict had no cats at the Vatican.</p> 
<p> The church faces enormous challenges, obviously, but none so daunting as communicating the Good News, which translates to helping millions around the world. Whatever one's personal opinion of Catholicism (I am not Catholic), the church remains a bulwark against Western secularization and the growing culture of choice. Is it really desirable, just for starters, that the leader of the Christian church embrace the destruction of human life in the womb?</p> 
<p> One may make painful, personal choices as the law permits, but even non-Catholics can find solace in the barricade that men and women of conscience erect between human beings and the abyss of relativity. If the church means nothing to some, it is at least a welcome noisemaker in the public square, fearless in making the argument that life does matter.</p> 
<p> Without the Catholic Church -- the largest charitable organization in the world -- millions of the world's least fortunate would suffer. Catholic Relief Services works in nearly 100 countries and reaches 100 million of the world's poorest with emergency aid and health care, including 280 HIV and AIDS projects. <a href="/topics//Catholic_Charities">Catholic Charities</a> USA provided food services to 6.5 million people last year, according to Vatican sources.</p> 
<p> Scandal surely has diminished the Vatican's moral authority, but 2,000 years of history suggest it will adapt and survive. In the meantime, any evaluation of its present situation must also include recognition of the immense good that individual Catholics and the church do.<br> &nbsp;</p>

Parker: Media myopia in Rome

Parker: Media myopia as conclave selects Pope Francis I

conclave eve -- cropped

<p> Before the cardinals entered the conclave to select the next pope, they first celebrated a special Mass. Then they chanted the "Veni, Sancte Spiritus" (Come Holy Spirit) as they paraded into the <a href="/topics//Sistine_Chapel">Sistine Chapel</a>. The master of ceremonies then declared "extra omnes" (everyone out).</p> 
<p> Once <a href="/topics//The_Doors_(band)">the doors</a> were sealed, the voting process began.</p> 
<p> By now, almost everyone is aware of the basics of a papal conclave. And in an age of sound bites, political platforms and infomercials, it does seem like a very strange way to choose a leader.</p> 
<p> But beyond seeing it as odd or outdated, some commentators evidently think that whole process is wrongheaded, if not simply wrong. That certainly seems to be the implication when the deliberations are characterized as being liable to "groupthink" or are criticized for their lack of transparency.</p> 
<p> When thinking about the papal conclave, it often comes down to what you believe about "inspiration" and how to get it.</p> 
<p> When Catholics talk about religious "inspiration," they usually are thinking about the Holy Spirit. In Catholic doctrine, the Holy Spirit is the third part of the Trinity. The Catholic catechism refers to the Holy Spirit with the pronoun "he," and Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the "paraclete," the "consoler" or "he who is called to one's side." For Catholics, the Holy Spirit comes through baptism, and through the other sacraments. But he also comes in ways we do not expect. Knowledge and wisdom are among the seven gifts that the Holy Spirit brings to sanctify a person. There are also special or "charismatic" graces associated with Holy Spirit that are specific gifts related to a particular task or vocation for the <a href="/topics//Common_(musician)">common</a> good.</p> 
<p> All these gifts of the Holy Spirit figure into how the conclave is designed.</p> 
<p> The Mass is more than a ceremony to inaugurate the proceedings. It is a sacrament that bestows grace on those who are properly disposed. The meditative chanting of "Come Holy Spirit" is not only a petition or plea, it is a way of quieting one's mind and heart, so that the Holy Spirit can be felt and heard.</p> 
<p> The phrase "extra omnes" has most often been coupled with discussions of the security at the conclave, which includes the positioning of electronic jamming devices. This isolation from the outside world is indeed intended to prevent external sources of influence - something hardly unknown in papal elections - but it is also allows the cardinals to listen to the voice or voices that really matter.</p> 
<p> The conclave hotel, Casa Santa Marta, gives cardinals an opportunity to talk beyond the prayerful silence that attends voting in the <a href="/topics//Sistine_Chapel">Sistine Chapel</a>. But the hope is that the elimination of outside distractions also enables them to be sensitive to the movements of the Holy Spirit, both in themselves and each other.</p> 
<p> The material comforts of the conclave have been significantly upgraded in recent decades: Cardinals no longer have to share bathrooms or use a washbowl for bathing. But the rooms are still spartan.</p> 
<p> Part of the reason for such ascetic conditions was to make the selection process as uncomfortable as possible so that the cardinals would get the job done and get out of Rome as quickly as possible. But another part of the reason lies in the influence of Catholic monastic spirituality, which places a high value on seclusion and separation as necessary conditions for discerning the presence of the Holy Spirit.</p> 
<p> When casting his ballot, each cardinal swears "my vote is given to the one who before God I think should be elected." Fear of God is also one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.</p> 
<p> On one level, it certainly makes conventional sense to see the pope as a religious equivalent of the president or a chief executive. And if that's the case, it also makes sense to talk about issues like transparency or accountability. After all, the world's one billion Catholics should understand how and why their leader was chosen, even if they can't take part in the decision making process.</p> 
<p> But positions such as president or CEO are relatively recent inventions. And the pope is still a monarch, after all. But a pope is also called to use his discernment in different contexts and in different ways. Not only is he to safeguard "the deposit of faith," he is also to be aware of the workings of the Holy Spirit in and through the church as well as in and through the world as a whole--something that can't be easily grasped by polling and focus groups. While the public perception of the pope focuses on his "external" qualities, much of what he does relies upon an internal openness to the Holy Spirit.</p> 
<p> The conclave - in its seclusion, in its focus on the interior as opposed to the external - is designed to select the candidate who has that special openness to the Holy Spirit.</p> 
<p> Does this always work in the way intended? Obviously, not: Papal history shows us that. And I think all of us have more than occasionally felt "inspired" only to find out later that we had made a terrible mistake.</p> 
<p> But I do think all of us have had other experiences in which we have felt "called" in ways that we can't fully comprehend but which have decisively changed the course of our lives. Sometimes, a papal conclave produces a result that surprises, that stuns, that gives us a sense that something else might be at work besides "groupthink" or simple fatigue.</p> 
<p> Men like Angelo Roncalli and Karol Wojtyla were on no one's list of papal contenders when their conclaves began. Now both have been made "blessed." A sign, for Catholics at any rate, that the Holy Spirit works in ways that we often cannot predict or contain.</p> 
<p> <i>Schmalz teaches and writes on global Catholicism at the <a href="/topics//College_of_the_Holy_Cross">College of the Holy Cross</a>, Worcester, Mass.</i></p>

OPSCHMALZ12

Schmalz: The role of the Holy Spirit inside the conclave

Conclave Cropped

<p> Now that the doors to the Sistine Chapel are closed and the actual voting process has begun, everybody who isn’t one of the 115 electors in the Sistine Chapel now has exactly one source as to what’s happening inside: a newly installed chimney on the roof. Nothing you hear from now on will be factual, until French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran steps out on a balcony and announces: “Habemus papam,” Latin for “We have a pope.” Until then, habemus nihil. We have nothing in the way of reliable news about the next pope.</p> 
<p> The youngest reporter hanging around St. Peter’s Square, desperately searching for a story, and the world’s oldest cardinal, excluded from the balloting because only those under 80 can actually vote, now have exactly the same access to the conclave’s inner workings. By the way, in case you’re curious about the oldest cardinal, or anything else about today’s cardinals, a quick way to find out is to go to a website maintained by Salvador Miranda, a retired librarian at Florida International University in Miami. He’s still editing, updating and freshening up this labor-of-love resource, after all these years. <a href="http://www2.fiu.edu/~mirandas/cardinals.htm" target="_blank">Here’s the link</a>.</p> 
<p> If you click on Catalogs in his table of contents, you’ll get a table of lists, including cardinals by date of birth and cardinals by country. Miranda lists the oldest cardinal as Ersilio Tonini of Italy, born in July 20, 1914. So he’s nearly 99. He was already over 80 when he became a cardinal. That made him ineligible to vote in the only conclave that has taken place since he received his scarlet zucchetto, the balloting in 2005 that chose Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to become Pope Benedict XVI.</p> 
<p> Many of the over-80 cardinals did participate in the meetings before the conclave began. So they’d have some idea which way things were moving before the doors to the Sistine closed. But right now, they’re as clueless as the rest of us as to what’s happening from ballot to ballot. So, let us begin our waiting-for-white-smoke vigil with one indisputable mathematical fact:</p> 
<p> Divide the number of electors (115) by the number of Catholics in the world (roughly 1.2 billion now), and you get .00000009583. That’s the percentage of the world’s Catholics actually now voting on the next pope. Now, compare that to 100. That’s the percentage of members of the Dominican Sisters of Amityville who were eligible to vote for their new leadership team in what they call their Chapter of Elections. All they had to do was show up at the required number of meetings leading up to the balloting this past weekend. Not all of the 437 remaining Long Island members of the congregation actually voted, but more than half of them did. And they clearly knew what they wanted. They chose Sister Mary Pat Neylon of Molloy College as their new prioress on the first ballot.</p> 
<p> We now know that there's no first-ballot pope today.&nbsp;Nor will we ever see a papal election as broadly representative of the universal church as the Dominican Chapter of Elections was representative of the congregation. In fact, in a church of 1.2 billion members, we’ll never see one of those zeros disappear from the percentage. Still, expanding the electorate for future conclaves is still a good idea, and including laypeople—especially women—in that electorate is an even better idea.</p> 
<p> That’s a long way off, though. For right now, we have the wait for Cardinal Tauran to have his brief moment on the world stage, announcing the next pope. Meanwhile, we’ll have to be content with musings.</p> 
<p> For those who prefer a reverent, traditional, noncontroversial take on the proceedings, you might try Rorate Coeli website. Here’s a sample by a blogger named Dr. John Rao: <a href="http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/03/conclave-reports-by-dr-john-rao-ii.html" target="_blank">http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/03/conclave-reports-by-dr-john-rao-ii.html</a></p> 
<p> The same site also contains the text of the homily at the Mass this morning, delivered by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals. He’s over 80 and ineligible to vote. But here’s his homily: <a href="http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/03/homily-of-mass-pro-eligendo-romano.html" target="_blank">http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/03/homily-of-mass-pro-eligendo-romano.html</a></p> 
<p> For a more newsy, more progressive coverage, try the National Catholic Reporter website. Here’s a link to a piece called Pencil Preaching, reflections on the Scripture readings from today’s Mass: <a href="http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/mass-and-readings-new-era-new-pope" target="_blank">http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/mass-and-readings-new-era-new-pope</a></p> 
<p> Commonweal, the lay-run journal of opinion, has a smart and lively blog. Here’s their Interregnum Report from yesterday: <a href="http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=23953" target="_blank">http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=23953</a></p> 
<p> And keep an eye on Rocco Palmo’s Whispers in the Loggia blog, here: <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com" target="_blank">http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com</a></p> 
<p> And follow the letters from Robert Moyhihan, founder and editor-in-chief of Inside the Vatican, here: <a href="http://themoynihanletters.com" target="_blank">http://themoynihanletters.com</a></p> 
<p> Finally, try La Stampa’s Vatican Insider, here: <a href="http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/" target="_blank">http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/</a></p>

Keys to the conclave: Making sense of the papal election

Keys to the conclave: Making sense of the papal election as the doors to the Sistine Chapel shut

Pope Mass Cropped

<p> If it's impossible for any one man to govern a church of more than a billion souls, as the now-resigned <a href="/topics//Pope_Benedict_XVI">Pope Benedict XVI</a> deeply understood, it's time for a serious rethinking of what must be done in Rome, and what can be better left to bishops, priests and laypeople around the world.</p> 
<p> Can that radical a change in the Vatican emerge from 115 men chosen by the Vatican, accustomed to looking to the Vatican for guidance, and voting in secret inside the Vatican? That's a lot to ask. But why aim low? Around the world, as the conclave begins tomorrow and reliable information remains scarce, the expectation level is almost comically high.</p> 
<p> What the electors are really looking for is "Jesus Christ with an MBA," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a former editor of America, the Jesuit magazine. A great papal job description. But good luck finding that skill set anywhere, let alone in a room of 115 men in scarlet.</p> 
<p> In Commonweal, a lay-run journal of opinion, its former editor <a href="/topics//Peter_Steinfels">Peter Steinfels</a> called for the new pope to administer "shock therapy" to the church. That would mean, for example, limiting papal terms to 12 years or age 82. It would mean expanding the College of Cardinals by appointing "cardinal electors," whose only official role in the church would be choosing a pope. At least half of them would be -- gulp! -- women.</p> 
<p> In a <a href="/topics//Los_Angeles_Times">Los Angeles Times</a> op-ed, Michael D'Antonio, a former religion writer for Newsday and author of a new book on the sexual abuse crisis, "Mortal Sins," suggests that the cardinals reach outside their own ranks and elect Archbishop <a href="/topics//Diarmuid_Martin">Diarmuid Martin</a> of Dublin. Among all the bishops in Ireland, he stood tallest in response to the horrific revelations of sexual abuse there.</p> 
<p> But let's be realistic. None of that is likely to happen. Serious change is hard for an institution so rooted in Tradition. Still, you never know.</p> 
<p> Given some of the scurrilous popes we've had over the centuries, it would be blasphemous to blame the Holy Spirit for the outcome of every papal election. But we Catholics still believe that the Spirit is guiding the church over the long sweep of history. So, can this conclave produce a pope ready to shake up the church, to help it emerge from the sexual abuse scandal and the management style of <a href="/topics//Pope_Benedict_XVI">Benedict XVI</a> and his predecessor, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who became <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">Pope John Paul II</a>? Neither had any stomach for reining in the Vatican bureaucracy.</p> 
<p> "I'm not very hopeful," said the Rev. John O'Malley, author of "A History of the Popes" and an eminent church historian at Georgetown University. "The only thing is, there have been these surprises." The surprise I think of is Pope John XXIII, an "interim" pope who turned the church upside-down.</p> 
<p> One change O'Malley -- and a lot of Catholics -- would love to see is the Vatican letting bishops arise organically from the people they are called to lead. Instead, for centuries, they've been chosen from afar by the Vatican. "Since Wojtyla, the one qualification has been: Do you agree with me?" O'Malley said. "That's a disaster." The result has been too many charismatically challenged yes-men. But Rome didn't always pick the bishops. "Bishops were from the city, chosen by the city and for the city," O'Malley said. Why not try that again?</p> 
<p> And why not make the Vatican smaller and more manageable, by devolving many of its functions to the dioceses or national conferences of bishops? The election of bishops is just one example. Another is the translation of liturgical texts. This kind of shift would honor a core element of Catholic social teaching, the principle of subsidiarity: Wherever possible, let the smallest, most local authority govern.</p> 
<p> Finally, wouldn't it be inspiring if the new pope looked at today's church and realized that it is as much in need of restoration as it was in the time of St. Francis of Assisi, who heard Jesus tell him: "Repair my church." The new leader of a billion Catholics could even signal a roll-up-the-sleeves attitude by naming himself Pope Francis I. When the Spirit breathes, you never know.</p> 
<p> <i>Bob Keeler is a former religion reporter and editorial writer for Newsday.</i></p>

OPKEE11

Keeler: Catholic Church needs a pope with fresh approaches

<p> <img src="http://cdn.newsday.com/polopoly_fs/1.4793395.1363030045!/httpImage/image.jpg" width="470"></p> 
<p> Mark Wilson is a New York political cartoonist and illustrator who lives in the Adirondacks. He publishes under the pen name Marquil.</p> 
<p> <strong>MORE CARTOONS</strong>: <a href="/opinion/mark-wilson-s-cartoons-1.3681235">Mark Wilson's cartoon gallery</a></p>

Cartoon: Cardinal Timothy Dolan for pope

<p> Mercurius had a problem in 532 AD. He had just been elected pope, but he had been named after a pagan God. So he did something that Catholics have become quite good at: making a novel act fit into a pre-existing tradition. Mercurius asked to be called John II, after Pope John who had been martyred at Ravenna in 526 after a fallout with the Ostrogothic king, Theodoric. If Christ renamed Simon as Peter, it eventually became settled that Peter's successors should have a new name as well.</p> 
<p> Today the name a pope chooses for himself is more than just a name - it's a not-so <a href="/topics//Subtle_(musician)">subtle</a> indication of the direction he hopes to lead his pontificate. When Cardinal Joseph <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Ratzinger</a> announced that he was taking the name Benedict in 2005, he cited the example of the last pope named Benedict, along with another Benedict, the great patron saint of Europe and of scholars. Like the former pope, he hoped to be a voice of peace during a time of war, and like the saint, he was an intellectual, being the first pope to publish a scholarly book while in office.</p> 
<p> So when the Vatican's conclave ends, what name will the next Bishop of Rome likely choose? Here are some of the likely (and not-so-likely) names to appear on his list and what those names would signal.</p> 
<p> Pope Benedict XVII: Well, you can <a href="/topics//Guess">guess</a> this one signals continuity. A new Benedict would likely signal the continuation of Ratzinger's theological legacy, and perhaps his focus on secularism and Europe.</p> 
<p> It could be chosen by men like <a href="/topics//Canada">Canada</a>'s Cardinal Ouellet, a contributor to a Ratzinger-founded theological journal. Or it could be taken by someone like <a href="/topics//Sri_Lanka">Sri Lanka</a>'s Cardinal Ranjith, a close admirer of Benedict's and a partisan in the cause of a more traditional Catholic Church. Then again, Benedict's resignation is controversial enough among the cardinals that any one of them might hesitate to take it up.</p> 
<p> Pope John XXIV: A cardinal of any theological stripe could take the most popular of papal names. Many saints, plus an apostle, had the name. But c'mon, everyone is going to think: liberal, modernizing, back to Vatican II the moment it is announced.</p> 
<p> John XXIII had an enormous personality and made it his mission to "open <a href="/topics//The_Doors_(band)">the doors</a> of the Church to the world." He died before the council was complete, and a variety of theological schools of thought inside and outside the church have tried to attach themselves to his legacy. This is probably the most unpredictable name. But a new Pope John would at least give hope to those who want a "new church." Anyone could claim it, but it may especially fit the Italian Cardinal Ravasi or Ghana's Cardinal Turkson.</p> 
<p> Pope Leo XIV: A modern social-justice pope? Although it is impossible to reduce him to one thing, Pope Leo <a href="/topics//Pope_Leo_XIII">XIII</a> was the author of a papal letter on social inequality and justice issues that criticized both industrial capitalism and communism. His leadership unleashed waves of Catholic thinking about economic justice. Today many third world cardinals blame Western nations and banking interests for the exploitation of their flocks. They may no longer be interested in elegant debates on secularism.</p> 
<p> They may want someone calling down hellfire on Western financial interests. Look to Cardinal Turkson, or Mexico's Cardinal Carrera.</p> 
<p> Pope <a href="/topics//Pius_XII">Pius XII</a>I: The gloves come off. The mask drops. Whatever showdown battle metaphor you like best, that's what it is going to be like if the words Qui sibi nomen imposuit Pius are used to introduce the next pontiff. Going from a pope who was a member of the Hitler Youth to one who takes the name last used by a pope smeared as "Hitler's Pope" will be . . . intense in the media.</p> 
<p> Within the Catholic Church, <a href="/topics//Pius_XII">Pius XII</a> is rather highly regarded, but the name still really belongs to Pope St. Pius X (1903-14), who basically fumigated the church for the heresy of "modernism." Although it could be taken by any cardinal who comes from especially humble beginnings, as Pius X did, the name will be perceived as the return of strong-handed traditionalism.</p> 
<p> Australia's Cardinal Pell and possibly the above-mentioned Ranjith could take this name if they are especially bold.</p> 
<p> Pope Boniface IX: Basically, everything said about Pius, but turned up till your ears bleed. It would be a gutsy man who took up the name of Boniface after Dante cast the imperious Boniface VIII into the Eighth Circle of Hell in Inferno.</p> 
<p> <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">John Paul II</a>I: Despite what looks increasingly like a rather inept and mismanaged reign, <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">John Paul II</a> was beloved in a way Benedict is not. He had a knack for the grand gesture. He was also dedicated to taking the papacy out into the world in an almost unprecedented way. It is easy to imagine an American like Dolan or O'Malley taking his name, if only for the public relations <a href="/topics//Benefit_(designer)">benefit</a>.</p> 
<p> My own wish is for a pope to revive a more ancient name and legacy. The church currently needs zeal for good order, internal justice, and a dash of drama. Rather than getting penned in by the simple binaries of traditional - modern, social - spiritual, long-retired names like Clement and Sixtus, or names waiting for their second chance like Soter and Marcus could restore the sense of otherworldliness and depth to the church. And there may be some use in those less-familiar legacies, too.</p> 
<p> In the ninth century, Pope Stephen VII had the body of his predecessor Formosus exhumed, dressed in papal vestments, and tried at the infamous "Cadaver Synod" for perjury, for mishandling church offices, and being an illegal pope.</p> 
<p> In an age of spectacular immorality in the priesthood, and high offices of the church, let us have his like again. I have several ideas for candidates and cadavers.</p> 
<p> <i>Dougherty is national correspondent for the American Conservative. His work has appeared in the <a href="/topics//New_York_Times_Company">New York Times</a> Magazine, <a href="/topics//ESPN">ESPN</a> Magazine and other outlets.</i></p>

OPDOUGHERTY07

Dougherty: What name will the next Pope choose?

St. Peter's Square Cropped

<p> The wire services routinely refer to <a href="/topics//Pope_Benedict_XVI">Benedict XVI</a>, now the pope emeritus, as the first pontiff to abdicate in modern times. But few of the news stories go into the classic example of a papal abdication, and explain just who this earlier pope was, and why he chose to end his papacy. Which is understandable. The big story of 1294 is scarcely breaking news today. But it's a pity more attention isn't paid to the abdication of Celestine V, now St. Celestine, aka Celestino. Because history can prove instructive.</p> 
<p> It's a cautionary tale, the story of why those 13th-century cardinals chose Celestine as pope, and why he chose to abdicate soon thereafter. Only five months and eight days into his short-lived papacy. Once again, a solemn conclave gathers in Rome to choose a new pope under uncertain circumstances for the church and the world. (And when have circumstances ever been certain for either?) Now the Vatican is to have two popes in residence at the Vatican, one sitting and one retired. This will take some getting used to.</p> 
<p> After the death of Pope Nicholas IV in 1292, it took two years and considerable prodding to settle on a successor. In the end, the princes of the church chose a reclusive Benedictine monk, Peter of Morrone -- whose first reaction to the news was to flee to the woods. By the end of his brief papacy, he no doubt wished he had stayed there.</p> 
<p> An octogenarian hermit (for a time he had lived in a cave in Abruzzi), Pietro da Morrone had no business out in the world, let alone running one of its power centers. It probably seemed a good idea at the time; so many disastrous decisions do.</p> 
<p> The new Bishop of Rome never got to Rome, but instead governed, if that is the word for it, from Naples -- when he wasn't going on retreats or otherwise withdrawing from a world that was too much for him. (He took off all of Advent to pray and fast.) Long before he was installed as pope, he had acquired the aura of a reclusive saint.</p> 
<p> Once in office as Celestine V, his chief and perhaps only accomplishment was to issue a papal bull declaring that pontiffs had the right to abdicate -- a right he soon exercised, taking refuge deep in the forest. Lot of good it did him, for he was promptly arrested by his successor, Boniface VIII, lest he be used as a pawn in the power struggles of the time. Celestine would die two years later, still in prison.</p> 
<p> That is what comes of choosing a saint as pope.</p> 
<p> Now turn to 2007. Different year, same world, same intrigues. The old pope had died after what was surely the most successful and inspiring papal reign in recent times. <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">John Paul II</a> was being called John Paul the Great even before his death. He gave the church not only a new face but a new spirit, a new joy and attraction even as it sent forth the oldest of messages.</p> 
<p> A people's priest, an amateur actor and playwright, John Paul knew both Soviet oppression in his native Poland and the inner liberation that only the Spirit can provide. John Paul didn't so much govern the church as reinvigorate it, substituting his vibrant personality for the Vatican's impersonal bureaucracy. He traveled, he reached out, he transmitted love as if determined to make contact with the whole world one by one. As a correspondent from a French paper commented at his accession, "This pope is not from Poland. He's from Galilee."</p> 
<p> If this church reborn found itself conflicted between its new and old ways after Vatican II, that didn't seem to bother John Paul. He treated all such breaks with the church's past as this country's Supreme Court tends to describe its landmark decisions: as just part of the law's continuity. John Paul didn't confront differences within the church so much as rise above them. His broad smile covered a multitude of differences within the church.</p> 
<p> Behind that smile was not just a master of realpolitik, but a canny geopolitician who rose above it. John Paul would make a more than equal partner with merely secular politicians like <a href="/topics//Ronald_Reagan">Ronald Reagan</a> and <a href="/topics//Margaret_Thatcher">Margaret Thatcher</a> in dismantling the Soviet empire and threat. "The pope?" Stalin once sneered. "How many divisions does he have?" John Paul, it turned out, raised whole armies of souls, and they didn't need tanks and cannon to conquer.</p> 
<p> To succeed John Paul as pope, the church chose his opposite: a thoroughly Teutonic scholar and rigorous theologian. As a cardinal, <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Joseph Ratzinger</a> had headed the church's <a href="/topics//Congregation_for_the_Doctrine_of_the_Faith">Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith</a>, formerly known as the Inquisition. He acted as the pope's enforcer, the bad cop to match John Paul's good one. When he himself became pope, he returned the church to the spirit of the counter-reformation. His formal policies as Pope <a href="/topics//Pope_Benedict_XVI">Benedict XVI</a> were much the same as those of <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">John Paul II</a>; they lacked only the spirit. But spirit, as John Paul showed us, can be all.</p> 
<p> Instead of carrying the church to the people, <a href="/topics//Pope_Benedict_XVI">Benedict XVI</a> seemed imprisoned by it. A pervasive grayness spread over the Vatican, covering corruption great and small, financial and sexual. Its incompetent bureaucracy was forever trying to paper over one scandal or another. Or explaining away what could not be explained -- like the long-running story of priests sexually abusing young boys.</p> 
<p> This new pope's style didn't help; it was more pedantic than persuasive, as in his Regensburg Lecture. Its combative air and tendency to caricature Islam rather than address its complexities offended the Muslim world, and with reason. Let's just say that Benedict's reign as pope was not among the most successful.</p> 
<p> That is what comes of choosing a theologian as pope.</p> 
<p> Poor Benedict. He was ill-suited to administer a vast church and worldwide enterprise. And In his inner circle he found himself betrayed by those he should have been able to trust most -- from butler to banker. When he was elected pope, he said he felt "inadequate" for a job that demanded "dynamism," and he was never more right. Much like Celestine V some eight centuries ago, he might have done better to have fled.</p> 
<p> <em>Paul Greenberg is the Pulitzer prize-winning editorial page editor of the <a href="/topics//The_Arkansas_Democrat-Gazette">Arkansas Democrat-Gazette</a>.&nbsp;</em></p>

Greenberg: Why Pope Benedict XVI, and Celestine V before him, resigned

Pope Benedict XVI -- cropped

<p> Next month, 117 cardinals from across the globe will gather inside the Vatican's <a href="/topics//Sistine_Chapel">Sistine Chapel</a>, invoke the Holy Spirit and elect a pope to replace <a href="/topics//Pope_Benedict_XVI">Benedict XVI</a>, who's resigning at the end of this month. Behind closed doors, cut off from the outside world, they will choose a leader who will have an impact on not only the Catholic Church but the entire planet. Let's look at some of the misconceptions about how the cardinals will select the latest successor to Saint Peter.</p> 
<p> 1. Pope Benedict resigned, rather than remain in office until death, so he could influence the cardinals to elect someone like him.</p> 
<p> In Washington, we tend to be suspicious of the explanations politicians give for anything, but in the case of the pope's resignation, the explanation - his deteriorating health - appears to be accurate. Benedict recognizes that he is no longer up to the job, and he should be honored for giving up power and position for the good of the church. He is moving out of Rome after he steps down to avoid the appearance of trying to influence the election. "He will not interfere in any way," a Vatican spokesman said the day after the announcement.</p> 
<p> So how will the cardinals decide? Each will look for someone who agrees with the cardinals' values and vision for the church. He will also want someone with whom he will have a good, friendly relationship. Finally, since all politics is local, each cardinal wants someone who will be well received in his country. Americans want someone who understands the sex abuse crisis; Nigerians want someone who understands Islam.</p> 
<p> The cardinals realize that this election will be one of the most important things they ever do. One pope, Felix IV (526-30), tried to influence the selection of his successor; the Roman <a href="/topics//U.S._Senate">Senate</a> objected and passed an edict forbidding any discussion of a pope's successor during his lifetime.</p> 
<p> Benedict has appointed 57 percent of the cardinal electors (<a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">John Paul II</a> named the rest), so they will most likely elect someone with similar views. In American terms, that means someone to the right of <a href="/topics//Newt_Gingrich">Newt Gingrich</a> on social issues and to the left of <a href="/topics//Nancy_Pelosi">Nancy Pelosi</a> on economic issues.</p> 
<p> 2. The next pope is likely to be African or Latin American.</p> 
<p> Catholicism has been growing dramatically in the developing world, but with 52 percent of the cardinals coming from Europe, chances are the next pope will be European.</p> 
<p> The Italians have the largest bloc of votes, almost one-fourth of the 117 electors. <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">John Paul II</a>, who was Polish, was elected because the Italian cardinals were divided. Current evidence, including documents leaked from the Vatican, indicates that the Italian cardinals are again split. A non-Italian is again possible.</p> 
<p> Those who support a pope from <a href="/topics//Africa">Africa</a> argue that the vibrant and growing African church is Catholicism's future. Others say that the church in <a href="/topics//Africa">Africa</a> is doing fine and that Catholics need a leader who can save the church in the developed world. In the United States, about one out of three people raised Catholic have left the church. The church in Europe has been in trouble since the 19th century. Today, more people in Paris go to mosques on Friday than go to Mass on Sunday.</p> 
<p> Both John Paul and Benedict railed against secularism and relativism in Europe but were unable to turn the tide. If there is a cardinal who can turn the church around in Europe and the United States, he deserves the job.</p> 
<p> 3. The cardinals will elect a brilliant theologian like John Paul and Benedict.</p> 
<p> At the past two conclaves, the cardinals elected the smartest man in the room. Now, it may be time to choose a man who will listen to all the other smart people in the church.</p> 
<p> The problem with most academics and intellectuals, especially philosophers and theologians, is that they have already made up their minds on important issues and rarely change them. It might be time for a skilled diplomat who has experience in negotiating and building consensus, useful skills for responding to the priest shortage, declining church attendance and internal divisions.</p> 
<p> Both John Paul and Benedict got into trouble because they were surrounded by people who thought the popes were the smartest men in the world. Such people are reluctant to challenge their bosses. For example, in 2006 Benedict gave an address that included a quote from a Byzantine emperor denigrating Islam. If an expert on Islam had read the text beforehand, he could have warned that there would be a negative reaction from the Arab street.</p> 
<p> 4. Don't expect big surprises from the next conclave.</p> 
<p> In the new papacy, there will probably be more continuity than radical change. Don't expect female priests next month. But the Holy Spirit can always surprise us, as it did with the election of John XXIII, whom the cardinals thought would be a "do nothing" pope; instead, he convened the Second Vatican Council, which transformed modern Catholicism. Everyone was also surprised by the 1978 election of <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">John Paul II</a>, the first non-Italian in centuries.</p> 
<p> While the cardinals will be loyal to the pope, the new pontiff, once elected, has no one from whom to take his cues. He has to think, consult and pray before each big decision. Where that will lead him is anyone's guess.</p> 
<p> 5. It doesn't matter who is elected pope, nobody listens to him.</p> 
<p> While the pope can no longer command absolute obedience among the faithful, he is still the leader of a 2.2 billion-member organization. What he says and does matters, whether it is regarding the <a href="/topics//Middle_East">Middle East</a>, AIDS, <a href="/topics//Global_Warming">climate change</a> or many other issues that touch not only Catholics but everyone.</p> 
<p> The most important challenge for the pope and the church is to figure out how to preach the Gospel in a way that is understandable and attractive to people of the 21st century, especially young people, who can be turned off by religion. Benedict got it right when he said Christianity should not be presented as a series of "no's" but as a "yes" to Jesus and his message of love, life, justice, peace and community. If the new pope does this, he could revitalize the church. He needs to use all the modern means of communication, even Twitter, to get his message across.</p> 
<p> In preaching the Gospel, the church needs to imitate, not just quote, great theologians such as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Both took the best thinking of their times - for Augustine it was Neoplatonism, for Thomas it was the writings of Aristotle - and used it to explain Christianity.</p> 
<p> <i>Reese, a Jesuit priest, is a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University in Washington. He is the author of "Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church."</i></p>

OPREESE22

Reese: 5 myths about picking a Pope

Vatican Pope Transition Cropped

<p> As the Catholic world focuses on the papal conclave, Jews will be paying attention as well. Popes oversaw centuries of Catholic hostility toward Jews and, more recently, the positive transformation in Catholic-Jewish relations. The pope sets the tone in this once troubled relationship.</p> 
<p> In elementary school in the mid-1960s, my wife recalls, a Catholic classmate declared to her, "You killed our God." The 1965 Second Vatican Council's positive revolution in Catholic understanding of Judaism had not yet trickled down fully to the pews. There were still some Catholics who perpetuated the Christ-killer charge and impressionable young people who heard, internalized and repeated the calumny.</p> 
<p> Sharing my wife's story in synagogue recently evoked memories. Several congregants related personal tales of a generation ago, including stories of anti-Jewish violence. One told about the righteous Catholics who cared for him as a hidden child in France during the Holocaust.</p> 
<p> Today, most Jews take positive Catholic-Jewish relations for granted. Younger people have no memory of the pre-Vatican II era. Further, 85 percent of world Jewry lives in Israel and the United States. Few Israelis have any significant interaction with Christians. Young American Jews live side by side with Christians in an overwhelmingly Christian country where anti-Semitism is rare.</p> 
<p> For nearly two millennia, popes have had significant influence in first sustaining anti-Jewish animus and then reversing it. Before the modern era, dozens of popes emulated Gregory I's (590-604) ambivalence toward Jews. Papal-Jewish relations had some positive moments -- such as Clement VI (1342-52), who protected Jews against blood libels -- but many negative ones, including Paul IV (1555-59), who initiated the ghetto for Roman Jewry. Overall, Catholic antipathy toward Judaism evoked contempt for Jews, legislation limiting Jewish economic options and violence against Jews, engendering an environment that would allow the Holocaust.</p> 
<p> The turning point was John XXIII (1958-1963). During the Holocaust, first as the Vatican's diplomatic representative to Turkey and Greece and then as ambassador to France, this future pope saved thousands of Jews, even issuing false baptismal papers for Jewish children.</p> 
<p> It is not surprising that John XXIII convened Vatican II in 1962 to "throw open the windows of the Church and let the fresh air of the Spirit blow through." He did not live to see the result: the 1965 promulgation by Paul VI of "Nostra Aetate," or "In Our Time," the Catholic document that rejected the deicide charge, the accursedness of the Jews and anti-Semitism, while affirming God's eternal covenant with the Jewish people.</p> 
<p> Other Christian denominations followed the church, reflecting systematically on the implications of their theology, education and liturgy for Christian-Jewish relations.</p> 
<p> The current papal transition is a moment for Jewish recognition of the recent good that has been done. <a href="/topics//Pope_Benedict_XVI">Benedict XVI</a> generally followed the path of <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">John Paul II</a>. Like his predecessor, he gave visual life to "Nostra Aetate" and subsequent theological and educational guidelines that revolutionized Catholic attitudes toward Jews. He displayed his affection for the Jewish people, as did <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">John Paul II</a>, through visits to synagogues, a state visit to Israel, and pilgrimages to Holocaust sites. These are powerful images. More than 1 billion Catholics and billions of others look to the pope as an exemplar.</p> 
<p> The papacy matters for Jews. Catholic-Jewish relations changed as a result of papal leadership. It is a garden that is flourishing, but one that needs to be tended by Jews and Catholics alike. Scholars and religious leaders who have dedicated a good part of their lives to enhancing Catholic-Jewish relations will continue to take the lead in resolving the lingering gaps that must be bridged. But all Catholics and Jews can play a role by understanding the history of this troubled relationship, the new path it has traveled in the last 50 years and a future that is promising -- yet requires our vigilance.</p> 
<p> <i>Rabbi Noam E. Marans is the <a href="/topics//American_Jewish_Committee">American Jewish Committee</a>'s director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations.</i></p>

OPMAR04

Marans: New pope will set tone for Catholic-Jewish relations

ny-0kjj6ija20090512064756

<p> The rock of St. Peter's has some fissures in it, as we are reminded almost daily by a barrage of media hysteria over every aspect of the pontiff (from the immensely rare resignation and the impending selection of his successor) and over the Catholic <a href="/topics//Church's_(designer)">Church's</a> sexual and financial scandals.</p> 
<p> In the interest of transparency, I must confess I am not a Catholic. I am a lifelong Methodist who has assiduously stayed away from writing on the issues of another person's religion. If someone wants to maintain his or her beliefs in a church whose edicts have led to wholesale criminal and moral misbehavior, that is his or her choice.</p> 
<p> What I will say is that I am tired of being bombarded daily by the onslaught of attention given to Catholic news, while Christian news outside the Roman brand is practically ignored.</p> 
<p> A significant amount of the attention comes pedophilia in the priesthood, generating sensational coverage that other denominations wouldn't want. But when you don't make news, maybe it's because you haven't done all those bad things. I can only remember one instance in which a minister I knew was removed for having an affair with an adult choir member.</p> 
<p> Of course, now and then there are instances where aberrant activities by some offshoot Protestant fundamentalist sect or official reaches proportions that merit journalistic notice -- a 20-second spot on television or an inside blurb in the local paper. But that's generally when a snake handler gets bitten or a TV evangelist runs afoul of the law or a spouse.</p> 
<p> There was an occasion when fire-and-brimstone televangelist <a href="/topics//Jimmy_Swaggart">Jimmy Swaggart</a> laid hands on more than the head of a professional woman and got caught, confessing tearfully to his thousands of followers. The episode got more titillating because the preacher was the first cousin of rock 'n' roller <a href="/topics//Jerry_Lee_Lewis">Jerry Lee Lewis</a>, who briefly messed up his career by marrying his own 13-year-old relative. Oh, well. Nobody's perfect.</p> 
<p> I suppose that it would be correct here to note that Protestantism was revived newswise by the presidential candidacy of <a href="/topics//Mitt_Romney">Mitt Romney</a>, a Mormon -- and not always flatteringly because of that <a href="/topics//Church's_(designer)">church's</a> long-abandoned practice of plural marriage. (Yes, there are pockets of "fallen away" diehards.) But, mainly, Protestant activities are just too dull to report.</p> 
<p> Then there are the movie stars like <a href="/topics//Tom_Cruise">Tom Cruise</a> who have put their bankrolls and prestige behind such institutions as Scientology, whatever that is. I'm not certain it qualifies as a church in the usual sense of the word; it's more like a theology of <a href="/topics//Buck_Rogers">Buck Rogers</a> space travel. The presence of <a href="/topics//Hollywood">Hollywood</a> always gets plenty of ink and airtime, however.</p> 
<p> Certainly nothing matches the controversy over a sizable number of Catholic clergy whose indefensible activities, if not sanctioned, were tolerated and hidden by the <a href="/topics//Church's_(designer)">church's</a> hierarchy all the way to the Vatican.</p> 
<p> Just when it seemed the pope's reinforcement of dogma that defies human nature -- on celibacy and a ban on contraception, for example -- threatened revolution in some church quarters, he up and quit for "health reasons."</p> 
<p> This brought about speculation that it was not only his physical limitations that led him to resign, something that hadn't been done in 600 years. Was it the sex scandals and-or a scathing report of Vatican intrigue? The resignation did come after it was revealed that the former archbishop of Los Angeles, the largest Catholic diocese in America, had ignored or covered up a horrific number of morally and criminally reprehensible acts by priests against young parishioners. Even then, Cardinal Roger Mahoney was asked by the Vatican to attend the conclave from which a new pope will be chosen.</p> 
<p> Also, the pope's butler wrote sensationally about financial intrigue and administrative infighting around the papacy, leading some to conclude that the butler did it -- cause the resignation, that is.</p> 
<p> So when the smoke rises from the basilica announcing the selection of a new pontiff, let's hope that the church can begin to repair the fissures -- and that my colleagues can give it a rest.</p> 
<p> <i>Dan K. Thomasson is the former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service.</i></p>

OPTHOMMASSON04

Thomasson: Vatican must put scandals to rest

27 Conclave

<p> No, the next pope will not be a nun - yet there could well be major changes in the role of women in the church, even without any changes in current church law. Though it's not widely known, nothing precludes women from serving as cardinal-electors, even though they can't be priests. So the new pontiff could easily appoint female cardinals - and send the message that women really are important leaders in the church.</p> 
<p> No, the next pope won't be making any big announcements - not on Day One or Day 1,001 - about changes in the church's position on priestly celibacy, or heaven knows, abortion. Yet before he left St. Peter's on Wednesday, <a href="/topics//Pope_Benedict_XVI">Benedict XVI</a> made clear that change is a constant, even in the Eternal City, when he referred to the church as a "living body," always in flux.</p> 
<p> In fact, important changes have already happened, just recently. Though the news was overshadowed by Benedict's retirement, German bishops have cautiously voiced approval of the use of the morning-after pill in cases of rape.</p> 
<p> No, the next pope isn't very likely to be the American most talked about as a contender, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. In an interview with CNN's <a href="/topics//Christiane_Amanpour">Christiane Amanpour</a> in Rome on Thursday, Dolan joked that he's always been on his mom's list for the job - and in his jovial way demonstrated why, despite being well known and well liked by his fellow cardinals, he's probably too much of an American to be chosen.</p> 
<p> But when the cardinals gather soon in Rome to choose Benedict's successor, perhaps the most important question they face is whether their choice will move the Catholic Church past the clerical sex abuse scandal that has hung over it for so long.</p> 
<p> A more serious reason Dolan isn't the American antidote to what ails the church also came from his own mouth, when he told <a href="/topics//Christiane_Amanpour">Amanpour</a>, in reference to the scandals, that the Catholic Church, though once a model of what not to do, is now a model of what to do. "Now the church is doing it right," he said, though if we want to be critical "we could go back decades." That wouldn't be necessary, actually.</p> 
<p> Just last year, in September, Bishop Robert <a href="/topics//William_Finn">William Finn</a> of Kansas City was found guilty of failing to report a priest suspected of child sex abuse - child porn was found on his computer. Finn was sentenced to two years of probation - and remains a bishop in good standing.</p> 
<p> As we head into a conclave in which one of the cardinal-electors, Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, is known to have protected child predators, it's patently false to say that abuse is an issue from decades gone by.</p> 
<p> What's more, Dolan's statement that the issue persists in part because "a lot of people . . . don't want any good news" about the Catholic Church - and want to think that the institution is "the Great Satan" - certainly raises questions about how much has been learned in the decade since, at the height of the sex abuse scandals, that kind of talk was <a href="/topics//Common_(musician)">common</a> among Vatican officials. Many of those officials believed the issue was manufactured by the enemies of Holy Mother Church.</p> 
<p> One American cardinal who knows better, who has for years been keenly sensitive to the sexual abuse issue, is Boston's <a href="/topics//Sean_O'Malley">Sean O'Malley</a>, the other American most frequently mentioned as a possible successor to Benedict.</p> 
<p> Though his election is hardly the most likely outcome, it isn't just wishful thinking among Americans. who are not even the ones promoting him as an option.<a href="/topics//Sean_O'Malley">O'Malley</a> appears to have no enemies, speaks multiple languages, is well known to his fellow cardinals, having been a bishop for decades, and is a special favorite among Latin American cardinals.who are lined up to support him if there's a deadlock among Italians and the perceived front-runner, Milan's Angelo Scola, isn't chosen.</p> 
<p> <a href="/topics//Sean_O'Malley">O'Malley</a> instituted a "zero tolerance" policy on sex abuse as early as 1995, requiring all Catholic clergymen, staff and volunteers who worked with children to participate in abuse prevention workshops, agree to criminal background checks and fill out questionnaires about their past.</p> 
<p> <a href="/topics//Sean_O'Malley">O'Malley</a> built a reputation as a reformer as a result, and it is that reputation that has media outlets in Rome buzzing about him as a possible contender.</p> 
<p> Benedict, a reluctant pontiff from the start, seemed relieved to be putting down the burdens of the papacy, saying, "I look forward to giving my obedience to my successor," and telling the cardinals, "You have borne with me the weight of the Petrine ministry."</p> 
<p> Given all the tensions within and without the church today, it's hard to imagine that many cardinals are pining for the post - or would wish it on a friend. Yet if <a href="/topics//Sean_O'Malley">Sean O'Malley</a> were chosen, it would send the message at long, long last that the church's leader truly understands what the victims of priestly abuse have been through.</p>

OPHENNENBERGER29

Hennenberger: Next Pope must find solution for sex-abuse scandal

<p> Since the lava flow of media commentaries about Pope Benedict XVI's resignation began nearly two weeks ago, dozens of people have asked me why the Holy Father "really" resigned, and who the next pope is likely to be.</p> 
<p> Given the extraordinary nature of the event, both questions are inevitable. Happily, Benedict's reasoning has been simple and clear. The church faces serious challenges worldwide. At 85, his declining health and energy impede his ability to serve the church as effectively as she needs. Resignation is an act of unusual humility as well as careful judgment.</p> 
<p> These qualities, along with his courage, have distinguished his entire priestly life. By this action, Benedict also reminds us that, despite the unique authority invested in the Petrine office, the pope is first and finally the bishop of Rome - and bishops do grow old and retire to private life everywhere else in the world.</p> 
<p> Who will be the next pope? Nobody knows, and though speculating about the future can be a pleasant form of entertainment, it's also fruitless. Pundits don't vote. Special-interest lobbying in the media has little or no effect.</p> 
<p> Catholic teaching develops over time, but it doesn't fundamentally change; and Catholic life, in the end, is ordered to truth, not consensus or polling. Baptism is more than a Catholic tribal ritual. It matters - now and into eternity. And faith is not a religious clubhouse; it's meant to be lived actively, consciously, radically. It has adult implications. As St. Paul reminds us, we have a duty to "speak the truth in love." Truth unguided by mercy and love becomes a special kind of cruelty. Love unguided by a passion for truth about the nature of the human person, human relationships, and human dignity isn't really "love" at all - it's a sly form of injustice and deceit.</p> 
<p> What that means is this: A great many critics of the church should plan to be disappointed (again) by whomever the conclave chooses. And yet, anyone who sincerely and unselfishly seeks God will continue to find a welcome in the Catholic Church no matter who bears the title of pope.</p> 
<p> Timothy George, who ranks among the leading evangelical authors and scholars of our time, recently described Benedict as "the greatest theologian to become pope since the Reformation," a champion of the culture of life, the Word of God, religious freedom, the pursuit of Christian unity anchored in truth, and the unembarrassed proclamation of the kingship of Jesus Christ. These words of praise, coming from across Christianity's historic confessional divide, confirm the real legacy of <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Joseph Ratzinger</a>. This is how faithful Catholics and so many other believing Christians will remember him.</p> 
<p> The work he leaves behind, of course, is sobering, and not just for his successor but for all of us who call ourselves Catholic. A bishop friend of mine said recently that what we need now more than anything as a church, both locally and globally, is a "re-formation" - the kind of fundamental, root-and-branch conversion that goes vastly deeper than the pet issues of American media and political culture to a transformation of hearts, and thereby behavior.</p> 
<p> In that regard, sometimes the best lessons for the future can be learned from the experience of the past.</p> 
<p> Five centuries ago, just a few years before Luther's "95 theses," the Catholic reformer the Rev. John Colet delivered a blisteringly frank homily to a cathedral full of English bishops and senior clergy. To an unamused audience, he argued that "never was there more necessity and never did the state of the church more need" a profound effort at purification - not away from Catholic belief, but back toward living it more zealously, more honestly, more faithfully, as though this world and the next depended on it, because they do.</p> 
<p> Colet spoke to a convocation of clergy. Today he might need to leave room for quite a few lay people. But the message is worth remembering by all of us in the years ahead, whatever happens in Rome.</p> 
<p> <i>Charles J. Chaput is archbishop of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He wrote this for The Philadelphia Inquirer.</i></p>

OPPOPE27

Chaput: Pope Benedict XVI's resignation and the road ahead for Catholics

<p> In giving up the papacy, <a href="/topics//Pope_Benedict_XVI">Pope Benedict XVI</a> was brave and bold. He did the unexpected for the good of the Catholic Church. And when it selects a new pope next month, the College of Cardinals should be equally brave and bold. It is time to elect a nun as the next pontiff.</p> 
<p> Now, I know this hope of mine is the longest of long shots. I have great faith in the Holy Spirit to move papal conclaves, but I would concede that I may be running ahead of the Spirit on this one. Women, after all, are not yet able to become priests, and it is unlikely that traditionalists in the church will suddenly upend the all-male, celibate priesthood, let alone name a woman as the bishop of Rome.</p> 
<p> Nonetheless, handing leadership to a woman -- and in particular, to a nun -- would vastly strengthen Catholicism, help the church solve some of its immediate problems and inspire many who have left the church to look at it with new eyes.</p> 
<p> Consider, first, what constitutes the church's strongest claim on public respect and affection. It is not its earthly power, the imposing beauty of St. Peter's Basilica or even its determination to preserve its doctrine. Rather, the church impresses even its critics, and inspires its most loyal and most dissident members, because so many in its ranks walk the talk of the Gospel. Hundreds of thousands of nuns, priests, brothers and laypeople devote their lives to the poor, the marginalized, refugees, the disabled and the homeless, simply because Christ instructed them -- us -- to do so. Matthew 25:40 contains what may be the most constructive words ever written: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these my brethren, you did for me."</p> 
<p> More than any other group in the church, the sisters have been at the heart of its work on behalf of compassion and justice. Nicholas Kristof of <a href="/topics//New_York_Times_Company">The New York Times</a> made this point as powerfully as anyone in a 2010 column. "In my travels around the world, I encounter two Catholic Churches," he wrote. "One is the rigid all-male Vatican hierarchy that seems out of touch. ... Yet there's another Catholic Church as well, one I admire intensely. This is the grassroots Catholic Church that does far more good in the world than it ever gets credit for. This is the church that supports extraordinary aid organizations like Catholic Relief Services and Caritas, saving lives every day, and that operates superb schools that provide needy children an escalator out of poverty."</p> 
<p> Kristof went on to say that "there's a stereotype of nuns as stodgy Victorian traditionalists. I learned otherwise while hanging on for my life in a passenger seat as an American nun with a lead foot drove her jeep over ruts and through a creek in <a href="/topics//Swaziland">Swaziland</a> to visit AIDS orphans."</p> 
<p> There are certainly bishops and cardinals who have done this sort of godly work and many more who have supported it. But those who have devoted their lives to climbing the church's career ladder tend not to be like that nun in the jeep in <a href="/topics//Swaziland">Swaziland</a>. What a message the cardinals would send about the church's priorities if they made such a woman pope.</p> 
<p> A sister as pope could also resolve what might seem a contradiction in Catholic theology. More than Protestants, Catholics are profoundly devoted to the <a href="/topics//Virgin_Mary">Virgin Mary</a> -- and few were as devoted as the late <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">Pope John Paul II</a>, who declared that <a href="/topics//Virgin_Mary">Mary</a> "sustains the spiritual life of us all, and encourages us, even in suffering, to have faith and hope." A church for which the Blessed Mother plays such an important role should certainly be comfortable with female leadership.</p> 
<p> While support for a stronger role for women in the church tends to be a "liberal" cause, many faithful conservatives also cite the work of nuns as reinforcing their devotion to the church -- from the sisters who educated them in parish schools to the work of <a href="/topics//Mother_Teresa">Mother Teresa</a>'s religious order.</p> 
<p> The cardinals who will gather to elect a new pope know that one of the church's central and most wrenching problems is the sex abuse scandal. An all-male hierarchy adopted policies to cover up the abuse and seemed far too inclined to put protecting the church's image ahead of protecting children.</p> 
<p> Throughout history, it's not uncommon for women to be brought in to put right what men have put wrong. A female pope would automatically be distanced from this past and could have a degree of credibility that a male member of the hierarchy simply could not.</p> 
<p> In the United States and other Western countries, the church is suffering a huge loss of younger female members who cannot understand why it continues to resist the progress women have made in so many other spheres of life.</p> 
<p> The church should not find itself in this position. It was, after all, Pope John XXIII who wrote in 1963 (the same year <a href="/topics//Betty_Friedan">Betty Friedan</a> published "The Feminine Mystique"): "Women are gaining an increasing awareness of their natural dignity. Far from being content with a purely passive role or allowing themselves to be regarded as a kind of instrument, they are demanding both in domestic and in public life the rights and duties which belong to them as human persons."</p> 
<p> Electing a nun as pope would electrify women all over the world. And those who think that Catholics in the developing world would object to a female pope should note that women have been elected to lead governments in, among other places, <a href="/topics//India">India</a>, Chile, Brazil, <a href="/topics//Liberia">Liberia</a>, Nicaragua, the <a href="/topics//Philippines">Philippines</a>, Argentina and <a href="/topics//Dominica">Dominica</a>.</p> 
<p> And a church that has made opposition to abortion a central part of its public mission should consider that older men are hardly the best messengers for this cause. Perhaps a female pope could transform the discussion about abortion from one that is too often rooted in harsh judgments (and at times, anger with modernity) into a compassionate dialogue aimed at changing hearts and minds rather than changing laws.</p> 
<p> Unborn children are vulnerable. So are pregnant women. In my experience, nuns are especially alive to these twin vulnerabilities. Nuns are also the people in the church who work the most with pregnant women, the mothers of newborns, and battered women and children. They know better than anyone that a concern for life cannot stop at the moment a child is born.</p> 
<p> Some will object to the idea of a female pope on the grounds that it is legally impossible. Yes, it would require a real openness to change. But the rules for electing a pope are much more flexible than many realize. As the Catholic News Service has noted: "In <a href="/topics//Theory_(designer)">theory</a>, any baptized male Catholic can be elected pope, but current church law says he must become a bishop before taking office; since the 15th century, the electors always have chosen a fellow cardinal." Under canon law, <a href="/topics//CNS,_Inc.">CNS</a> reports, if a non-bishop or a layman is selected, he must receive episcopal consecration from the dean of the College of Cardinals before ascending to the papacy.</p> 
<p> If the college were inspired to elect a woman, it could arrange for her consecration and leave the broader question of whether women should become priests -- a change that I both hope and expect will happen someday -- open for debate during her pontificate.</p> 
<p> I hardly expect the cardinals to follow my advice. But I hope that they at least consider electing the kind of man who has the characteristics of my ideal female pontiff. The church needs a leader who has worked closely with the poor and the outcast, who understands that battling over doctrine is less important for the church's future than modeling Christian behavior -- and who sees that the proper Christian attitude toward the modern world is not fear but hope.</p> 
<p> Last summer my 18-year-old daughter worked at a Catholic-supported program for the homeless in Silver Spring, Md. Like many women her age, Julia has a long list of problems with the church but she loved the program and deeply admired everyone who worked there.</p> 
<p> She came home one night and said: "Why doesn't the church talk more about this work and less about the stuff it usually talks about?"</p> 
<p> I have a hunch that a nun just might understand what Julia was saying better than most cardinals.</p> 
<p> <i>Washington Post columnist <a href="/topics//E.J._Dionne">E.J. Dionne</a>'s email address is ejdionne@washpost.com.</i></p>

OPDIO19

Dionne: Vatican conclave should elect a nun as new pope

APTOPIX Vatican Pope

<p> As much as the election of Cardinal Joseph <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Ratzinger</a> as Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 filled me -- and many Catholics -- with a sense of dread, his letter announcing his resignation from the papacy yesterday was deeply touching. Here was a man of strong German stock, but declining health, making a supremely difficult decision to step aside as supreme pontiff, for the good of the church.</p> 
<p> Before his papacy, as head of the <a href="/topics//Congregation_for_the_Doctrine_of_the_Faith">Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith</a>, the church's chief doctrinal office, <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Ratzinger</a> worked closely with Karol Wojtyla, <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">Pope John Paul II</a>. He watched that incredibly vigorous and athletic person morph before the eyes of the world into a stooped, shuffling, very ill old man. It's tough to imagine that those painful memories of John Paul didn't play a role in Benedict's decision.</p> 
<p> Whatever his internal calculus, he has made the right choice -- and he is to be admired for it. It takes courage to relinquish voluntarily the most powerful religious office on the planet, and any fair assessment of Benedict should reflect that.</p> 
<p> But in important ways, he was a man driven by fear.</p> 
<p> At the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965, he was one of the bright, young progressive theologians. But not too long after the council closed, the young <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Ratzinger</a> joined the faculty at Tübingen University in West Germany. It was there, as <a href="/topics//John_Allen">John Allen</a> chronicles at length in his "Pope Benedict XVI: A Biography of <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Joseph Ratzinger</a>," that the young theologian's reaction to student unrest and protests played a key role in turning him from a progressive into a strong conservative. Fear -- of rapid change, of modernity, of galloping secularism -- played a key role in that transformation and in his papacy.</p> 
<p> Whenever I attended a liturgy that was a little creative and unorthodox during the years when <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Ratzinger</a> was at the <a href="/topics//Congregation_for_the_Doctrine_of_the_Faith">Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith</a>, I used to joke that he would explode if he could see this.</p> 
<p> Then, when John Paul died and <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Ratzinger</a> masterfully managed the interim period, entered the conclave a clear favorite, and emerged as pope, it was a depressing day for those Catholics who had hoped for something different -- a pope from the developing world, for example.</p> 
<p> It was a tough day, too, because the two men were so different. You had to love Wojtyla for his biography, for his actor's feel for how to work an audience, for his sense of humor. He had a difficult life, studied in a secret seminary in defiance of the Nazis, and even got run over by a Nazi truck. Suddenly, we had gone from a pope run over by a Nazi truck to one who could actually have driven one: During <a href="/topics//World_War_II">World War II</a>, <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Ratzinger</a> was on the fringes of the German military as a youth, and a photo of him in that uniform began circulating within minutes of his election.</p> 
<p> To be fair, Ratzinger did desert the anti-aircraft corps. No one ever accused him of being a Nazi sympathizer, and he was a full partner with John Paul in his historic opening to the Jewish people. And the two shared a <a href="/topics//Common_(musician)">common</a> conservative agenda. Still, the contrast between the lovable Wojtyla and the more distant Ratzinger was jarring.</p> 
<p> &nbsp;</p> 
<p> Benedict started slowly. The joke was that rigid conservatives in the church had thought they were getting <a href="/topics//Ronald_Reagan">Ronald Reagan</a>, a tough guy who would make heads roll, but ended up with Jimmy Carter. But that didn't last long. Under Benedict, the Vatican has taken a series of actions that reflect fear of change. It was John Paul who wrote "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis," the document that said the church had no power to ordain women. But it was Ratzinger who enforced it. Most recently, the Vatican expelled from the Maryknoll order and the priesthood a great peacemaker and friend of mine, the Rev. <a href="/topics//Roy_Bourgeois">Roy Bourgeois</a>, because of his open and unflinching expression of what many Catholics believe: The Wojtyla-Ratzinger prohibition against even discussing women's ordination is just wrong -- scripturally and theologically indefensible.</p> 
<p> Then there's the matter of Vatican investigations of congregations of nuns and of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an organization that represents more than 80 percent of American nuns. And the new, wooden, Latinate translation of the Roman Missal, which Catholics are still struggling to take to heart at Mass. And, fairly or not, Benedict's papacy will be tarnished by the continued unraveling of the lies and cover-up of the sexual abuse scandal.</p> 
<p> &nbsp;</p> 
<p> It has been a short papacy -- not quite eight years -- compared with John Paul's tenure of more than 26. But it has been long enough for Benedict to continue shaping the College of Cardinals in his own image to fit his theological outlook. So, it's difficult to imagine the coming conclave producing a very different pope. But you never know. The Spirit is in charge, over the long haul.</p> 
<p> One thing seems likely: Though we are a long way from seeing an American pope, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, much favored in Vatican circles these days, seems likely to be a grand elector -- one of the movers and shakers in the conclave.</p> 
<p> For Benedict, we can all join in wishing him peaceful years ahead to continue to do what he does best -- write theology.</p> 
<p> For the church, we can hope for at least a new face for the papacy: an Asian or Latin American or African face to reflect where the church is growing, rather than a European face, to remind us of where it is sadly shrinking.</p> 
<p> Benedict has been, for too many of us, a difficult pope to love. But his closing act is one we should all admire.</p>

OPKEE12

Keeler: Pope Benedict XVI should be admired for the tough decision to resign

pope - dec. 1, 2012

<p> Nothing distinguished the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI so much as the way in which he is leaving.</p> 
<p> We should be grateful that he realizes his body is failing him - most people in power do not - and is abdicating. But let's not forget that it was Benedict who stood mostly mute as the sexual abuse of children by priests continued.</p> 
<p> Benedict had a chance to be a great pope in one way and one way only: by recognizing the evil and dealing with it even when it meant punishing powerful prelates. He did not.</p> 
<p> He had an opportunity to do so when he was appointed in 1981 to lead the <a href="/topics//Congregation_for_the_Doctrine_of_the_Faith">Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith</a>, which was charged with dealing with the cascading number of sexual abuse cases. That appointment was odd given that when he was archbishop of <a href="/topics//Munich">Munich</a>, Benedict - then known as Cardinal Joseph <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Ratzinger</a> - had approved the transfer of priest and child molester <a href="/topics//Peter_Hullermann">Peter Hullermann</a>. Even as he learned of the hundreds of Hullermanns and became the most knowledgeable high- ranking church official on the subject, Ratzinger chose to protect priests, bishops and cardinals at the cost of ignoring legions of abused children.</p> 
<p> He was rewarded for his service by being elected to the papacy in 2005. Considering that he was elected by the very cardinals he was protecting, this development was hardly surprising.</p> 
<p> Still, it's never too late to do the right thing. As pope, Ratzinger could have been Paul on the road to Damascus, rectifying the incalculable harm done to thousands of innocent children by removing the culpable priests, bishops and cardinals from power. Instead, Pope Benedict's almost eight-year tenure was marked by coverups coming to light in Ireland, <a href="/topics//Australia">Australia</a>, the United States and Germany. He directed most of his energies to keeping women and gay men out of the priesthood and reprimanding nuns who were paying insufficient attention to his pronouncements.</p> 
<p> Under his leadership, the church continued to deny its perfidy. As late as 2009, the Vatican pushed the line that it wasn't priests who were responsible for the sexual abuse of children - it was gay men. In an official response to the <a href="/topics//United_Nations_Human_Rights_Council">United Nations Human Rights Council</a>, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said that 80 percent to 90 percent of abusive priests were not pedophiles but part of a "sexual orientation minority" of homosexuals attracted to adolescent boys. For good measure, he also complained that Protestants and Jews, baby sitters and family members were worse than priests.</p> 
<p> Why pick on the Catholic clergy? This was consistent with the pope's insistence that the church would investigate itself behind closed doors. The "standards of conduct appropriate to civil society," he wrote in 1990, when he led the <a href="/topics//Congregation_for_the_Doctrine_of_the_Faith">Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith</a>, "cannot be purely and simply applied to the church." Meanwhile, as the pope ignored the mission of the church to comfort the afflicted even if it means afflicting the comfortable, the wheels of secular justice continued to grind. This month authorities caught up with Cardinal Roger Mahony, the former archbishop of Los Angeles. Thousands of pages of personnel files released by court order revealed how Mahony chose to reassign the abusers rather than protect parishioners.</p> 
<p> Because part of the motivation to tamp down the scandal was financial - claims to pay victims would cost the church more than $650 million - Mahony had to get inventive. To pay off claims, he tapped $115 million from a cemetery maintenance fund.</p> 
<p> Those poor souls weren't going to complain.</p> 
<p> Anyone who's forgotten the horror of the abuse should watch the <a href="/topics//HBO">HBO</a> documentary, "Mea Maxima Culpa," about an abusive priest in Milwaukee. He targeted deaf children for obvious reasons - and even after his superiors found out what he was doing, he remained a priest until he died.</p> 
<p> With Benedict's resignation comes another chance for the church to change direction. When that puff of white smoke comes up from the Vatican chimney, it could herald the election of a cardinal from the developing world. Maybe he will remember what it's like to be powerless and identify with the children who trusted the priests, instead of with his fellow cardinals who covered up for them.</p> 
<p> Still, it's hard to be optimistic that the church will right itself. Mahony was stripped of some of his duties after his disgraceful complicity in the sexual abuse scandal. But he has not lost his most solemn privilege: He will be joining the conclave to vote on the next pope. "I look forward to traveling to Rome soon to help thank Pope Benedict XVI for his gifted service to the Church," he said in a statement.</p> 
<p> At least Mahony won't be joined by one of his fellow cardinals. It is church policy, not human decency, that will prevent Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston, <a href="/topics//Ground_Zero">ground zero</a> of the abuse scandal, from taking part in the selection of Benedict's successor. For papal elections, the age of disenfranchisement is 80. Law is 81, praise the Lord.</p> 
<p> <i><a href="/topics//Margaret_Carlson">Margaret Carlson</a> is a Bloomberg View columnist.</i></p>

OPCARLSON13

Carlson: Pope Benedict XVI's one unforgivable failure

Pope -- cropped

<p> The cardinals in Rome should choose an Asian, African or <a href="/topics//Latin_America">Latin America</a>n to succeed <a href="/topics//Pope_Benedict_XVI">Pope Benedict XVI</a>.</p> 
<p> If the cardinals vote based on where they come from, then it is unlikely we would see a pope who is not from Europe, where every pope in modern history was born. A majority of the 117 cardinals come from Europe.</p> 
<p> But their nationalities do not reflect the changing demographics of the Catholic Church in the 21st century.</p> 
<p> There are around 1.2 billion Catholics in the world, and a majority of Catholics now live in <a href="/topics//Africa">Africa</a>, Asia, and <a href="/topics//Latin_America">Latin America</a>.</p> 
<p> The biggest concentration of Catholics is in <a href="/topics//Latin_America">Latin America</a> and the Caribbean, at 39 percent. This is followed by Europe at 24 percent, sub-Saharan <a href="/topics//Africa">Africa</a> at 16 percent, Asia and the Pacific at 12 percent, <a href="/topics//North_America">North America</a> at 8 percent and the <a href="/topics//Middle_East">Middle East</a> and <a href="/topics//North_Africa">North Africa</a> at 1 percent, according to 2010 figures from the <a href="/topics//Pew_Research_Center">Pew Research Center</a>.</p> 
<p> The five countries with the largest Catholic populations are Brazil (more than 125 million), Mexico (96 million), the <a href="/topics//Philippines">Philippines</a> and the United States (approximately 75 million each) and Italy (roughly 50 million).</p> 
<p> Selecting a <a href="/topics//Latin_America">Latin America</a>n pope would help the Catholic Church further grow the number of faithful in the United States and Latin America.</p> 
<p> An African or Asian pope would help grow Catholicism on those continents.</p> 
<p> Most Catholics are no longer European and putting a nonwhite face on the papacy might inspire the faithful around the world. They would be able to see themselves better reflected in the church.</p> 
<p> The names of several non-European cardinals have been mentioned as possible successors to Pope Benedict, who became the first pope to announce his resignation in more than 600 years. They include Peter Turkson of Ghana, Francis Arinze of Nigeria, Luis Antonio Tagle of the <a href="/topics//Philippines">Philippines</a>, Leonardo Sandri of Argentina, Oscar Maradiaga of Honduras, and Odilo Scherer and Joao Braz de Aviz, both from Brazil.</p> 
<p> Of course, our faith should be colorblind. Race, ethnicity or nationality should not be a qualification for the job.</p> 
<p> What Catholics need most is a leader who will welcome everyone into the church and who will look at ways to examine whether church doctrine makes sense in today's modern world. Birth control, <a href="/topics//Same-sex_Marriage">gay marriage</a> and women priests are just some of the issues some Catholics like myself would like the church to re-examine. The world is changing, and the church needs to change, too.</p> 
<p> Catholics also need a leader who will protect our children and will vigorously prosecute those priests or clergy who sexually abuse the vulnerable.</p> 
<p> The cardinals should select a pope who will best represent the faith and most eloquently speak for those who are voiceless and oppressed. And the pope must be a universal leader who can inspire us to live by the golden rule to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."</p> 
<p> When the smoke signals rise from the Vatican indicating the conclave of cardinals has selected a new pope, it would be powerful if this time the ashes were a shade darker than white.</p> 
<p> <i>Teresa Puente teaches journalism at <a href="/topics//Columbia_College_Chicago">Columbia College Chicago</a> and also writes the Chicanisima blog.</i></p>

OPPUENTE22

Puente: College of cardinals should look for a Pope with a different background

<p> I'm a Catholic, but I'll admit it (or should I say "confess" it?): When Pope Benedict XVI announced his pending resignation, my first thought wasn't religious. It was in fact downright superficial. "There goes the best-dressed pontiff ever!"</p> 
<p> During his nearly eight years on the throne of St. Peter, Benedict has always looked absolutely perfect, sartorially speaking, whether garbed in elaborate vestments for an <a href="/topics//Easter">Easter</a> liturgy or clad in the simple but meticulously tailored white caped cassock (it's called a "simar" in church lingo) that he wears on more ordinary occasions. He's been the Duke of Windsor of popes.</p> 
<p> My own fashion sense is nearly nonexistent, but that only makes me more appreciative of Benedict's. Some highlights: Benedict saying Mass in 2008 at Washington's Nationals Park stadium in a billowing scarlet satin chasuble (a priest's outermost liturgical garment) trimmed with crimson <a href="/topics//Velvet_(designer)">velvet</a> and delicate gold piping. Benedict greeting worshipers in Rome, his chasuble this time woven of emerald-green watered silk with a pattern of golden stars. Benedict on Oct. 21 canonizing Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint, while attired in a fanon, a gold-and-white striped shoulder covering, dating to the 8th century, that only popes may wear.</p> 
<p> Benedict's immediate predecessor, <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">Pope John Paul II</a>, was a saintly figure and a commanding intellectual presence, but he had little interest in clothes, tending to wear whatever was handed to him and shunning elaborate adornments. Pope Paul VI, who reigned from 1963 to 1978, started out dressing fancy, but he gradually simplified his attire, abandoning, for example, the papal tiara, the high triple crown that popes had worn since the early Middle Ages.</p> 
<p> Benedict didn't bring back the tiara, but he has revived many other traditional papal garments and accessories. For his public appearances he almost always wears the bright red shoes that popes have worn since Roman times (John Paul preferred brown or black footwear). Benedict also began wearing the mozzetta, a waist-length cape, and the camauro, a red <a href="/topics//Velvet_(designer)">velvet</a> cap with a white fur border that reminded Americans of a Santa Claus hat. Neither of those items had been seen much on popes since the end of the Second Vatican Council in 1965.</p> 
<p> Benedict's sartorial revivals have offended many liberal Catholics, who argue that he has been trying to "turn back the clock," as they often put it, on the churchly reforms of Vatican II. The cattiest critic was Hans Kung, the dissident German priest who had once been a colleague of Benedict, or Josef Ratzinger as he was then called, on the faculty of the University of Tubingen. In a 2008 op-ed article for the Italian newspaper La Stampa, Kung called Benedict's style of dress "pompous" and compared him to Pope Leo X of the 16th century, notorious for selling indulgences and famously painted by <a href="/topics//Raphael">Raphael</a> in fur-trimmed mozzetta and camauro.</p> 
<p> Others have used the phrases "over the top" and "major bling" to describe Benedict's taste in vestments, deeming the pope a foppish aesthete. Still others, such as the gay blogger <a href="/topics//Andrew_Sullivan">Andrew Sullivan</a>, have speculated that Benedict is himself gay.</p> 
<p> Catholic conservatives counter that Benedict's attire exemplifies a "hermeneutic of continuity," a deliberate symbolic effort to link his 21st century papacy to centuries of Catholic tradition.</p> 
<p> My own take on Benedict's wardrobe is somewhat different. I don't believe that aesthetics is mere window-dressing. In her 2005 book "The Substance of Style," economics pundit <a href="/topics//Virginia_Postrel">Virginia Postrel</a> wrote: "Aesthetics is the way we communicate through the senses.. Aesthetics shows rather than tells, delights rather than instructs. The effects are immediate, perceptual and emotional." Plato argued that the beautiful, while not exactly the same as the good, is a kind of complement to the good that points to the good and shows off the good via sensory media.</p> 
<p> That is what I believe is exactly Benedict's aim. Over the last couple of decades, the <a href="/topics//Roman_Catholic_Church">Roman Catholic Church</a> has been besmirched with ugliness, scarred by clerical sexual predation abetted by clueless and self-promoting bishops. Benedict has used beauty to demonstrate tangibly that the Catholic faith that he and the members of his church share is itself beautiful and indestructible, and that it shines through despite all human efforts to wreck it.</p> 
<p> It is especially fitting for our time that the pope has chosen his own liturgical apparel as an aesthetic medium. In the world of what passes for sophisticated culture these days, beauty and art have become nearly unmoored from each other. Art is supposed to be transgressive, while beauty is judged merely ornamental. Paint a Madonna, and you've got calendar kitsch. Paint a Madonna, and add some elephant dung and pictures of female genitalia cut out from porn magazines, and you've got a work to be exhibited in an exclusive gallery. Only in the decorative and useful arts - jewelry, fabrics, home furnishings, clothing, the design of cars, machines, and even humble objects - are beauty and fine craftsmanship still the criteria by which we judge value.</p> 
<p> Pope Benedict XVI has been the pope of aesthetics, the pope who plays Mozart on the piano for his own private entertainment and who can write theological books in such lucid, limpid prose that ordinary people can read them for pleasure. He has reminded a world that looks increasingly ugly and debased that there is such a thing as the beautiful - whether it's embodied in a sonata or an altarpiece or an embroidered cope or the cut of a cassock - and that earthly beauty ultimately communicates a beauty that is beyond earthly things.</p> 
<p> <i>Charlotte Allen writes frequently about feminism, politics and religion. She is the author of "The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus." She wrote this for the <a href="/topics//Los_Angeles_Times">Los Angeles Times</a>.</i></p>

OPALLEN19

Allen: Pope Benedict XVI, the best-dressed pope

<p> The pontificate of <a href="/topics//Pope_Benedict_XVI">Pope Benedict XVI</a> was already on track to be historic. But what will more than secure his place in history is his decision to recognize his human limits and pass along the vital work of leadership to a more physically robust individual. Such selflessness and personal humility is inspirational -- and may well represent Joseph <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Ratzinger</a>'s most profound legacy. His noble gesture shows that he understands that no one person is indispensable, that the office of Successor to St. Peter is so much bigger and more mysterious than any single man, a truth that had become obscured at times by the celebrity status of his charismatic predecessor.</p> 
<p> The modern precedent set by Benedict's historic decision to resign may turn out to be a real game changer that has a positive influence on future conclaves and pontificates. Up until this point, the age of the various candidates for Pope has been a closely scrutinized factor that has led to some interesting strategic electoral decisions.</p> 
<p> When Angelo Roncalli, for example, was elected Pope John XXIII back in 1958, his advanced age -- 77 -- was regarded as one of his most attractive features. After the two-decade-long reign of <a href="/topics//Pius_XII">Pius XII</a>, the cardinal electors were looking for someone who would be no more than a placeholder, a "caretaker pope." (Never mind that the newly elected pope surprised everyone, defying all expectations by convening the Second Vatican Council.)</p> 
<p> The selection of the youthful and athletic Karol Wojtyla, only 58 when he was elected <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">Pope John Paul II</a> in 1978, was a bold move. It is not surprising that he went on to become the second-longest serving pope in history. That very longevity, however, would become a significant problem as he sank into marked infirmity in his later years. The long twilight of his papacy is remembered by many as an era when it seemed as if the Bark of St. Peter had, for the time being, run aground. The decision to replace such a long-serving Pope with the 78-year-old Benedict was a tactical one. As the oldest person to assume the office of the papacy in the past 275 years, <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Ratzinger</a> was sure to have a far shorter reign than his friend Wojtyla.</p> 
<p> But now the pope has generously and creatively changed the usual calculus by setting the modern precedent of being the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign his office. Future pontiffs will certainly have more discretion in this regard. Choosing a 60-year-old in this next round, for example, will not mean that he is doomed to occupy the Vatican for three decades if the accident of his genetic makeup should allow his body to survive to an age beyond which his mind and heart can adequately commit to the job.</p> 
<p> In a constantly changing world, the church can ill afford what is for all intents and purposes a condition of <i>sede vacante</i> ("the seat being empty") even though the pope is still technically alive. Benedict has courageously created a new mindset within which such a state of stagnation will be far less likely in the future.</p> 
<p> Moreover, Benedict reminds us that in the final analysis, all that really matters is the relationship of the individual soul with his or her God. If <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Joseph Ratzinger</a> truly believes in the mystery to which he has devoted his intellectual and ministerial career -- and he certainly does -- then he realizes that however exalted one's achievements in this life, all that ultimately matters is the pursuit of personal union with God. That is a project that he will now be free to pursue without distraction.</p> 
<p> The docile surrender to the mystery of God that is represented by this generous decision can serve as an edifying example to us all. Hopefully his altruistic and gracious example will inspire whoever emerges from the upcoming conclave as pontiff.</p> 
<p> <i>Paul Ginnetty is professor of psychology at Saint Joseph's College in Patchogue and director of the college's Institute for the Study of Religion and Community <a href="/topics//Life_(show)">Life</a>.</i></p>

OPGIN11

Ginnetty: Pope Benedict's resignation could be precedent-setting

0MI28J5C.JPG - crop

<p> Those in power virtually never give it up willingly; in <a href="/topics//U.S._Congress">Congress</a> or on the local school board, at the office or on a coaching staff, who do you know who's done that? <a href="/topics//Pope_Benedict_XVI">Pope Benedict XVI</a>, that's who, and before we skip straight to guessing who will succeed him on the Chair of Peter, let's acknowledge how brave and extraordinary a thing he's done in knowing when to say when. We should all be so wise.</p> 
<p> Funny that a man so many associate with the Middle Ages will go down in history for modernizing - but he will. That's because his retirement bows not only to the reality that we live longer now, but to the fact that for all the incense and candlelight surrounding the papacy, it is, among other things, a job, with real-world obligations that one either can or cannot fulfill. Odds are good that no one around Benedict - each of whom depends on the pope for his own job - was urging him to do this.</p> 
<p> Why the former <a href="/topics//Joseph_Ratzinger">Joseph Ratzinger</a> is bowing out at 85 is what everyone wants to know, but to my friends who wonder whether the Vatican is cannily trying to shift the narrative from sex abuse and Cardinal Roger Mahony to self-sacrifice and Holy Week, I'll just say that one thing I never suspect Rome of is PR savvy.</p> 
<p> In fact, Benedict's motivations in stepping down aren't a mystery at all: He never exactly hankered for the job, and, according to someone with direct knowledge of his thinking, in the years since ascending to the Chair of Peter in 2005, he has on several occasions voiced doubts about whether he should have accepted it.</p> 
<p> Benedict has always said he would step down if he felt he could no longer do his best for the world's billion Catholics, and we shouldn't forget that few had a better view than he did of <a href="/topics//Pope_John_Paul_II">John Paul II</a>'s painful final years, when the vacuum left by the pope's infirmity raised all kinds of uncomfortable questions about who was really in charge at the Vatican.</p> 
<p> Benedict is an academic; for the quarter-century before he became pope, he was the pope's theologian, and it's important to remember that for two reasons: First, because he is so cerebral, the mental slowing-down that he's referred to is a problem he would take extra seriously. And it's hard to imagine him dreading a return to a life with much more time for reading and writing.</p> 
<p> That is not to say he's leaving because the job has gotten too hard; I don't believe he'd allow himself that kind of an out. He's been explicit that his personal comfort shouldn't and wouldn't be a factor in any such decision to step down, once saying, "When the danger is great, one must not run away." Yet it's also true that these have not been easy years for him, both because of the clerical sex abuse scandals and because of the betrayal when the "Vatileaks" documents were leaked from his household. In many ways, the cloistered Vatican monastery where he's planning to live will be a million miles away from his current life of frequent travel and multi-hour liturgies.</p> 
<p> My friend and colleague <a href="/topics//E.J._Dionne">E.J. Dionne</a> correctly notes that Benedict has neither been as conservative as conservatives would have liked nor as conservative as some of the rest of us feared when the bells rang in St. Peter's Square eight years ago - and in some ways, yes, he sounds like a good American progressive, writing in a December op-ed that "Christians fight poverty out of a recognition of the supreme dignity of every human being, created in God's image and destined for eternal life."</p> 
<p> But when we assess his papacy, we really can't do it in strictly secular or conventionally political terms; we need to bring a little realism to the exercise, too. I see all these looks back that have Benedict down as a known opponent of <a href="/topics//Same-sex_Marriage">same-sex marriage</a>, abortion and women's ordination, and I think, well, yes, but that's like saying such and such rabbi is known for not eating pork; it would have been true of anyone chosen in the papal conclave of 2005, and it will be true of anyone chosen in the papal conclave of 2013.</p> 
<p> And if it surprises you that the guy in charge of orthodox Catholicism will in fact be an orthodox Catholic, well, you are in for an exciting time in the coming weeks.</p> 
<p> <i>Melinda Henneberger is a <a href="/topics//Washington_Post_Company">Washington Post</a> political writer and anchors the blog She the People.</i></p>

OPHENNENBERGER12

Hennenberger: Pope Benedict's thoroughly modern resignation

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