Holy Smoke

Joseph Ratzinger won the vote today and has been elected pope of the Roman Catholic Church. To me, this isn’t the best news – Ratzinger is unlikely to make significant changes in the Church other than to address the positive changes already made, and will continue John Paul II’s conservative legacy (probably increasing it).

But let’s hope and pray that this is the right choice for the church.

Update
I’ve added a link to the BBC News site about Ratzinger. Oh, and here’s another (can’t get much more official than this – the Vatican website’s front page!).

Sad to say, I suspect that he won’t be able to unite the RC Church in the way that John Paul II managed. And even sadder that the Church passed up the opportunity to appoint a pope from Africa or South America, where it’s by far the strongest! And saddest of all that it’s totally avoided engaging with the real issues facing the church at this time (such as social justice and engaging with society) in favour of a staunch conservative and authoritarian.

pax et bonum

Article posted at 6:22pm on 19 April 2005
Category: Faith, Life, Struggling