As someone educated in the Catholic tradition, who's never resigned

[norml]

I should say that he Church, and it's teachings Have Changed over time. The balance between the Central authority, and the practices of it's churches, and their members, has also changed over time. Many local beliefs have been incorporated. Catholic means Universal. I believe it's possible for The Church to encompass many beliefs, in spite of what the current Central authority might say. The only thing that bothers me about some of the criticisms I've seen here are some of the right wing fundie Anti-Pope talking points that I've seen repeated. I've no problem with those going overboard with their attacks on his conservatism, except to say that I think they might be surprised by how liberal he turns out to be, in the reforms his reputation for conservatism puts him in a position to make, and in his strong opposition to unjust wars of aggression.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

1. Are you Catholic, or .......

........... are you a Roman Catholic? There's a difference.

People have their opinions, informed or not, and that's the beauty of free speech.

That said, I think you're whistling past the graveyard if you think this new Pope is going to be anything but dangerously and destructively conservative. This is the man responsible for getting Bernard Law the hell out of Boston when the notion of a criminal indictment of Law loomed. This is the man who thinks rock music is immoral, and this is the man who has been responsible for how the Vatican has operated for the last several years.

Yeah, "opposition to war." The Vatican was about as vociferous about that as it was about the molestation of children by its priests.

I think he's just another in the increasingly-lengthening strand of overdressed professional virgins and women-haters who are going to continue to undo any remnant of Vatican II and John XXIII.

(By the way, I was raised as a Roman Catholic, too, and, in fact, my author photo on the dust cover of my first published novel is my First Holy Communion picture...............)

[norml]

4. You mean the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church?

And yes, I may be "whistling past the graveyard" but I wanted to try to say something optimistic, and inclusive for those who might feel excommunicated by the so called "True Catholics" who reject Vatican II.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22holy+roman+catholic+and+apostolic+church%22&spell=1

[Historic NY]

2. I agree I think he will have to emerge from under JP II's shadow......n/t

[norml]

6. Benedict XVI on the Cover of Time

[hlthe2b]

3. Is this Pope Opus Dei? If so, I would have to conclude...

NO CHANCE (that he'd be less conservative than we fear).

[norml]

5. Ratzinger/Benedict XVI is not Opus Dei, but he is a fan of their founder.

* * *

I saw Ratzinger recently at the presentation of a new book by author Giuseppe Romano, entitled Opus Dei: Il Messaggio, le Opere, le Persone (Opus Dei: The Message, The Works, The People, San Paolo, 2002). Ratzinger is a fan of the founder of Opus Dei, Spanish priest Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, set to be canonized Oct. 6. The book launch took place at the Augustinianum, just down the Via Paolo VI from the Holy Office, where Ratzinger works.

Ratzinger, who turns 75 on April 16, is weaker than when he took up his post 20 years ago. He has spoken wistfully about retiring to his home in Regensburg in Bavaria. In recent months he has turned over major chunks of responsibility to his lieutenant, Italian Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone. Yet he was in good form at the Opus Dei event, speaking without a prepared text in polished Italian.

The cardinal devoted the gist of his talk to his admiration for the implied significance of the phrase “Opus Dei,” which means “Work of God.” Escrivá, Ratzinger suggested, realized that he was not doing his own work, but God’s. His task was to be an instrument.

Ratzinger contrasted this attitude with what he called a “temptation of our time, also among Christians,” to believe that after the “Big Bang” God withdrew from the world and left things to function on their own. But God is not withdrawn, Ratzinger insisted. We simply have to learn to put ourselves at God’s disposition, and that is the “message of very great importance” which Ratzinger attributed to Escrivá.

I I
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http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/word0322.htm