Transition At The Vatican
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2013-02-28/transition-vatican
Roman Catholic cardinals gather to choose a new pope. Diane and her guests discuss transition at the Vatican and challenges facing the world’s largest Christian denomination.
Guests
Maureen Fiedler
host of public radio's Interfaith Voices and Sister of Loretto.
Father Thomas Reese
Senior Fellow, Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.
Very Rev. Mark Morozowich
Dean, The School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America.
Jason Horowitz
reporter for The Washington Post.
Comments
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The Pope can always start a new career in television:
http://www.efn.org/~hkrieger/xc037.jpg
from the series, "Churches ad hoc",
http://www.efn.org/~hkrieger/church.htm
Many are pulling for a new Pope from the fast rising ranks in other cultures and countries. Perhaps a Hispanic or African country will provide the new Pontiff.
We pray for the new Vicar of Christ to be successful - regardless where SHE comes from.
Am i the only one who doesn't really care that much about this topic? I just don't think it matters to my life who fills that increasingly ineffectual position.
Diane who asked, "Who will be in charge?" The question is interesting, in that one would expect a church leader deals with religious matters.
But, and I say this as a Catholic, the Catholic Church is a business, and the next to the CEO will run the business, which includes a bank and properties all over the world.
In addition, the pope lives in a palace ... several palaces ... with aides and even a butler.
The person in charge makes sure all these enterprises and extensive bureaucracy are working to mange them properly.
Religion is just a small part of a pope's duties.
The new pope could do what Boniface VIII did to Celestine V.
I was baptized into the Catholic church last Easter and have found the Pope's resignation extremely troubling. If his position was ordained by God, then how can he just give it up? Did Mary change her mind about being a faithful mother to Jesus? Did Moses give up on the Jews? Maybe I am misunderstanding the role of the Pope, but this seems to take some of the magic out of things.
What matters to me is the fact that you are talking respectfully of a person who's connection to the abuse of power in connection, particularly with respect to sexual exploitation of deaf children, as exposed in MEA, MAXIMA, CULPA (HBO) has been proven. WHY? Why do you continue to focus on the transfer of power, when the real issue is the abuse of power?
There will not be 2 Popes, there is one Pope. Benedict will be Pope Emeritus.
This is an honorary title, and does not imply any benefits the office enjoys.
e·mer·i·tus
/iˈmeritəs/
Adjective
(of the former holder of an office, esp. a professor) Having retired but retaining his title as an honor.
In response to Maureen's comments about the Papacy as monarchical, it is. This comment is always entertaining in that it is really, really difficult for Americans to accept that there is something in this world they do not have a direct say into. It is the way it has been done for 2000 years and any change are just not going to happen. Can you imagine electing a Pope by worldwide popular vote? The logistics of the enterprise boggles the mind. I would also point out that the conclave is an anomalous body in the history of mankind. A ruler/monarch elected to power by a group of peers not by heredity, or point of a sword/gun for 2000 is common now, but not in medieval Europe. Please recognize at least that.
My impressions of Sister Fiedler's comments is as someone who does not seem to actually know what the Second Vatican Council was intended to do. Often the phrase 'The Spirit of Vatican II' is used as a cover to claim legitimacy for ideas and theologies that were not intended or even considered at the council or by the council fathers. Pope Benedict XVI has done much to clarify and provide guidance on the council in putting it in continuity with the living Tradition of the Church through her 2,000 year history.
Re: zygote
Ineffectual and obsolete!
I'm disappointed in the DR Show for the first time. A complete waste of an hour.
Why would a new pope act any differently than the previous one? It seems to me that the church is still primarily concerned with its 'brand' and not its victims.
How does the Pope's "infallibility" fit into this whole topic? When a Pope quits the job that was ordained for him by God, what does that mean?
The pope is on infallible under very strict conditions, which are speaking on matters concerning faith/morals united with the bishops of the Church. If he is no longer pope then it simply no longer applies to him.
I grew up in the Catholic Church. All girl schools, grew up across the street from the rectory the church and the sisters of Notre Dame lived across the alley. I watched what went on. The sisters were and are the backbone of what is left of the church here in the US. Until women are given their rightful place in the Catholic church the church will never come back in the US. The patriarchal hierarchy has to go to new and vulnerable places to pull in new participants
Dear Diane,
I am pleased to listen to this topic as a Catholic who left the church as a young adult.
I do not think Pope Benedict can be excused, as one of your guests suggests, because he became a 'better student" regarding dealing with the issue of child abuse in the Church. Cardinal Ratzinger did not come into his new job as a teenager, he is known to be a man of great intellect. And those priests who were" let go" should have been harshly dealt with, not moved about. The pope also spoke recklessly about Islam and under his reign the Opus Dei society has grown which is a detriment to not just women but education.
Thank you,
Katherine Kelly
In regards to the sex scandals of the Catholic Church...have the guilty priests been prosecuted by civil law to the extent of the Penn State sex abuse scandal? Shouldn't they even to the extent of the institution itself be penalized like the University was for the cover up?
kathleen...
I have the same background as you, and I wholly agree that the Roman Catholic Church needs to come into the modern age....especially in matters that concern women.
Just last year Pope Benedict XVI ordered a crackdown on American nuns for their "radical feminist themes" (like birth control, women's ordination, etc.). Ha!
Seems to me your male guests have brushed over the topic of empowering women in the Catholic Church. This is the BIGGEST problem with the church in the 21st century. Where there are all male bastions of power, there is inevitably widespread abuse of the weak. Abuse of women, abuse of children, etc. Think the church, think the military. To end abuse, empower women.
Last commenter didn't like "taking the magic out of the church??!!"
What a reason that is to believe in a religion - the "magical" element! How primitive and uneducated.
I left Catholicism due to that part of it, among other reasons
I'm a Catholic who has left the Church because the Church hierarchy violates my conscience. The political activities of the Church in excommunicating theologians, opposing women's rights, reproductive health, gay rights, use of condoms to prevent AIDS, and universal healthcare all are opposed to human rights. I don't believe the Church will ever live out Christ's message as long as it leaves women out of the conversation.
It is so hard to get through the many entrenched beliefs and indeed chosen vocations of people in the discourse.
With a look of Hope, I might see a conservative theologian, very bright, head of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine,(whose job is to explain what "right" is) who did not do well enough with the sex problems of the clergy, and who did not have great administrative style, who recognized his shortcomings. He retires, but keeps a good line of contact with a new pope. He is no longer the boss. The new guy gets to make the rules. But the old guy has a grasp of the historic stands. A great office manager, who Can let the windows open. As Benedict forgave his butler-who expressed sorrow that he felt the great need to put the light of day on the problems of the curia, a new pope; perhaps an outsider, can level the field in a way, making the truth of open management accessible to all. This would uplift both the conservative popes' views of ideals of right, ala Paul the apostle, and the realities of our modern world where populating the earth is no longer a correct injunction, and rather responsible stewardship and respectful relation with each other and all approaches to G-d becomes the world known teaching of the Church of Rome.
Joyce have not been involved with the church since I was about 20. Now spending a bunch of time with retired Precious Blood nuns in a nursing home in Trotwood Ohio. In their 80,s, 90's and a few over 100. Oh am I hearing the stories of power struggles between the hierarchy and nuns..
A 40 year journey of study and discovery has brought me thankfully to belong to the Catholic Church since June 2010.
Sift through all the information to find the Truth: www.ewtn.com and www.newadvent.org
and www.chnetwork.org
God loves us, pray for us to love one another. God bless the Church.
Shalom
Have you discussed how toxic Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil is? Fat/oil is what our bodies make our cells out of and the Hydrogenated Vegetable/Margarine oil is very close to plastic. Flies won't even eat it.This toxin is probably in your potato chips plus everything that says things like "Buttery Spread" or "Tastes Just Like Butter." It's a main issue in obesity that NEVER gets addressed.
Also Aspartame (in most all of the diet drinks) turns into Formaldehyde in the body. Could that be what's killing our young athletes on the ball field?
What about GMOs????? They may cause future problems with our foods that Monsanto will not address as a real issue.
LOVE YOU SHOW!!! Haven't heard anyone address the REAL issues about obesity as you did today.
Requirements for a new pope; be black, come from Latin America, and own a white suit.
http://www.efn.org/~hkrieger/cu0201.jpg
The growth and vitality in the church is among those who know and understand the distinctions of Catholic faith that set it apart from the rest of the world. Sister Fiedler would have the church fall into the liberal Protestant mold where the numbers are dwindling at even greater rates than the Catholic Church. I teach adults who are hungering for orthodoxy and want to accept the life transforming message of Jesus and not be conformed to the ways of the world. They are converting to the fullness of Christian faith because of those distinctions not in spite of them. This "branch" of Catholicism is thriving while the liberal theology of the 60s and 70s is dying. The same is true with our Protestant brothers and sisters. "Orthodox" evangelicalism grows while liberal mainstream Protestant churches struggle to survive.
The sexual abuse has been going for decades and I believe the highest officers of the church were aware of it. They did not want to acknowledge it or make it public. Then it all came out. There is a monastery in the mountains of New Mexico called the Brothers of the Paraclete this is where they sent these priests hoping to cure them and then they were reassigned to another church to abuse again. As a child camping in the area in the 1950's and 60's we were told to stay away from any priests that were in public.
In 1987 my father, a staunch Catholic, became aware of a sex offending priest who was moved by the church from Lousiana to Spokane Washington. He was so negatively affected that I thought he would leave the church. At the time I was a parole officer and wrote the Spokane Archdiocese offering help as lay professional in helping them decide what to do. I never heard back. This is an issue that has affected the church for a long time, the church that I love.....Chuck
" I think the doctrine of the Virgin birth as something higher, sweeter, nobler than ordinary motherhood, is a slur on all the natural motherhood of the world....Out of this doctrine, and that which is akin to it, have sprung all the monasteries of the world, which have disgraced and distorted and demoralized manhood and womanhood for a thousand years. I place beside this false, monkish, unnatural claim...my mother, who was as holy in her motherhood as was Mary herself."
~Elizabeth Cady Stanton (written towards end of 19th century, one of our earliest feminist)