A Filipino Pope? You can bet on it: Irish bookies give Cardinal Tagle 25-to-1 odds

Re: A Filipino Pope? You can bet on it: Irish bookies give Cardinal Tagle 25-to-1 odd

New Pope same as the old Pope:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/04/argenitina-videla-bergoglio-repentance

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/...rriage-and-adoption-rights-damage-the-family/

I'm obliged to this organisation:

http://filipinofreethinkers.org/

for both of those links.

Re: A Filipino Pope? You can bet on it: Irish bookies give Cardinal Tagle 25-to-1 odd

Less than 24 hours since Pope Francis elected and already the value judgements, reasons for failure and why another wrong choice been made abound.

We'll all probably make some intial assessment and initial decisions based on value judgements. Me included. Seems to be human nature in many ways.

My very first impression was formed on seeing his face. (value judgement number one.)
I watched how his facial expression changed when he spoke his first few words as Pope Francis, his body language and how his head moved, and also the tone, quality and presentation of what he said.

Since then, the only information the majority of us can discover about this man is what the media and the pundits tell us.

Whatever our view on the Catholic Church may be, surely we can feel something for this new Pope who will be under huge pressure to hit the ground running. Much more than any other before him.
Immediately, within a couple weeks, he has to face Holy Week and Easter, the most important time for the Catholic calendar.
The world will watch, listen and scrutinise then publish.

Let's not make any mistake, the Catholic Church faces massive challenges.
There's the sex abuse scandals, financial and power struggle scandals within the Curia (now commonly known as 'Vatileaks'),the dwindling membership and the modernisation of the Catholic Church by pulling today's views into the church instead of pushing the doctrine view of the church into society.
This will need definitive positioning statements on the role of women in the church, gay marriage, birth control, celebacy, allowing marriage of priest, shortage of priests and forging positive links with other faiths.
His strategic mission should be proclaimed as early as possible IMO
What a huge job!!

He has been selected and elected from within a group who, by the very nature of their eligibility will be seen as 'supporters' of the current church. How could we expect anything else.
Our best hope is that this Pope has a vision to pull the church and it's administration into today's mind.

There are already some early good signals. He seems to be a high level pragmatist rather than doctrinaire.
He seems, and it's also reported, to be a human being of great compassion, especially for the poor. Seems also to have been known to have great humility and simplicity. He certainly had the strength to oppose governmental influences in his own country.

The story goes that as archbishop in Argentina he gave up the palace he could have lived in a took up an apartment, also that he gave up his chauffeur driven limousine and took to going to work on the bus.

Insider gossip suggests that the more prominent and conservative candidates most favoured by the Curia were successfully blocked at a very early stage by those who support a more liberal view.

Good signs (perhaps) in many ways.

On the other hand, we do have to wonder how it was that the conclave thought a man of 76 will be able, strong enough and liberal thinking enough to address all the issues within an acceptable time and in the way needed. Perhaps there were just no others who possed the needed qualities.

Seems sensible and likely that a massive cull will be needed to rid the Curia, of those who have questionable records. If he fails in this action, I fear the church may never recover globally.

His previous conservatism is well known and reported on, especially his opposition to abortion and gay marriage.
To succeed he will surely need to show a willingness to flexibility and change.

Interestingly he has choosen to be known as Pope Francis. This name has never been used before.
Pope Francis is also the first Pope to be elected from outside of Europe for over 1000 years

If anyone considers symbolism to be an indicator, then......

I for one wish him luck, strength and wise counsel and some pretty quick actions.
I want to give him a chance and make some judgements based on his performance.
I'm looking forward to Easter

Just my personal opinion.

Re: A Filipino Pope? You can bet on it: Irish bookies give Cardinal Tagle 25-to-1 odd

Very fair.

He does look like a compromise candidate.

This comment in the Wikipedia entry for "College of Cardinals" says rather a lot, I think:

"Of the 115 Cardinals who participated in the conclave that elected Pope Francis, 48 were appointed by Pope John Paul II, and 67 by Pope Benedict XVI."

In other words, every single Cardinal who voted was appointed by a conservative Pope, and, given that he reigned for eight years whilst John Paul II reigned for 26 we can see that Benedict XVI was exceptionally active in creating Cardinals.

If we look at the extremely conservative stance taken by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines in recent times, we can see how the conservative position taken by a Pope spreads downwards - outside the Jesuit order, which contains some notable liberals in the Philippines, the only hope for preferment that a clergyman has is to be at least as conservative as the Pope. Taking any other stance will result in a lifetime spent in the service of God in a very unimportant parish...

Which explains why, during last Christmas' Misa de Gallo, the sermons preached were all on the text "Go forth and multiply" and not on anything to do with Christmas.

This is a bit like watching a political party in opposition being captured by its activists (Labour in the 1980's, the US Republicans now..). People become more obsessed with doctrinal purity than they are with attracting the non-believers or those who have drifted away.

It is interesting that Francis is a Jesuit; he may, though himself a conservative, be open to some persuasion when it comes to making new Cardinals - if some liberal Cardinals are appointed the Roman Church may move back more towards the mainstream.

Re: A Filipino Pope? You can bet on it: Irish bookies give Cardinal Tagle 25-to-1 odd

There will surely be some pretty darn quick 'firings' and 'hirings' and it'll be interesting to see how that pans out.

No-one should expect anything too radical to happen any time soon. Maybe after Easter some hints and small movements.

There's a strong rumour that the previous Pope had a very good report on some of the scandals and 'vatileaks'. The report will be available to only two people. The last pope and the new pope