ROME -- The words broke like a thunderclap inside St. Peter's Basilica. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, addressing the world's cardinals just hours before they sequestered themselves Monday to choose the next leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics, decided to define this conclave.
From the Washington Post (reg.req'd). Read the whole article. Thanks, Carlos.
I had a troubling feeling that Ratzinger was going to be chosen. His friends say that he isn't the theological pitbull his enemies and some of the media make him out to be. Let's pray that his pontificate will point to a grander gospel than what his job as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith allowed him to proclaim.
The people need a gentle, caring shepherd. Not an Inquisitor.
It is my prayer, that Benedict XVI will be an instrument of the gospel of peace, life, and salvation, wherever hurting people need to hear good news.
Here is his official Vatican biography.
2 comments:
"His friends say that he isn't the theological pitbull his enemies and some of the media make him out to be."
If he isn't, then why are the stamp-out-the-liberals conservatives so happy? Because they know he is our modern equivalent of an Inquisition.
Angry conservatives don't construct the man himself.
I'm no fan of Ratzinger. But from what I've read about him and from testimonies I've heard about peoples' dealings with him, he can be both generous, thoughtful, and humble, as well as hardline on importantant issues.
But it's important that he not be made into a caricature, which is the temptation on both sides of the theological spectrum.
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