Quote:
Originally posted by sugar and spice
By selecting a conservative pope, the church is essentially sweeping a number of problems (condom use in Africa, the priest shortage, European Catholics becoming less and less religious, etc.) under the rug instead of addressing them. I think we're at the place where the church needs to work with its members (especially European ones) instead of against them, and a conservative pope will be less likely to do that.
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Supposedly (or speculatively), the European problem is one of the reasons that Ratzinger, a German, was chosen. I guess that they thought it will take a European to work on or "fix" that problem.
Geoffrey Wainwright, a Methodist theologian from Duke who has known Ratzinger for years, was on Nightline last night. He said that, from an ecumenical and inter-faith perspective, he was "elated" at the choice of Ratzinger and thought it would be very positive as far as ecumenical and inter-faith relations go. FWIW.