Posted on 02/13/2013 10:49:33 AM PST by haffast
Pope Benedict XVI’s sudden announcement that he would resign by the end of the month took the church and the world by surprise, in large part because it was a move without precedent in the modern world.
But what comes next is as old and familiar as the papacy itself: Speculating about who will succeed to the Throne of St. Peter.
Indeed, within months of Benedict’s own election in 2005, church insiders and online oddsmakers were trying to figure out who might be next, given that Benedict—now 85—was already aging, increasingly frail, and had himself declared that he did not expect his reign to be a long one.
snip
Will the conclave make the epochal break with the European monopoly and pick a cardinal from Latin America or Africa? The Catholic Church is booming in the Southern Hemisphere, as opposed to Europe and North America, where it is on life-support or barely treading water.
snip
“In my eyes it would be a good thing if a candidate from Latin America or Africa were elected at the next conclave,” Cardinal Kurt Koch, a Swiss prelate who is the Vatican’s top official for dialogue with other churches, said in December.
The future of the church “does not lie in Europe,” Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, a German who Benedict tapped last year to serve as the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog, said in a separate interview in December. “I know a number of bishops and cardinals from Latin America who could take responsibility for the entire world Church.”
Snip
(Excerpt) Read more at charismanews.com ...
My money’s on Ouellet for a couple of reasons:
1) He’s not tainted by scandal
2) He’s had a varied career as missionary/parish priest/bishop/professor/curialist
3) He speak 5 languages fluently (His native French, English, Spanish, Italian and Portugese)
4) He’s thoroughly conservative/traditional
5) He’s never been seen as campaigning for the job
6) When there’s debate over whether the next pope will be African, Latino, European, or American he’s the most viable ‘None of the Above’ answer.
7) He’s the right age at 68. He could reign in good health for at least 10 years but not nearly as long as JPII’s 25+ years.
8) He’s healthy. He still likes to put on his skates and play hockey with his extended family when he visits home (Northern Quebec)
9) He’s a good balance between JPII on the charisma scale and BXVI on the intellectual scale.
10) He’s fearless in his promotion of a pro-life world view and has participated in and spoken at several March-for-Life type events outside Canada’s parliament, drawing fire from the usual separation of church and state crowd (yup - we’ve got ‘em here too)
The more I read about the guy, the more I think there’s no reason NOT to elect him.
Colombo would work out just fine. He'd really irritate the Cafeteria crowd I bet, and the fascist Media, too.
Cardinal Ouellet in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Xw4-CFzc5-o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=la81wjZtGD4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=YEQeY7jQTdE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=YgSJc5UVkV8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Hm1UfYdKEOU
Yes, it would not look good for a Pope to be named "Peter."
< /wink>
I hope they have a better form of vote counting than we had in 2012.
I see what you did, there.
If it's political correctness and he's black, he'll take the nick Mofo I (First). If he's brown, the nick will be Jesus V (pronounced 'hay-sues. Fifth, to commemorate Cinquo de Mayo.)
Naw, if the next pope is a colored dude it'll be because the Church is growing in the colored world. Nothing to do with political correctness.
Orthodox, unashamedly pro-life and a hockey player - hard to ask for much more (anybody with any sense will think twice before they start to screw with somebody who knows how to wield a hockey stick).
Naw, if the next pope is a colored dude it’ll be because the Church is growing in the colored world. Nothing to do with political correctness.
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FRiend that IS political correctness.
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