My very non-Catholic pastor on Sunday had the best papal quote of the week (I'm paraphasing):
"Pope John Paul was alright with me ... he gave us the best example of how you can forgive, without forgetting: When he was shot, he recovered, and then he went to the jail and forgave the man who shot him. But after that, he rode around in a bullet-proof Pope-mobile. In other words, I forgive you, but I'm not gonna put myself in a position to have to forgive you for shooting me again."
Back to today, the Cardinals are all tidily locked up inside the Sistine Chapel debating and awaiting Godly inspiration in choosing the next pope. American Catholics hoping the white smoke will indicate a more moderate pontiff has been chosen had better think again. German Cardinal Ratzinger, who I personally think is too creepy looking to be the next pope after the more cuddly looking John Paul (unless you're looking for an ominous, spooky pope more fitting of the age of The Da Vinci Codes,) issued a blistering critique of what he called the "dictatorship of relativism" that states that "there are no absolute truths."
From NYT:
The cardinal led a Mass today in St. Peter's Basilica dedicated to the election of John Paul II's successor. The 114 other cardinals, who were to retreat behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel in the afternoon, sat in quarter-circles in front of him. It was the last public rite before the princes of the church will vote with secret ballots to elect the 265th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. "A dictatorship of relativism is being built that recognizes nothing as definite," the cardinal said, "and which leaves as the ultimate measure only one's ego and desires."
For 25 years, Cardinal Ratzinger served as John Paul's theological right hand - and watchdog - as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In his writings and public statements, he has often sought to uphold the primacy of Catholicism, saying no other religion offered a path to salvation. "Relativism," he has said, implies that other faiths are equally - and wrongly - valid. The idea was strongly expressed in a document the congregation issued in 2000, Dominus Iesus, which provoked angry responses from other religious leaders. In his homily, Cardinal Ratzinger said that Christians were tossed on the waves of Marxism, liberalism and even "libertinism;" of radical individualism, atheism and vague mysticism. He also decried the creation of "sects" and how people are seduced into them, using a term church leaders often employ to refer to Protestant evangelical movements. "Having a clear faith, according to the Credo of the Church, is often labeled as fundamentalism," he said. "Yet relativism, that is, letting oneself being carried 'here and there by any wind of doctrine,' appears as the sole attitude good enough for modern times."
Obviously, for the Catholic Church, there certainly are moral absolutes, and the American church isn't going to change them. To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, you go to church with the doctrine you have (or you give up and become an Episcopalian...)
And speaking of conservative Catholics... |
