Read!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4462077.stm

Earlier this morning:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/19/pope.tuesday/index.html

And now as it was just announced- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is the new Pope.

Hurrray!!

I was pulling for a pope named Rocky. Too bad.

apparently he has chosen the name Benedict XVI.

I would love to know why Popes choose the names they do. Always been a curiosity.

I was pulling for the black cardinal.

All at once I'm hoping this pope will change the church's stance on homosexuals, as well as contraceptives (especially considering that it would probably help slow the spread of AIDS in a good portion of the third world), the Ordainment of women, etc.

He seems to be pretty conservative, however. Who knows, maybe he'll surprise us.

This guy looks to be a good pope

?

I just thought it would be funny if he chose something different.

He could wear a flight cap instead of the big white one too.

http://www.crankycritic.com/archive00/posters/rockyandbullwinkle.jpg

They choose the name based on a previous Pope. The Preists on the news were assuming that this Pope was going to take on Pope Pius XIII.

It is quite significant however which name they choose.

Just to add to this, people take the name choosing as a symbol. It kind of symbolizes what this pope plans to do.

In this case, if he had chosen John Paul, it basically means he would have followed almost directly in the previous pope's footsteps.

So could there ever be a pope bob I?

Technically yes. There could be a Pope Robert.

Well it follows malachy's prophecy - that'll have the conspiracy nuts going on for bloody months...

He looks like he could use some of those Massassi Vibes!

Make him wear girl's clothes. That would be amazing.

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/42823.htm

Ratzinger is even more ludricruously right-wing. The catholic church is going to magically go back in time another 100 years now.

Hooray for catholic church!

Yup, was about to say that. This guy is kinda extreme.

*Whew* Sounds like we might have a good pope, then. :p

How old was the last Pope? This guy seems to be around the same age....doesn't seem very efficent. Of course I know nothing of how popes are chosen.

They vote.

But yea, usually always for themselves, so it takes a while for them to get bored and vote for the favored guy.

And despite his age, he (JP) was one of the longest running popes..
He was 84

Dude looks like the Anti-Christ on the CNN website.

:em321:

He wouldn't have been elected pope in the first place if he wasn't an extremist.

The Church will never change her stance on female ordination or homosexuals. You're saying that you want the Catholic Church to allow women priests and condone homosexuality? If that's what you really want, consider a different church..because it's not going to happen. The Church is accepting of homosexuals, and as I understand it, doesn't specifically say that homosexuality in and of itself is 'wrong', but that homosexuals need to hold a level of chastity.

As far as contraception goes, we respect the sanctity of life -- having sex while eliminating the possibility of life is basically slapping God in the face, imho.

This is a good read on the subject.


Please don't say things like "Maybe the Catholic Church will finally get up to date" -- I've found that those who say such things have absolutely no knowledge as to why we hold those teachings to begin with. Don't just jump in from the outside assuming you know stuff...:)

How's that for extremism. 'Death Vatican commander, set course for Africa'

I think he'll be alright.

What's good is not always conservative and what's conservative is not always good.

The only good thing is that this guy is likely to die quite soon.

The palpacy generally like to have a steady circulation of popes, john paul II lasted much longer than usual, so you could expect them to choose one that won't last very long.

I must admit I'm rather conservative on issues of right/wrong. But our previous Pope was very liberal on social issues by most standards. I have no doubt this Pope will continue to stress those values.

Beliefs like that are ridiculous, and they've been shown to be ridiculous for hundreds of years. That's what we mean by 'catching up' with the rest of the world.

See, I always thought that the Protestants and Catholics worshipped the same god, with the main disagreements on the form of the eucharist (transubstantiation vs consubstantiation) and also a little to do with accusations of icon worship. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but those are matters of interpretation and faith are they not?

To cut a long story short, in the 16th Century, lots of folk independently across Europe figured that maybe they didnt want to believe that bread and wine literally turned into the body and blood of Christ, but realised the teachings of his church were a fab n groovy thing, so chose to believe that the words of the Eucharist implied a representation in the eucharist. All good so far? Everyone is still getting the same message, doing all the good things (ignoring the rampant and now fairly irrelevant corruption in the Catholic Church at this point in history) and being fab n groovy to each other?

Right then. Where does everybody start getting all silly about contraception? CadetLee, you quote 'until this century' - I'm guessing this means around the turn of the last century. So effectively, the Protestant Church, and all those others not Catholic effectively have supported the 'modern' forms of contrapection, well, from their conception if you'll pardon the pun.

I just wonder how one part of the Church (OK, so I'll admit, the first and possibly largest, I don't pretend to know the numbers) has decided that contraception is evil, and the others are perfectly happy with it? It just seems rather odd to me. Messing about with the doctrine of your religion I can understand, but making judgements on technology that god has allowed to be developed is just, well, wierd in my opinion.

I don't see what the big deal about it is, it's a lovely disease stopping tool (well, condoms are anyway).

Bleh, that was waaay longer than I thought it would be. Oops.

Personally I just want to see the guy dance in front of a crowd.

Me and my friend were satirically discussing the contraception thing. Heres what we came up with: The catholic church is the richest organisation on the planet (despite being "non-profit") they're also one of the largest religions. Catholics breed catholics so by disallowing contraception they will get more people into their church. The more followers they have the more money and power they have.


Oh... i've singled out Catholics there. I'd better say something about Protestants now. Hows this: Henry the 8th created the "Church of England" so he could get a divorce. It's funny because it's true.

It's not really funny, either..

Religion and politics have always been the same thing.

Yeah, but he didn't create Protestantism, which is a common misconception. He nicked the idea from the continent, from people like Luther, Calvin and Zwingli.

Yes, I did say Zwingli, it is a marvellous name isn't it?

(Especially when you pronounce it properly, with the w as a 'v' sound)

EDIT: And the reason he wanted a divorce was so he could have a son, not just because he got sick of wife number one, who remained very close to the ailing king up to and including his last days.

Martin Luther created Protestantism when he nailed the Magna Carta to the...Sistine Chapel was it? It was basically 13 points of why he was pissed at the Church and what should be done to fix it.


It amuses me a little to see some people get antsy about Benedict XVI being "ultraconservative." Pope != president of <insert republic here>. If you don't like what the Church is teaching you are free to leave or not take up Catholicism. There is only one group of people that the Pope is going to profoundly impact and that is...all together now Catholics. Not Jews, Protestants, Hindus, Muslims.

We'll just have to see how Benedict XVI is going to take the Church. Remember, all but..two I believe of the cardinals were picked by JP2. Soo more than likely, this Pope will continue JP2's teachings.