The Next Pope
From First Things:
We have lived through fifty years of self-inflicted wounds, some very deep. John Paul II and Benedict XVI felt these traumas, of course, and they responded effectively. John Paul II spoke forcefully about the non-negotiable objectivity of moral truth and the unity of faith and reason. Benedict XVI emphasized the renewal of the liturgy and promoted firm theological standards. They knew that the Church cannot be salt and light if she is not true to herself.
The next pope will continue along the same lines, pressing forward with the reform of dysfunctional religious orders already, as well as securing greater consistency in seminary training. He will no doubt remind our relativistic culture of the reality of objective moral truth. But the tone will change. He’ll know first hand the foolishness of playing footsie with the increasingly hostile secular culture in the West.
This won’t mean a retreat from the Second Vatican Council and it’s wonderful confidence in the culture-shaping power of the gospel. The heroic generation will remain heroic. But a man who came of age when the Church was falling apart will know in a deep, primitive way that even sound teaching is empty and faithful proclamation ineffective when the household of faith is in disarray.
Thus my prediction: The college of cardinals will give us a pope who knows in his bones the evangelical power of a Church rests in its ability to stand against the world with both a spirit of charity and a coherent, effective inner discipline. Only then can the world hear again the gospel and choose to stand with the Church.
Go read the whole thing.
Maybe we are due for a Pope Pius XIII.
I like the point but I think that there are a pair of incorrect assumptions here. I know they are from the point of view of members of a group who perceive themselves to be right. However, the first is that secularists are relativistic. I do believe there are absolute truths and absolute right but they do not derive from a god. Maybe this article addresses others who may be relativistic but I find the assumption to be wrong. Second, and this is related to the first is not that the Catholic Church played ‘footsie’ with the secular side of the world but that the Church recognized, in the light of objective truth, that they were doing wrong and at times evil deeds (re: sex abuse and lying) and took steps to begin to remedy that. I never saw it as Catholics becoming more secular. I saw it as Catholics embodying the hard truths they admire Jesus for. Humility, admitting being wrong, and repentance. I know a major reformer won’t get elected but I hope he is.
You are focused on the last ten years, I think – the whole “Catholics embodying the hard truths they admire” you mention.
Pope Benedict was trying to undo the core problems, which in fact are that the Church tried to emulate the secular world during the previous 40 years. What you are seeing IS the reform, or at least the start of it, where the Church is turning away from the logic of the secular world and returning to embrace the Truth of Jesus Christ, upon which it was founded.
Although the world does not see it, Pope Benedict was a reformer. He’s accomplished things I thought would take centuries to do. Going after the abusers and the bishops who sheltered them is just the tip of the iceberg.
Seeing it from the outside is a very different experience than living it from the inside. This author more or less nails it.
Great article on the Pope’s “cleaning out” of problem bishops:
http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/World.php?id=7089
I note that as late as today, he “accepted the resignations” of two more.