Dark Bilious Vapors

Are my worst Catholic nightmares about to be realized?

This NY Times article focuses on Cardinal Ratzinger's "close association" with Pope Paul and how he is now "the leading voice and force in the Roman Catholic Church."

Here's keeping my fingers crossed that Ratzinger, an extremist even among this conservative group of Cardinal, DOES NOT get chosen as the next Pope...or it'll be Welcome 1200 a.d. all over again. Medieval mentalists in our midsts. Bleh!!

Just as an aside, back in the early 1980's I conducted a research study and wrote a paper investigating the effects and effectiveness of the "Challenge of Peace" Pastoral letter within the Archdiocese of Chicago and it's Office of the Ministry of Peace and Justice. While my research results *may* be interesting (or not), it was during that time that I also delved into the resistance to certain updated Church positions on various issues and came across Cardinal Ratzinger as the arch-conservative, anti-Vatican II type Cardinal who'd prefer a reversion to many of the Churches older and more hard line stances on just about every issue across the board. So perhaps this *colors* my view as wishing him NOT to be chosen as the next Pope.

Karen on 04.08.05 @ 04:53 AM CST