New Pope....Why Germany????

[rsmith6621]

Is it me or does it seem that the European country's are strongly influencing world policy and economics...

The new Pope is from Germany after much talk of a new Pope could have come from South America or China where Catholicism is growing rapidly.

Our own courts are using case law from Europe to help them make decision on matters here in the USA.

Airbus Industries continue to kick Boeing's butt.

The US $$$ is being daily devalued by that of the Euro.

There are many more interesting points. Am I just imagining this?

[kcwayne]

1. They chose the white guy

any questions?

[forgethell]

4. Not everything is

about race.

[kcwayne]

5. Didn't say everything was, let's see how many brown skinned popes have

there been in 2000 years? Oh, zero.

In South America there was real hope and optimism that the church would appoint a South American. Given that they represent the largest population of Catholics in the world it would seem reasonable that the church might appoint someone from that sector of the world.

By why break 2000 years of tradition and appoint a non-white, non-European? And who really believed they would?

After all, this is the same church that justified serfdom in Europe for a thousand years, slavery and genocide in the New World for another 500. Their high moral values are evident for all to see in the march through history.

[forgethell]

6. It's sort of like

Western civilization. Only recently has it broken out into the rest of the world.

Maybe it's just politics.

However, to appoint someone just because he wasn't white would be racism. don't you think??

[kcwayne]

8. Yes it would be

but the question is whether they would seriously consider anybody but a white male.

Well, we know for sure that they won't consider a female because they have said so. Their actions and policies toward non-white males over the last 2000 years are a pretty good indicator of what they will do in the future, especially since they are reeling back into conservatism.

Oh, and the church defined Western civilization over the last 1200 years, so its not like Western civilization, it is Western civilization.

[forgethell]

11. Actually racism

as we know it today (that is, based primarily on skin color), only corresponds with the last 4-500 years, at most. Before that there was tribalism, etc. The Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese, for example have always had considerable differences based on parentage. In fact, the single most racist person I ever met (and I used to deliver telegrams to Robert Shelton back when he was Grand Dragon of a branch of the KKK back in 64 or thereabouts) was a Korean-American.

No, the West didn't really invent racism. Jusst like war and technology and science, they just happened to be better at it than anybody else at certain crucial times.

[kcwayne]

12. Did I say the West invented racism or are its only practitioners?

I missed that.

The larger point is that the church has refused to celebrate and appoint people (men actually) to its ultimate leadership due to tribe, race, and social class over its history. Call that exclusion what you will. The semantics do not change the relative moral proposition of the church's view of its leadership.

While it holds the pope to be the direct representative of God on earth, they act as only one type of direct representative is acceptable to this God. This God is purported to be the creator of all of mankind, not just a very small segment of its population which happens to have only included white men from Europe over 2000 years.

So the proposition that you have to accept whether you are an Apache, Inca, African, Ethiopian, Cossack, Arab, Chinese, or any group not part of the tight cloister around the Vatican, is that you are not good enough for the Catholic God, your supposed creator. Perhaps Catholic dogma accepts this as the "natural" order of things. I don't know, I am not Catholic, and have no interest in following dogma that is so disconnected from morality, ethics, and accountability.

[forgethell]

13. Didn't say that you did,

although I find it pretty much implied by the quest for a brown pope, as if that were the be-all, and end-all. Suppose we got a brown, even more conservative pope? I think they wanted a conservative, and got one.

No, I don't think racism had anything at all to do with the decision. One day there will be a brown pope, or a red pope, or a black pope. Doubt there will ever be a female pope, though (Yeah, Yeah, I know about 'Pope' Joan)

[Village Idiot]

2. Yes.

You are imagining it. Now, stop it.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[minerva50]

10. The name "Benedict" was a signal of this intention

to try to bring Europe back into the fold. They named Benedict the patron saint of Europe. I think one of the earlier Pope Benedicts was also a big reformer of the European church, outlawed married preists, cracked down on abuses.

[Kellanved]

7. Yes.

You do.

:hide:

[CentralEuropeanDude]

9. Yes. By the way the A380 maiden flight is next week, maybe

it crash and burn. that might be a relief for some people.