Pope Who?
It boggles the mind. Just how different things could be. Matters that appear immutable, through long usage, through the historic record, through the firmness of prounouncements from the very most elevated level in the religious firmament. But it could have happened, instead of Cardinal Ratsinger, Carlo Cardinal Maria Martini could have been elected Pope. Why not? His was one of the names on the roster of prospectives.Look, Pope Benedict, like his predecessor, has affirmed the basic position of the Roman Catholic church on many explosive issues of the day; female ordination, abortion, birth control, the ordination of gays, artificial insemination, the practise of liberation theology. A whole range of current-day issues dividing the Roman Catholic church, but upon whose refusal to grant liberalization the Vatican remains steadfast.
Well, what if Cardinal Martini had been elected Pope? What an upheaval would have taken place from within the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic church, inexorably reaching down into the outreaches, parish to parish, to alter the face of that venerable institution. For Cardinal Martini is at distinct odds with the Pope. He states that there is no reason why condoms and abortions, for example, should not be permitted when warranted. In the case, for example, of stopping AIDS transmission, or unwanted pregnancies. Total abstention, as Pope Benedit prescribes overlooks human nature.
Cardinal Martini, as Pope, would have agreed to the legalization within the church of abortions under certain circumstances; that single parents might be permitted to adopt children; that extra embryos created in the process of artificial insemnination could be frozen and used, if required. The Vatican has not responded to these provocative assertions.
Well, truth is, the Roman Catholic church, just like the Anglican Church and many others must look to their religious counterparts abroad, in Asia, in Africa, for whom conservative-based religious practise only can be acceptable, not a watered-down version of the unbending original. Ethnic Roman Catholic priests serving multitudes in third-world or emerging- economy countries would never endorse the relaxation of church strictures and mores to reflect a more Western-oriented religious aesthetic.
It was but a thought. Tantalizing, though.
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, April 23, 2006
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