Catholics need to pray and to ask non-Catholics to pray that the next Pope will not behave as a “progressive” or as a sterotypical third worlder, either of whom might further the cause of massive third world immigration. The bottom line is prayers are needed to ensure the next Pope will be an exemplary imitator of Jesus Christ. The alternative could be great tribulation at the hands of the third world brought on by years of neglecting our duty to get involved in the Church, which might have stopped the seeds of the sex scandals way back in the 1960’s.

Mr. Murgos is right. Roman Catholics have a duty to pray sincerely for the Pope, no matter what reservations we have about what he is doing. I pray for John Paul every day, as I will for his successor, no matter how egregious. I pray that the Holy Ghost will guide him, and that he will always do what pleases our Lord and strengthens the Faith. My twist on those conventional sentiments is that I also pray that doing so will mean restoring the Traditional Mass, Latin generally and traditional observances of all sorts to the life of the Church. It’s a long shot, I know.

As for non-Catholic Christians, they might consider praying for the Pope as well, much as that might go against the grain. Like it or not, the Pope is by far the most powerful mortal Christian leader. What he does and says has effects throughout the world. All orthodox Christians should pray that he doesn’t go off the rails altogether. (Catholics believe that the Holy Ghost will keep him from doing that; others may not be convinced.)

John Paul is still making odd choices. He recently made Keith O’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, a cardinal, making him primate of Scotland. O’Brien has questioned, when he has not openly opposed, the Church’s teaching about contraception, priestly celibacy, homosexual conduct and unions and ordaining women. He is fond of quoting as fact Kinsley’s now-debunked over-estimate that 10% of people are homosexual. After his appointment he issued a statement saying he fully supports the Church’s teaching on these matters, but no one is convinced. What made this appointment the more galling is that in Glasgow is a conventionally orthodox, faithful Archbishop, Mario Conti, whom most people expected to succeed his predecessor in Glasgow, Cardinal Winning, as primate. Why do these things happen? HRS

In my previous post, make that Kinsey. Michael Kinsley has a lot to answer for, but not that. HRS

The Kinsley Report was the one that found that 99 percent of conservatives are hypocritical.

Scary:

“Saudi Arabia spends billions of petrodollars, not for the benefit of its poor citizens or of poor Muslims in other Muslim countries, but to construct mosques and madrasas in Europe and to finance the imams of the mosques in all the Western countries. We recall that the Roman mosque of Monte Antenne, constructed on land donated by the Italian government, was principally financed by Saudi Arabia and was built to be the largest mosque in Europe, in the very heart of Christianity.”

I believe that mosque also had the approval of the Vatican. There is of course an irreconcilable conflict between the mindset that would welcome Islam into Europe and the mindset that would write about the inherent threat Islam poses to Christianity.

The mosque in Rome was a deliberate provocation, a test of Western, Christian resolve. We failed it, utterly, something that did not go unnoticed in the Middle East, I am sure. HRS

The condition of Christians in Mohammedan countries was cited by the Pope in a restrained and qualified manner in his 1994 book, “Crossing the Threshold of Hope.”
http://www.catholic.net/RCC/POPE/HopeBook/chap15.html

After describing what he seemed to believe were promising efforts to “work toward mutual understanding” he said:

“Nevertheless, concrete difficulties are not lacking. In countries where fundamentalist movements come to power, human rights and the principle of religious freedom are unfortunately interpreted in a very one-sided way-religious freedom comes to mean freedom to impose on all citizens the “true religion.” In these countries the situation of Christians is sometimes terribly disturbing. Fundamentalist attitudes of this nature make reciprocal contacts very difficult. All the same, the Church remains always open to dialogue and cooperation.”

The one statement I thought was very well-made was: “Whoever knows the Old and New Testaments, and then reads the Koran, clearly sees the process by which it completely reduces Divine Revelation. It is impossible not to note the movement away from what God said about Himself, first in the Old Testament through the Prophets, and then finally in the New Testament through His Son. In Islam all the richness of God’s self-revelation, which constitutes the heritage of the Old and New Testaments, has definitely been set aside… . Islam is not a religion of redemption. There is no room for the Cross and the Resurrection.”

Otherwise, it wasn’t terribly encouraging; the above statement should have led in a much different direction than it did. Citing the Declaration Nostra Aetate — “The Church also has a high regard for the Muslims …” — he insists that “the religiosity of Muslims deserves respect.” (As admirable as it is tragic.) The acknowledgement of “concrete difficulties” seemed more as obstacles toward a benign (and naive) purpose rather than a ‘concrete’ characteristic of a religion that by itself made that purpose highly inadvised. The interaction with Mohammedans by Christians shouldn’t be on the basis of ‘equality’ (as faiths) unto some ‘understanding.’

Speaking of equality, I didn’t understand this one statement in the article: “In recent centuries, the dhimma system has undergone some modifications, in part because the ideas of citizenship and the equality of all citizens before the state have gained a foothold even in Muslim countries. Nevertheless, in practice, the traditional conception is still present.”

At any rate, while this article may be cause for encouragement in itself, it would take much more to signal a real turn away from the ecumenical course that seems to have as strong a pull as political and economic globalism.

Well, here’s a trace of good news from the newspaper that gave us the bad news, the Washington Times:

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20031203-113907-6166r.htm

“Bishops to pressure Catholic politicians” reads the headline. Too little, too late? Well, I’ll spare any further commentary, as I’ve depressed myself enough today. But to prevent any high hopes from being raised only to be dashed, here’s the last line:

“But few bishops are willing to move publicly against such politicians, he said. Thus, Mr. Kerry and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, took part in the installation Mass for the Most Rev. Sean P. O’Malley of Boston.
“”What more scandal could you ask for than the two most ardent supporters of abortion in the Senate show up and get Communion?” Mr. Whittington asks. “The sheep who have gone off the reservation to support pro-death policies need tough love that says what they are doing is wrong.”“

Still, a little good news is better than none.

I would not hold out much hope for Archbishop O’Malley (or “Archbishop Sean” as he prefers to be called). The main reason for his appointment seems to be his ability to speak Spanish and Portuguese. He went out of his way in his installation homily, which included the now-obligatory sob story about a poor Salvadoran immigrant (illegal alien?) O’Malley had encountered in Washington, to issue greetings in Spanish, Portuguese and Creole - a one-man Tower of Babel, rather like our Holy Father. Expect more multi-culti grovelling in Boston.

Calling Kennedy and Kerry to account would have been a bold sign of improvement in the Archdiocese of Boston. HRS

Speaking of John Paul II, one might start with his humanistic/existentialist sounding enyclical, Redemptor Hominis.

I don’t know of any real good works about JP II’s theology & philosophy, but Dormann’s books are a good place to start (although I think they are a little too one-sided). Thomas Woods’ book about Vatican II is also good, but is a little extreme as well.

In Australia Archbishop George Pell was recently made a cardinal. Cardinal Pell managed to withstand with some dignity a campaign by a homosexual lobby group within the church. However, he is fiercely internationalist and publicly condemned the populist Australian political party One Nation.

Speaking of immigration, Cardinal Mahoney appears to support giving “undocumented” immigrants the right to drive —

http://www.the-tidings.com/2003/1205/repeal.htm