His opposition to liberation theology marks his commitment to church orthodoxy, and i wish he himself had preached in the slums .. for not reason at all except a feeling, i have a sense he has been aiming toward Popehood for the last 7 years at least ..
Thanks for the reminder about the failure of Vatican 11 .. from yours, just less than halfway down ..
Is Pope Francis a fraud? .. two bits ..
But the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio emerges from a Jesuit order that has been largely purged of its independent-minded or left-leaning intellectuals, and his reputation at home in Latin America is decidedly mixed. While Francis seems to be an appealing personality in some ways — albeit one with a shadowy relationship with the former military dictatorship in Argentina, along with a record on gay rights that borders on hate speech — it’s difficult to imagine that he can or will do anything to arrest the church’s long slide into cultural irrelevance and neo-medieval isolation. His papacy, I suspect, comes near the end of a thousand-year history of the Vatican’s global rise to power, ambiguous flourishing and rapid decline. It also comes after 40 years of internal counterrevolution under the previous two popes, during which a group of hardcore right-wing cardinals have consolidated power in the Curia and stamped out nearly all traces of the 1960s liberal reform agenda of Pope John XXIII [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_XXIII ] and Vatican II [ http://www.vatican2voice.org/ ]. A handful of intellectuals, both inside and outside the church, quietly believe that means Pope Francis isn’t a legitimate pope at all.
[...]
There was an ideological counterattack against Vatican II almost immediately, with Cardinal Ratzinger as its intellectual leader, and that became the dominant current in the church hierarchy after the ascension of John Paul II in 1978. Fox believes that the last two popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, departed so far from both the letter and spirit of Vatican II — which should have been viewed as the authoritative teachings of the church — that they should be considered “schismatic,” or illegitimate. “In the Catholic tradition, a council trumps a pope,” he says. “A pope does not trump a council.” (In the great tradition of Catholic intellectuals, he cites precedence in the Council of Constance, convened in 1414, which fired three warring popes and appointed a new one.) “What’s happened since John Paul II is that he and Ratzinger have turned back all the basic principles of Vatican II. I would include the principle of freedom of conscience, the principle that theologians have a right to think. They brought the Inquisition back, there’s no question about it.” .. http://www.salon.com/2013/03/16/is_pope_francis_a_fraud/
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Pope Francis and Women Priests by Bridget Mary Meehan, arcwp, www.arcwp.org
Thursday, March 14, 2013
What we know about Pope Francis gives me hope that he is compassionate and open to the Spirit of God in the people of God. He invited the people to bless him and bent over to receive an outpouring of prayer and love, not only from people in Vatican Square, but from millions around the world. At this historic moment the priesthood of the people rooted in baptismal grace was palpable.
What we know about Pope Francis gives me hope that his first response to people in painful situations will be compassion, not more canon laws. His openness to condoms to prevent infection and challenge to ultra conservatives to give communion to single Moms display Christ's tender care for those in need.
His solidarity with the poor, specifically, his naming of social sin as a core issue in a world where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. With Pope Francis, who as a church leader took the bus to work and lived in a small apartment, solidarity with the poor could become an important priority for the hierarchy.
Will more bishops move out of their mansions and follow his example anytime soon?
I hope that Pope Francis will recognize women and men as equal partners in the Gospel. Women's unequal status in the church is the "elephant in the church's living room" that needs to be addressed. He could appoint women to the top jobs in the curia and sweep away centuries of sexism in one big swoop!
Although, I wish that our new Pope would affirm women priests and ordain women immediately, I realize that this may be a step too far for any pope at this time, given the hostility of the hierarchy toward their sister priests.
However, our new pope could reach out and take some positive steps that would make a difference. Pope Francis could remove Roman Catholic Women Priests from the category of most grievous crimes against our church. (on the same level as pedophiles according to canon law) He could announce that those who ordain women or support women priests no longer incur excommunication.
How about a new beginning? He could dialogue with women priests and with our inclusive communities, including the male priests who in growing numbers in countries around the world support us. Perhaps, Pope Francis will ordain women deacons as leaders of communities of faith like our Sister Phoebe in Romans 16.
Who said prayers or dreams can't come true. Pope Francis is the first Latin American pope and millions today have seen their dreams come true! One day, our dreams for women priests in the Catholic Church will be officially sanctioned by a Pope. One day, we may have a woman pope!
Bridget Mary Meehan, www.arcwp.org, sofiabmm@aol.com 703-505-0004, 941-955-2313
left to right: Janice Sevre-Duszynska, Bridget Mary Meehan, Lee Breyer, Michael Rigdon, Katy Zatsick
Pope Francis, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Women’s Equality: Why Must Religion be Patriarchal?
Posted on 03/15/2013 by Juan
The selection of the new pope was carried out by a conclave of elderly men, and the only candidates were men. The new pope is a staunch social conservative who opposes women’s ordination as priests and women’s right to control their own bodies and limit family size .. http://www.policymic.com/articles/29755/pope-francis-women-s-issues-record-is-abysmal , key issues for women’s health and well-being. It is no wonder that the church hierarchy is so tone deaf on women’s issues, since its highest counsels are all-male.
Now comes the sharp intervention from Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood that the draft statement .. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-14/egypt-s-muslim-brotherhood-condemns-un-report-on-women.html .. of 57th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women is incompatible with the Brotherhood’s understanding of Islamic law. Interestingly, the Vatican also voiced objections to the document, as did the Russian Orthodox Church via the government of Vladimir Putin.
1. Women’s right to reject marital rape 2. equal inheritance rights for women 3. equality of men and women within the family 4. allowing women the choice of mate (implying that Muslim women could marry non-Muslim men), abolition of polygamy and dowry 5. Depriving men of the right of unilateral divorce and giving discretion to judges as to whether to grant a divorce; equal sharing of communal property after divorce. 6. Removal of restrictions on women’s travel and work that depend on permission of their male guardian 7. Right of a woman to marry another woman. 8. legalization of abortion and provision of free contraception 9. equal rights for illegitimate children with legitimate ones, and civil rights for adulterous wives 10. Equal rights for gays
While the religious forces in Italy, Egypt and Russia may have differed somewhat on which of the draft principles they most opposed, all three underlined that they are partriarchies and that patriarchy as a form of government is alive and well and maybe even strengthening in much of the world.
The Brotherhood’s reading of Islamic law is mindless fundamentalism and literalism, often involving an ignorance of medieval Muslim beliefs and practices (in the area of abortion, e.g., or toleration of forms of homosociality).
Like the new pope, the Brotherhood considers gay rights an abomination. When he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis said of Argentina’s gay marriage law, “”Let’s not be naive, we’re not talking about a simple political battle; it is a destructive pretension against the plan of God. We are not talking about a mere bill, but rather a machination of the Father of Lies that seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.”
The Pact that Secured More than Ninety Votes for New Pope
Sodano, Bertone and Dolan reached agreement. Lombards voted against Scola. Role of Martino, Vatican’s representative at UN for fifteen years
When the moment came to exchange the sign of peace at the “Pro Ecclesia”mass celebrated with the 114 cardinal electors, Pope Francis gave an affectionate hug to Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who acted as dean of the college during the conclave, and to the Vatican secretary of state, Tarcisio Bertone. It was a snapshot of how events had unfolded during voting twenty-four hours previously, also beneath Michelangelo’s Last Judgement.
As early as the fifth poll, the 115 cardinal electors cast more than ninety votes for Bergoglio. Ireland’s Cardinal Sean Brady admitted: “I was surprised that consensus among the cardinals was reached so soon”. So soon and so overwhelmingly. The result went well beyond the threshold of seventy-seven votes, corresponding to a two-thirds majority, laid down by Benedict XVI’s reform in order to give greater cohesion and unity to the selection process. Applause broke out when it became clear that the required majority had been reached. And that’s how it went. The Church and the world had their Pope Francis, who will retrace in reverse from the Americas the route of the New World’s first evangelisation. This, at least, is the story that has emerged on the day after the most socially aware and widely approved conclave in history.
But what were the agreements, the groupings and the voting blocks that led to the election of Cardinal Bergoglio? A brief and necessarily blunt summary would be that the new pontiff was the result of an agreement struck by the dean of the college, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Cardinal Giovan Battista Re, the Curia led by the current secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (who supported Cardinal Odilo Scherer but had to back down when Scherer criticised Cardinal Re at the general congregation), and the cardinals from the United States. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York was swift to put an American stamp on the election of a New World pope two hours after Francis appeared on the Loggia of the Blessings. “We are very happy about the result. It is a remarkably emotional experience”, he said, adding in an official statement that it was a “milestone for our Church”.
Italian cardinals presented a united front only in freezing out the cardinal of Milan, Angelo Scola, with even the Lombard cardinals voting against him. At the general congregation over the past few days, the cardinal non-elector and former Vatican representative at the UN for fifteen years, Raffaele Martino, has been picking and unpicking alliances. He knows the American diocese well and as a former president of the pontifical commission Justitia et Pax he has always been involved in the most contentious social issues. At the 2005 conclave, Cardinal Martino opposed Ratzinger and supported Bergoglio.
But according to Catholic theology, isn’t it the Holy Spirit that chooses the Pope? Once many years ago, this question was put to the then Cardinal Ratzinger, the prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith and guardian of orthodoxy. With a certain dose of irony, he replied: “I wouldn’t say that, in the sense that it is the Holy Spirit that does the choosing (...), His role should be understood in a more flexible sense (...), probably the only certainty He offers is that the whole business won’t be a total disaster”. Pope Francis shares that sense of irony. When he accepted, he told the cardinals: “Dear brethren, may God forgive you”.
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