| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/19/2005 11:44:46 AM | | Welp, the new pope has been elected, Germanys Ratzinger, he took the name Pope Benedict 16th. To any catholics who believe in the Malachi prophecies, youll know this pope is suppoed to be "the glory of the olive", and what is the order of benedicts symbol? an olive. | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/19/2005 12:55:00 PM | Malachi prophecies
Never heard of these prophecies. What is the Malachi prophecies? | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/19/2005 3:28:53 PM | All those who chose the name for this pope new about said prophecies...
Which, when you think about it, kinda makes the idea that this is fulfilling a prophecy, kinda, maybe, a little convenient?
Sort of like saying...
"You know, my grandmother was a psychic...Really, she was! For example, when I was 16 she told me that my first born child would named after a fruit...oh, and let me introduce you to my oldest son, Apple." | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/19/2005 4:34:17 PM | | Whether they chose the name to fulfill the prophecy or not, it was still fulfilled. | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/19/2005 4:36:25 PM | | Oh and according to the malachi prophecies, Pope john paul 2nd was the "son of the eclipse", and guess what? He was born on an eclipse, and his funeral was on an eclipse. Im not catholic btw, I just find this stuff interesting. | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/19/2005 9:14:25 PM | Ok, I am not familar with the Malachi Prophecies, can someone fill me in?
Also, what is the significance of the Benedict name? When was the last Pope Benedict? | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/19/2005 9:28:21 PM | Benedict 15th was Pope during WW1.
I'm not familiar with the Malachi Prophecies either. But I mean, as said, he chose the name for himself, so that's not really fulfilling prophecies that he already knew about | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/19/2005 10:31:15 PM | great, a new pope.
let the vetican spearhead ancient ignorance into yet another milleniumn
huraahhhhhhhh | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/19/2005 10:44:02 PM | | Well is the alternative is to become an "enlightened" nihilist like yourself Niceguy? No thanks. | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/19/2005 11:13:13 PM | how convinient for you to label me as such. I assure you i am not a nihilist.
You have NO IDEA what i truly believe.
ever hear of Socratic Dialogue? | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/20/2005 12:40:25 AM | first i heard of a new pope. Is this not the same guy who, as a cardinal, made sure to impose his ultra conservative views upon the vatican and stop any forward progress on contraceptive and clerical marriages within the catholic faith?
Looks like i'll be doing research tonight on our new ponitff.
Hope he's as nice as the old pope, he told me i smelled like varenychy and kissed my cheek when he blessed me in 1984. Very nice man he was. The things you remember from your childhood..... | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/20/2005 7:05:29 AM | Ask any German and they will tell you what a jerk this cardinal was in their country. Set the movement back a few years. Now he's a POPE! He will have the same views as the last pope. That's what they wanted, that's what they got. Sad.
Will never see changes in the Catholic church in my life time with this pope. Then again he is 78 and might not last. That is what they wanted. An old dude to become the next pope. A transition Pope! | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/20/2005 9:29:00 AM | | Don't worry nice guy, RDtoo likes to call anyone who is Atheist or not from his religion "enlightened". He seems to be as closed minded as they come when it comes to religion and doesn't seem to accept that some people don't need crutches like a God to live their lives. | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/20/2005 6:25:46 PM | God isn't a 'crutch' to them, he is more in their lives to help with their hope/strength, sometimes just to get through another day. If he was there for them to lean on, they wouldn't be living their own lives. We make our own decisions, nobody else ruins or makes our lives.
About Pope Benedict; Someone mentioned there would be no change? The point is to keep the faith and the Church strong. If it kept changing with the seasons or every new pope, where would it be? Not only would people be attacking the Church like they are now because of beleifs or events, they would be attacking them with criticism because things would keep changing and more than likely people would be arguing within the Church. What was done before is what continues to make them so influential, why should that change? | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/20/2005 8:08:48 PM | Pope Benedict is German!
Germans are sexy
And he has a cool name!
I say ROCK ON BENE  | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/20/2005 9:22:36 PM | James, James, James. I think the terms close minded and open minded are used much too loosely. It is beneficial to have a close mind on certain issues. For example I think pedophilia is a bad thing. I surely hope you are not open minded on that!!
Nice guy, look up the word nihilist in the dictionary. | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/21/2005 8:30:20 AM | | Personally I would not like to comment on the Pope's personal views because he hasn't been Pope that long (only a few days by now.) A lot of people did that Pope John Paul, but in the end, they were shocked. Just look at the legacy Pope John Paull II had. The biggest funeral in world history was for Pope John Paul II. So whether we criticize or not now, I prefer to wait to see what he does now, no 30 years ago in Germany. | |
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| About the Pope
Posted: 4/21/2005 10:02:49 AM | Many are curious about Pope Benedict XVI. Here is one of the better articles I've read about him. From the New York Times, April 20, 2005.
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Rome's Radical Conservative
By MICHAEL NOVAK
The election of Cardinal Josef Ratzinger as pope was John Paul II's last gift to the Roman Catholic Church. No cardinal was closer to John Paul II, or talked at length with him more often. In his sermon at the memorial for the late pope, Cardinal Ratzinger, with perfect pitch, praised his predecessor's gifts in poetry, drama and art, and the sweep of his vision and accomplishments. The sermon was interrupted many times by hearty applause, especially from the young.
Cardinal Ratzinger's selection as pope, however, has been less heartily welcomed by many commentators in Europe and the United States, who have quickly characterized him as an "authoritarian," a "watchdog" and, most peculiarly, a "neoconservative."
But this is a severe misreading of the man and shows that his critics paid little attention to that sermon, how he connected with the million or so young people who turned out, led not by enthusiasm, but by a remarkable sense of prayer, devotion and respectful silence.
The new pope will not be a clone of the old. I've spoken to him several times over the last 40 years, and he is a much shyer man, quieter, more like a country pastor or a scholar than like an actor striding across all history as his stage. When one approaches him, he seems to back up an inch or two in diffidence. His voice is much softer than one expects.
Yet his ideas about the changes needed by church institutions are, on the face of it, more radical than those of John Paul II, who was much more focused on the world at large than on the structure of the church. Benedict XVI learned from the Germany of the 1930's that too much care to preserve Catholic institutions, without powerful intellectual commitment in many souls, brings disaster. He may be much more willing to let go of institutions he considers only tepidly Catholic than people expect. And more serious about the life of the soul.
On the other hand, he has written of his joy in those Catholics who may be estranged, but still return at least for Christmas or Easter masses. He is glad that they draw nourishment from the liturgy. He holds that the Catholic church must always be reaching out, far beyond its present ranks, as the first tiny communities of Christians did, caring for the poor and orphans far outside their own small ranks. He does not want a small, closed church, but an expansive, open one - and a serious one.
One of the characteristics the new pope much cherishes is "openness to the whole" - to the whole of history, to the whole of the human race. He boasts of never having wanted to start his own "school" of theological thought - though as a renowned professor in Germany he could well have done so - but rather to have opened the minds of his students to whole vast fields of human thought, in all traditions and places and times.
He is praised for just such warmth and openness by Protestant and Jewish leaders with whom he has long been in scholarly conversation. (Again, his behavior is the very opposite of the stereotypes invented by his critics.)
The world will discover the true man behind the stereotypes soon enough, for Cardinal Ratzinger has been one of the senior churchmen of recent times most open to journalists. He has allowed probing interviews lasting several days, all caught on dictating machines and published as best-selling books, organized by fine journalists like Vittorio Messori and Peter Seewald. We should not be surprised to see more publications from him as pope.
Often Cardinal Ratzinger sharply portrayed a crucial parting of the ways: between modernizing the church, so as to seem to appeal to modern men at the expense of fidelity to the word of Jesus Christ; and being faithful to the word, at the expense of losing numbers. He has been quite fearless about choosing the second alternative. But he has also noted, correctly, that the parishes and dioceses that choose "modernization" usually end up losing numbers, while the more serious churches grow mightily. In particular, the churches of Africa and Asia, which have shown the most rapid growth, are the ones most intent on fidelity to the New Testament.
One of Cardinal Ratzinger's central, and most misunderstood, notions is his conception of liberty, and he is very jealous in thinking deeply about it, pointing often to Tocqueville. He is a strong foe of socialism, statism and authoritarianism, but he also worries that democracy, despite its great promise, is exceedingly vulnerable to the tyranny of the majority, to "the new soft despotism" of the all-mothering state, and to the common belief that liberty means doing whatever you please. Following Lord Acton and James Madison, Cardinal Ratzinger has written of the need of humans to practice self-government over their passions in private life.
He also fears that Europe, especially, is abandoning the search for objective truth and sliding into pure subjectivism. That is how the Nazis arose, he believes, and the Leninists. When all opinions are considered subjective, no moral ground remains for protesting against lies and injustices.
Pope John Paul II thought the first issue of his time was the murderous politics that resulted from the separation of Europe into two by the Soviet Union. He saw it as chiefly a political issue, to be defeated by moral means.
Pope Benedict XVI, like several of his namesakes back to St. Benedict himself (the founder of Western monasticism and patron saint of Europe), is more likely to take culture as the central issue of the new millennium: What is the culture necessary to preserve free societies from their own internal dangers - and to make them worthy of the sacrifices that brought them into being?
Michael Novak is a theologian at the American Enterprise Institute and the author, most recently, of "The Universal Hunger for Liberty."
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/21/2005 10:49:26 AM | | Would someone please start a new thread titled "Malachy Prophesies" and I can post the information I found on that subject in that thread? (I can't seem to start new threads today) | |
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Tiya
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Joined: 3/26/2005
Msg: 22 | |
| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/22/2005 12:00:42 AM | Hello,
I am not Christian but I beleive in Jesus Christ and that he came with a message from God. I do not beleive in the Roman Catholic establishment.
I would like to understand how Roman Catholics do not see how Papacy is just a politcial role ? Its historically documneted and the corruption of popes is also historically documented.
Jesus did not live in palaces or dress in fine robes and wear jewelry and eat fine food ?!
Mind boggling. | |
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jimi77
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Joined: 7/13/2004
Msg: 23 | |
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| Pope Benedict 16th
Posted: 4/24/2005 6:19:16 PM | Brian Saint-Paul Crisis Mag. E-letter
Defending Pope Benedict XVI
Special Crisis e-Report
April 22, 2005
Four Myths About Pope Benedict XVI
1. "Benedict XVI 'campaigned' for the papacy, outmaneuvering the
liberal faction to win the job."
Unfortunately, it's a tendency of the American media to project the
styles and categories of U.S. politics onto every other kind of
election. Such is the case here. Following this model, the former
Cardinal Ratzinger is said to have maneuvered his way into the
papacy, through behind-the-scenes campaigning and deft use of his
prominence as the Dean of the College of Cardinals. His magnificent
homily at John Paul II's funeral and his no-nonsense criticism of
moral relativism preceding the conclave are offered as evidence.
But this is simple nonsense, and it ignores several well-established
facts:
First, in the modern era at least, the vast majority of cardinals do
not want to be elevated to the papacy, and the few who do are not
elected. The life of the Supreme Pontiff is a difficult one. His life
is no longer his own. Gone is his privacy, his freedom, his leisure,
and his regular contact with friends and family.
Second, it's well known that Benedict XVI did NOT want to be pope.
By his own admission, he was never completely comfortable in his role
as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and
tried to resign several times (John Paul II would have none of it).
Furthermore, it was Benedict's dream to leave the Vatican to return
to the slow-paced world of teaching. In an interview with Matthew
Schofield of Knight Ridder, the pope's brother, Father Georg
Ratzinger, recalled a conversation with him over Christmas where they
discussed his retiring to a quite life back in Germany.
But what about his strong homily taking on moral relativism at the
opening of the conclave? Much of the secular media has described it
as though it were a kind of campaign event (one particularly clueless
journalist referred to the homily as a "stump speech").
The truth is quite the opposite. Most informed Vatican observers
recognized the homily as Benedict XVI's last attempt to avoid
election to the papacy. After all, if he were actually campaigning,
he would have delivered something softer that appealled to the
moderates within the College of Cardinals... not the no-holds-barred
assault on secularism that he delivered instead.
Even Fr. Richard McBrien recognized this, managing to get it both
right and wrong at the same time. Just after the conclave opened, he
noted: "If Cardinal Ratzinger were really campaigning for pope, he
would have given a far more conciliatory homily designed to appeal to
the moderates as well as to the hard-liners among the cardinals. I
think this homily shows he realizes he's not going to be elected.
He's too much of a polarizing figure."
In short, a homily is not a stump speech, a conclave is not a
polling station, and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger had no ambitions to
become Benedict XVI.
2. "Pope Benedict XVI was chosen as a transitional pope."
To a partial degree, this is true. After all, at 78 years of age,
the Holy Father won't have the same lengthy reign as his predecessor.
Nevertheless, there's an important difference between a transitional
papacy and a short papacy. Blessed John XXIII had a short papacy,
after all, but it was hardly the slow-paced transition his electors
might have been expecting. His decision to convene the Second Vatican
Council, after all, forever changed the face of the Catholic Church.
Make no mistake -- none of the cardinal electors at this conclave
had any notion that Benedict XVI would sit around the Vatican,
issuing the occasional unremarkable document. As those who have
worked with him can tell you, Benedict XVI gets things done. This
will be an active and productive papacy. And given the prolific
writing career of the former-Cardinal Ratzinger, we can expect a
small library of encyclicals from him, now that he occupies the
Apostolic See. Please Lord, may it be so.
3. "Benedict XVI has a dark, Nazi past."
This one is almost too ridiculous to address. But since the
ridiculous is no disqualifier for some, we must answer it. The charge
stems from the pope's childhood in Nazi Germany. At the time,
membership in the Hitler Youth was mandatory for young men. And so,
against his wishes, he was enrolled.
By all counts, he was a very unenthusiastic member -- indeed, his
family had been outspoken in their opposition to Nazism, to the point
where they actually had to move to a different town out of safety
concerns.
When the pope turned 16, he was drafted into the German army to
serve with an anti-aircraft unit. He never saw combat and
subsequently deserted (an action that would have meant summary
execution had he been caught).
And that's the sum total of his involvement with the Third Reich.
Does this constitute a "dark past"? After all, he describes all of
this himself in his book, "Salt of the Earth." The interesting thing
is, none of his critics actually believe he had any affection for the
Nazis. Furthermore, the "Nazi Connection" charge was ably refuted a
few days ago in the Jerusalem Post -- hardly a haven for Hitler
apologists. And other prominent Jewish leaders, like Abraham Foxman
of the Anti-Defamation League, have come to the pope's defense.
As for his attitude towards Judaism, it's well known that he was a
key participant in and supporter of Pope John Paul II's historic
outreach to the Jewish people. And anyone who reads his wonderful
book, "Many Religions, One Covenant: Israel, the Church, and the
World," will discover his affection for our elder brothers and
sisters in the Jewish Faith.
So, is Benedict XVI an anti-Semite? No. A man with a suspicious Nazi
past? No. In the end, the pope's sole mistake was being born in the
wrong nation at the wrong time.
4. "Pope Benedict XVI is a doctrinal hardliner who opposes the
reforms of the Second Vatican Council."
It's almost difficult to know where to start. Since when, after all,
does standing behind that which has always been believed and taught
make one a "hardliner"? Furthermore, can the term itself be
understood as anything other than an insult? Have you ever heard it
used as a compliment? And what if the position one stands behind is
true? If I defend the existence of gravity against someone who denies
it, does that make me a gravitational hardliner? How silly.
Happily, the main portion of the charge -- that he opposes the
reforms of Vatican II -- is much easier to address. As anyone
familiar with his life or work knows, Benedict XVI fully supports the
documents and decrees of the Council. Indeed, he attended as a
theological advisor and, along with Henri de Lubac, was a chief
proponent of the Council's return to Scripture and the Early Fathers
as the prime sources of Catholic theology.
What Benedict XVI does oppose, however, is the misuse of Vatican II
to justify things the Council Fathers never proposed. Abortion,
contraception, women's ordination, acceptance of homosexual behavior
-- all are paraded by dissenting Catholics as natural outgrowths from
the documents of the Council. But such claims are only convincing to
one who has never actually read those same documents (which are
thoroughly orthodox and bear no support whatsoever to such radical
positions).
That's when the "Spirit of Vatican II" makes its entrance. You see,
since dissenting Catholics cannot actually find their wish list
anywhere in the actual conciliar documents, they're forced to imagine
a kind of trajectory from the Council -- almost as if Vatican II were
a perpetual, unending event. Given enough time, the theory goes, the
Fathers would have eventually embraced the theological fascinations
of the Catholic Left.
Don't be fooled. One of my favorite former theology professors --
certainly no conservative -- used to say that the phrase "The Spirit
of Vatican II" really means, "This is what Vatican II would have said
if Vatican II were me." | |
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