BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Polish Culture Your thoughts about cardinal Ratzinger being pope?

I thought about him and I was not sure whether I would like him to be elected or not. He will continue the same theology as the pope. But he is probably not that warm and pastoral like the pope, he is also a bit old.
He was probably one of the two cardinals who were not chosen by pope - since he is known for quite a while.

Ratzinger may be good or bad for Western Europe, hope he would energize German catholics.

I found an interesting article about pope and Ratzinger a couple of days ago and I will try to post it if I would find it on the internet again.

Here is a fragment from this very interesting article about the CHurch, pope etc:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GD05Aa01.html

Ratzinger's mustard seed
By Spengler
News reports suggest that the succession may fall to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the Vatican's chief theologian. With no way to game the odds that this might happen, I think it worth noting that Ratzinger is one of the few men alive capable of surprising the world. Ten years ago, he shocked the Catholic world with this warning:
We might have to part with the notion of a popular Church. It is possible that we are on the verge of a new era in the history of the Church, under circumstances very different from those we have faced in the past, when Christianity will resemble the mustard seed [Matthew 13:31-32], that is, will continue only in the form of small and seemingly insignificant groups, which yet will oppose evil with all their strength and bring Good into this world. [1]
....
John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger belonged to the "Augustinian" minority of senior clergy who tried to steer the Church back to its fundamental mission, namely repentance and salvation. Anthony Mansueto of the University of New Mexico, a left-wing critic, remonstrates bitterly against this current:
[Around Vatican II] a new Augustinian Right emerged which regarded Neo-Thomism and Social Catholicism as too focused on the social apostolate and ineffective in communicating what they saw as the essential message of Christianity: human sinfulness and God's offer of forgiveness. This group, which developed around the journal Communio, and which includes both the current pope and his chief theologian, Joseph Ratzinger, but of whom the most important theological representative was Hans Urs von Balthasar, explicitly rejects both the "cosmological" approach of historic Thomism, which rises to God through an attempt to explain the natural world, and the "anthropological" approach of the conciliar (and in a different way the liberation) theologians, in favor of an "esthetic" approach which gives priority to the passive reception of the self-sacrificial gift of Christ on the cross. The effect is a sort of clericalized Lutheranism. [5]
Mansueto intends the term "clericalized Lutheranism" as an insult, but there is a grain of truth here. John Paul II's Augustinian leaning made him more of a unifying figure in the Christian world, in particular among US evangelicals. The scriptural rather than philosophical emphasis of the Augustinian current, moreover, deepened the late pope's instinctive sympathy for Judaism, the scriptural religion par excellence.

Ratzinger was not only the Vatican's chief theologian, but John Paul II's closest theological collaborator. From his first academic work on St Bonaventure, Ratzinger took the Protestant bull by the horns. Scriptural revelation is an act by which God reveals himself, he argued, and revelation requires someone to whom revelation is made manifest. He wrote in his autobiography:
The word "revelation" refers to the act in which God shows himself, and not to the objectified result of this act. Part and parcel of the concept of revelation is the receiving subject. Where there is no one to perceive revelation, no re-vel-ation has occurred because no veil has been removed. By definition, revelation requires a someone who apprehends it. [6]

more:

[b]Ratzinger may have more in common with evangelical Christians than with the neo-Thomists of his own Church. For the first time, Catholic congregations in the US south are attracting the sort of people who normally would join evangelical denominations. On the surface, the US Church is deteriorating, bulked up by Hispanic immigrants but losing clergy and parochial-school attendance. I consider the odds very small, but cannot rule out that the Wojtyla-Ratzinger current yet might turn out to be the mustard seed of which Ratzinger wrote. It is not, as some suggest, that the US Catholic Church has assimilated into the ambient Protestant culture of US, but rather that a Catholic current of ancient lineage might compete with evangelical Christianity on its own terms.

The popular media have assigned Ratzinger the image of a dour conservative, cracking down on dissenting theologians. Quite the opposite might be the case: as pope, Ratzinger might conceivably become something of a unifying figure in the Christian world.

With all the 'action' about aid for Africa, I wonder if he is going to be 'Pro aid' or 'Pro Aids'?

Very uninspiring choice, but not surprising. John Paul 2 appointed all of the 115 Cardinals who voted, so why should anybody be surprised. Ratzinger was John Pauls right hand man, therefore very little will change. This is the problem when you have a Pope who's pontificate is 26 years. His legacy will be little change if any in the future. Ratzinger is 78 ( i don't think the Cardinals wanted another long Papacy ) and he will probably be considered a transitional Pope. The western part of the Church will probably continualy go down hill, and the Vatican will be oblivious to it. Yawn

Ratzinger was one of the two not appointed by Polish pope.
He is seen as a continuation of our pope.
He is a sharp, intelligent man who believes and loves the church. I worry that he loves church a bit more than its people and that he prefers justice over the mercy. But in general he is seen very positively by Polish mass media.

It is thrue . The polish people from first day new pontificate love new pope. Everywhere I heard only very nice comments. I think that we awaiting more HIS arrive to Poland than the German in Germany.

Malgosia,

thanks for posting here. I noticed so many Polish flags in Rome. It almost seems that Poles are really happy that Ratzinger was elected. THe Polish pope energized the POles so much! Yes, he is seen as a continuation of our pope but also his German origin - still gived Poles hope that he will be close to Poland. Yes, Poles and Germans have difficult times, but they are neighbors and they do have more in common than many other countries do.

It almost looks that this is the best thing to improve Polish-German relations!

Hey guys.........lily here!

You will probably see exodus of those Catholic who take what they want and leave the rest............but also a return from those that need dogma carved in stone,tired of the wishy washy "whose on first" dogma. Making up only 6% of worlds Catholics - I think America could drop off the map and not really make a big difference to the Catholic church.

From what I observed during the death of John Paul and now the doings for the new Pope - I'm betting that Benedict will continue to make a stand as in the past, but not as a front line heavy hitter......now he's working at the CEO top level and will change his tactics......however, some folks will go away angry, picking up their toys and going home - others will do their homework, and find that his teaching are the teachings for the last 2000 years...and will obey.

God Bless

lily

Hi Jaga -

I got a few of the people on the Delphi German forum excited when I stated I would have preferred someone other than German as pope due to the German history of insisting everyone believe as they do. This seems to have gone on from Catholicism through Protestantism centuries long. The conversation went into the Holy Roman Empire or Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nations as is referred to in languages other than English. One German in the forum even denied that the Holy Roman Empire represented Germany and its history! That is a first for me; normally they are quite quick to claim the HRE (the first Reich it is counted as) as German, and they do count it as their first Reich. In reality it was neither Holy nor Roman nor an Empire. To me it was a loose federation of a rabble of internally warring principalities and fiefdoms that someone decided would make for a fancy title on their head.

That was a bit to the side - my main point in the discussion being that the Germans have always pushed Europe to believe as they do, and under their leadership of course. I mentioned several of then many fighting orders of knights they had - Deutsche Orden, the Sword, Maltese, and a few others. The wars and the conquests in the name of the faith (whatever was current faith of the time) and for good profits and power is a many century story. Conversion by the sword and incorporation into their business structure or death seems to have been the choice.

So simply I would have preferred someone else rather than a German for Pope. Certainly not an American (USA). Too much power is concentrated in this country already, and it might just embolden the fanatic in the White House. How about a good South American so we can get back into liberation faith? I was quite surprised that John Paul was so successful against communist dictatorship and yet withdrew the church and his influence from freeing the South Americans from the exploitation they suffer. I guess the Marxist overtones of the movement were too dangerous to risk. It could have been a magnificent success or a magnificent failure if he had taken the risk.

I hope the world gets away from the current fanaticism. Having had a few days to adapt to the idea, I am not too worried about Ratzinger. We do live in interesting times!


Kai