Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Next Pope selected

This is topic Next Pope selected in forum Officers' Lounge at Flare Sci-Fi Forums.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://flare.solareclipse.net/ultimatebb.php/topic/10/3616.html

Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :

But no name yet

Well, either a new pope's been selected, or the Cardinals have sighted a herd of buffalo.

Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

Think it's Ratzinger (sp?)?

Papal Robes... Chamber of Tears... I love how closely this whole process follows scriptural precedent.

Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :

Yep. Pope Benedict XVI.

A German taking over from a Pole. And they say history doesn't repeat itself... [Wink]

Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :

Next he'll go and see some Sea Lions with Barbarossa.

Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :

I wonder what made them choose him, since he was the one least likely to win in the latest diagram I saw on ze subject.

Thoguts?

Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :

There was speculation that they would elect an "old" pope that will have a short papacy and serve as a transitional one for the next pope who will be a radical departure from John Paul II. Or something like that.

Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

I thought Ratzinger was the leading candidate to be the next Kai all along. From what my coworker tells me he's uberConservative and fairly obnoxious.

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :

I can't figure that out either. An 84 year old pope dies and they elect an 78 year old one? Brillant!

Posted by Veers (Member # 661) on :

No surprise at all. Ratzinger is very conservative and will continue to support and defend church doctrine.

Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :

So, the most powerful German since Hitler, then. . .

Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :

If you consider the pope powerful... [Roll Eyes]

Posted by David Sands (Member # 132) on :

Nim: not so much that he was unlikely to win so much as his short suit being relations with Islam and ecumenism, both critical problems for the church right now. However, he has a lot of long suits to match: street cred for fighting radical materialistic secularism, militant relativism, and experience in cleaning up the church's hierarchy. (On the latter, his latest task was working on the sex abuse scandels. Expect to see him going at the filth there very quickly.)

Topher: correct on a short papacy. B16 has a family history of heart problems, and he's 78. The odds are very against a 20 year pontificate. However, with medical technology getting so good, I think the idea some people have a 5-10 year one ought to consider a strong possibility of a 10-15 year one.

Aban: obnoxious if you mean he won't back down on core teachings that the church is simply not going to give way on (however you feel on them). The man himself, though, is said to be pretty humble. Very academic. He wrote only about 190 books (yes, one hundred ninety; I have to check on the exact figure). I only learned yesterday he had been begging JP2 for years to let him resign as Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. The late pope would not allow it.

Topher (again): powerful office indeed. JP2 had a hand in bringing down the evil empire. Although taking down Darth Brehnev and his successors, perhaps he should have been called Jedi Master Karwo Kawad. [Wink]

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

"...the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith."

Until last century, known as "the Holy Office of the Inquisition". No joke.

Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

I didn't mean anything by it. Those were the words of the coworker I mentioned. I have zero knowledge of the man and very little more interest.

I also don't understand how the leader of a church can be so heavily involved in politics and still claim to be following Christian teaching. But this isn't in the Flameboard, so I digress... [Smile]

Posted by Tora Ziyal (Member # 53) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Topher:
If you consider the pope powerful...

Considering his words will be able to influence the beliefs of 1 billion Catholics...yeah, that's pretty powerful.

Posted by David Sands (Member # 132) on :

Aban: didn't mean for that to be taken as hostile if it appeared so. Sorry if it came across wrong.

We'll hear lots more about this. Well, actually, we already are!

Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :

"...street cred for fighting radical materialistic secularism, militant relativism..."

You throw the words "radical" and "militant" around like you want to say something about secularism and relativism, but I don't see much substance of non-creepy-fundamentalist tone behind them, counsel.

Also, the last person to seriously refer to the Soviet Union as "the evil empire" died a while back.

Simon, we're headed for a fall.

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

Well, I think we're heading towards a wave of social conservatism as the world comes to realize that all these ominous-sounding technological developments we hear about in the news have essentially happened already, and the fact that we are living in a world where our historical models no longer apply will, perversely, encourage us to grab hold of those models even more tightly.

That, and the Flameboard. (Not because of the nature of this thread's discourse, but these sorts of grand questions are more its style.)

Or possibly a secret space war.

(It's flattering to think that our concerns are unique, and that our historical models really are broken in ways that prior eras' were not, but I do not pretend to know if this is actually the case, and I am always wary of, like, chronocentrism. At any rate the Catholic Church has weathered fierce storms of technosocial change before.)