Posted on 02/13/2013 2:21:22 PM PST by NYer
Cardinal Peter Turkson gave a wide ranging interview to the UK Telegraph about his vision and what it would mean if he is elected Pope.
He told The Daily Telegraph Tuesday that his biggest challenge, should he be elected, would be to maintain an orthodox Catholic doctrine while "at the same time knowing how to apply it so that you do not become irrelevant in a world that has continuous changes".My immediate reaction upon reading this interview, 'he seems to want to be Pope, almost campaigning for it.'
Cardinal Turkson, who holds one of the most important jobs in the Roman Curia and has been repeatedly promoted by Pope Benedict, was quick to take a conservative line on gay marriage and other "alternative lifestyles".
"We need to find ways of dealing with the challenges coming up from society and culture," he said, adding that the Church needed to "evangelise", or convert, those who had embraced "alternative lifestyles, trends or gender issues". He added: "We cannot fail in our task of providing guidance."
...
The African prelate said he had reflected on the enormous personal burden of becoming the leader of the Catholic Church. "It would certainly mean a lot if I had to be a pope," he said. "If I was elected pope it would signal a lot of [personal] change. Very big change in a lot of regards. I have been an archbishop, which involved a certain amount of leadership and now having to do this on a world level, the dimensions expand almost infinitely.
"It is going to be a life-changing experience and I think that is what it has been for Benedict and those who have gone before us. The challenge will also be with the individual to want to make his mark, not trying to fit into anybody's shoes but finding his own shoes to wear."
Cardinal Turkson also said the Vatican needs to "restore and repair" an image that has been "badly compromised by recent scandals".
...
"It is a possibility [that there will be an African pope]," he said. "Already at the last conclave there was a move to have a candidate from the southern half of the globe," he said. But he pointed out that there is constant speculation over the idea of an African pope.
"Before I got here there was a young African cardinal called Arinze from Nigeria. And at every conclave everybody was talking about him as an emerging candidate. Arinze is now 80 and actually there is no way he can participate in the conclave. So after Arinze another African shows up in the Vatican, now there are actually two of us, there is a cardinal from Guinea. So again there is speculation."
“He who goes in pope, comes out cardinal”. Perhaps that was Turkson’s plan in accepting this interview ;-)
Maybe he doesn't want to be Pope ... so he's blathering and driveling. Everybody knows that if you "run for Pope" you don't get elected.
Cardinal Ouellet for Pope.
I’m not joking.
As the song once wisely advised, it’s nobody’s business but the Turks’ !
Excellent point!
“Cardinal Ouellet for Pope.”
Hmmm. Doesn’t seem as though he has held the line very well in the face of Canadian secularism.
Quebec especially!
Is there something you can say about him to allay my misgivings?
I think he probably read the immediate speculation and thought it was a done deal.
I hope not. I’m sure he’s probably excellent in many areas, but his “centralized world economic authority” and other bizarre musings from his “Peace and Justice Committee” certainly aren’t anything I’d want a Pope to dabble in. There was something rather Obama-like about the whole thing.
Turkson’s toast. Keep your eye on Ranjith of Colombo.
He’s being used (wittingly or unwittingly) by those who want to pump up “the African Pope” meme then savage the Church for being racist when he’s not elected pope.
We’ve had African popes before—in the first 5 centuries there were three of them.
This is MSM playing psyops with us Catholics.
He is being called a conservative because he opposes gay marriage and the use of contraceptives.
But I’m with you. I would tend to mistrust anyone who has been tapped for the Peace and Justice Committee.
“Peace and Justice” is not one of the “most important jobs in the Roman Curia”. The Congregation for Bishops (Ouellet) is. Second-in-command at CDF (Ranjith, formerly) is.
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