Do you like the choice of the new Pope?

[MPUK News]

Do you like the choice of the new Pope?


Agree, disagree, either way, air your views!

[Er00]

need an "r" after "you" ;)


and I don't much care either way..

[Ryvita]

The catholic church makes a conservative decision and plumps for a traditionalist...

What a huge surprise.

Ryv

[Optimus]

I think a hard-lining ex-wehrmacht defector was hardly the 'sensible' choice, but thats my opinion...

[Catachan]

Can people stop holding the Hitler Youth thing against him? He was forced into it, and left in 1945 to become a priest.

Young people back then didn't have a choice in Germany whether or not to join the military.

[Silk75]

The Catholic church has a long tradition of not undoing the previous popes work immediately, especially one that is having 'the Great' banded around already.

The election of an old (79?) similar hard line pope, to continue the previous work done, but with a stated wish for closer cross religious union works quite well. He will not last 25+ years as pope, and then a moderate can be elected to modernise/move things forward.

Within the traditions, it is the only thing that they would have done.

[Baz]

would have loved to have seen an african or south american pope. shame :(

[phil]

I expect we still will. Silk hit the nail on the head in his post. No real exciting contender would want to immediately follow John Paul, so they just stick in a placeholder who can keep things going til he kicks the bucket in five years and everyone is ready for something new.

But what about the more important point here? He has the opportunity to pick any name he likes and newsreaders the world over will have to read it out to billions of people, and he picks Benedict? He could have had:

"Pope KickAss"
"Pope Flange"
"Pope Popetty-Pope-Pope, The Popiest Pope There Is"

[Tsung]

I agree with Silk75 on this matter, it makes sense and it is what I thought after hearing the decision.

[Optimus]

Originally posted by phil
I expect we still will. Silk hit the nail on the head in his post. No real exciting contender would want to immediately follow John Paul, so they just stick in a placeholder who can keep things going til he kicks the bucket in five years and everyone is ready for something new.

But what about the more important point here? He has the opportunity to pick any name he likes and newsreaders the world over will have to read it out to billions of people, and he picks Benedict? He could have had:

"Pope KickAss"
"Pope Flange"
"Pope Popetty-Pope-Pope, The Popiest Pope There Is" actually, there is a doctrine in the Catholic Church that is following a prophecy... every pope's name is pre-arranged...

or something to that effect... (http://www.catholicplanet.com/articles/article41.htm) (section c sorta explains in it wierd church tongue)

[Amobe]

The Arabs forces will win World War III and will occupy a vast territory for many years. They will oppress and persecute Christians. In the 2030's, this persecution will become very severe. The Arab forces will massacre many Christians. They will hunt down priests and religious and devout Catholics to imprison, torture, and kill them. Millions of Catholic Christians will be killed. This massacre will take place over several years.

"Always look on the bright side of life"

[Steadders]

I think its a bit daft, i don't really see why there has to be a pope and why he has to be named like this, just seems like traditions passed down to me, with no real religious purpose.

[phil]

Originally posted by Optimus
actually, there is a doctrine in the Catholic Church that is following a prophecy... every pope's name is pre-arranged...

or something to that effect... (http://www.catholicplanet.com/articles/article41.htm) (section c sorta explains in it wierd church tongue)

As far as I can determine from some googling, that's what is technically known as complete bunk :)

[phil]

Originally posted by Steadders
I think its a bit daft, i don't really see why there has to be a pope and why he has to be named like this, just seems like traditions passed down to me, with no real religious purpose.

Apparently the first one to do it changed his name because he had a pagan name and that doesn't look great for a Pope.

[Zenith]

Pope Benedict XVI was formerly the Prefect (or man in charge) of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. Nice long title.
They had a much shorter name in the past. They were called the Inquisition.
As in the Spanish Inquisition.

[Amobe]

http://people.csail.mit.edu/people/paulfitz/spanish/tt3.jpg

Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise. Our two weapons are fear and surprise...

[Irish O'Hara]

A hardass conservative pope, who'll pick the next bunch of hardass conservative cardinals, who'll then pick the next hardass conservative pope... wrr