Pope Benedict XVI

Washington Times ^ | Wednesday, April 20, 2005 | House Editorial

[JohnHuang2]

Yesterday's election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI is astonishing on both political and religious grounds. As head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the office formerly known as the Inquisition, Cardinal Ratzinger was responsible for defending Catholic teaching and punishing doctrinal dissidents. Essentially he was the Vatican's top cop. His selection signals that church leaders want a disciplinarian to clean up some messes in the Roman Catholic Church.

[onyx]

OK, I really must get some sleep and let this most glorious of a day end, but I am delighted with this
portion of the final paragraph:


"One of the surprising aspects of the elevation of Benedict XVI is that the most liberal College of Cardinals in history elected the most conservative prelate among them to be their leader. This reflects an institutional self-evaluation in which cardinals decided it was necessary to scale back some 1960s reforms."

AMEN.

The Cardinals have elected the right man.
We are blessed.

Good night everybody

[BigSkyFreeper]

Placemark for later. Thanks for the ping. You sleep well! I'm headed that way.

[Ready4Freddy]

Cardinal Ratzinger at 78 was barely young enough to vote for, or be considered for, Pope. I think the College of Cardinals elected their own 'placeholder'.

[onyx]

Yes, you're the ONLY one... uninformed as you are.

[onyx]

I pray he'll live to be 120.
They elected the right man.
He is extraordinarily gifted.

[samtheman]

It's good that we have a Pope that recognizes the evils of liberalism

Does he? Does he recognize the evils of socialism? I'm not so sure. It seems to me that the Catholic Church is very supportive of European Socialists.

[Ready4Freddy]

Wonder what % of German boys in their early teens in the 1930's were members of the Hitler Jugend?

...but am I the only one who is a little concerned with the fact that this Pope used to be a bona-fide card-carrying member of the Hitler Youth?

[onyx]

You are truly uninformed.

He did no such thing.

He was a teenager.
All teenage boys were drafted into Hitler's youth.
He escaped.
He was soundly against Hilter and Nazism.

I think you're a troll.
Hitting abuse on you.

[onyx]

Fast work AdMod.
I didn't have time to hit abuse on #9.
I think we might have a troll here in kratz-e.

[goldstategop]

The funny thing about the liberal media commentaries is none of them highlight the new Pope's work as on of the original Vatican II reformers. Bringing the Church into the modern world was a vital step to reconciling it with the free societies it had long viewed with suspicion, if not outright hostility. Where Vatican II veered off course was in the assumption that the Church needed to adopt any "anything goes" ethos to win the approval of the secular world. And that would have gone too far and would have been fatal to the Church's identity and overall mission, since if there is one thing a religious institution cannot be, is to be all things to all people. In a secular world, people need the reassurance and certainty faith rooted in timeless beliefs brings and for that to happen there is a point beyond which the Church could never proceed. And the election of Pope Benedict XVI has underlined this reality for the entire world to witness.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Tennessee_Bob]

Gee - only two posts since you joined today, and both of them mention service in the Hitler Youth. Have to wonder about that. Especially in light of the fact that you don't mention some of the caveats that are mentioned in that article regarding his "military career."

The young Ratzinger served briefly and unenthusiastically with the Hitler Youth and later with a German army anti-aircraft unit guarding the BMW factory in Munich. He says he never fired a shot.

He was drafted into it, is my understanding, as were a lot of the young people in Germany. Briefly and unenthusiastically means what to you? And I find it odd that you don't mention the fact that he deserted and ended up as a POW.

Considering that Yad Vashem has never bothered looking into Ratzinger's involvement with the Hitler Youth - and if anyone was going to worry about it, they certainly would - then why are you worried about it? It's been sixty years since the period in question - why bring it up now?

[goldstategop]

Every young German served in the Hitler Youth after 1939 til the end of the war. It didn't make Joseph Ratzinger a Nazi since he never joined the party and as far we know he never committed any crime under the Third Reich.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Ready4Freddy]

Although he supports Vatican II, he is one of the few who were there who concede that the reforms have gone 'out of control'.

This is worrisome, however - He also accused the media of fueling the priest sex abuse scandals of recent years. "I am personally convinced," he one told an interviewer, "that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the U.S., is a planned campaign."

Please don't shoot the messengers, Your Holiness.....

[SubMareener]

Please don't shoot the messengers, Your Holiness.....

You must have missed the myriad of C-SPAN conferences in which mainstream journalists declare that they are no longer just messengers, but people with a mission to make the world "better". You might call them missionaries for secularism and socialism, which, we all know, is what communism really is.

[jocon307]

"He wrote extensively about the need for beautiful liturgy and is an active proponent of bringing back the traditional Latin Mass that was suppressed after the revolutionary Second Vatican Council...."

This is what I've been waiting to hear. I hope he moves strongly on this as well as against that Lavender Mafia one hears so much about.