VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the strict defender of Catholic orthodoxy for the past 23 years, was elected Pope on Tuesday despite a widespread assumption he was too old and divisive to win election.
Which goes exactly to what I stated on Sunday night:
“Now, it should be noted as a practical matter, that the chances of any Pope being elected out of this conclave being significantly more approved of by say, an Andrew Sullivan type… is very small indeed, given that the vast majority of the Cardinals now in Rome deciding this matter are appointees of Pope John Paul II, and so are likely to be following in his footsteps. ”
And as I suggested also, that blithering dolt, Sullivan, is beside himself;
THE FUNDAMENTALIST TRIUMPH: And so the Catholic church accelerates its turn toward authoritarianism, hostility to modernity, assertion of papal supremacy and quashing of internal debate and dissent.
Translation: The Cardinals made the right move, and sent the right message. You’d think that, eventually, Sullivan would get the message that he’s the one out of step…
Update: Goldberg suggests that perhaps we’ll now hear about the new pope qustioning subordinates roughly, ala Bolton. (Snork!)
Son of an Update: He also suggests that
On Friday, Dean declared: “The issue is: Are we going to live in a theocracy where the highest powers tell us what to do? Or are we going to be allowed to consult our own high powers when we make very difficult decisions?” And yesterday the former Cardinal Ratzinger decried a “dictatorship of relativism” which “does not recognize anything as absolute and leaves as the ultimate measure only the measure of each one and his desires.” It seems to me that Dean and Ratzinger aren’t merely dissimilar, they’re polar opposites.
Given the broader measure of support for the Pope’s predecesor, who also held as the new Pope does in the matter, I’d say the Jury in the case of which stance is the more valid, is back from it’s deliberation.
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