All this is wonderful and yes, it would be exciting to have an African Pope in that novelty kind of way. There is an excellent interview with Cardinal Turkson over at LifeSiteNews in which His Eminence discusses what it is like coming from a poor, very large family in Ghana.
To be honest there is only one thing that bothers me about Cardinal Peter Turkson and that is the fact that he seems not to like to dress as a Cardinal when he's being interviewed. I hope that he wouldn't be one of those Popes who says, "Don't call me 'Your Holiness', just call me Peter." Would His Eminence dress down as Pope?
The Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, who also has a tendency to treat every day as a mufti day, has used the Holy Father's resignation to criticise the new translation of the Mass. Now, that's what I call loyalty to the Successor of St Peter. I would have thought talking about the 'old Mass' was so 2010, but there you go.
The only other thing concerning about Cardinal Turkson is the fact that he is making it more clear that he really would rather like to be Pope. A headline in The Times today makes this clear:
In the online hubbub concerning the election of a new Pope, the phrase that keeps going around is 'He who enters a Pope leaves a Cardinal.' This makes a great deal of sense. The Office of the Papacy should really hold Cardinals in such awe and fear and even trembling that it isn't something you 'campaign' for in the media, unless you think you are, you know, absolutely wonderful and 'up to the job'. If you think you are 'up to the job' then its probably not 'the job' for you, because, as Benedict XVI has shown us, the Office demands the utmost humilty and profound trust in the power of God.Catholic Church is ready for a Third World Pope, says African cardinal
The World has been ready for an African Pope for years and years, of course. If Turkson gains the seat of St Peter there would, for a month, be dancing in the streets about the black Pope and then a return to usual proceedings once he makes his first statement on condoms and homosexuality.
What the Church needs is a holy Pope ready to do battle against the forces that assail God's Church from within and without Her. Whatever Vatican politics are, I really cannot see how the next Pope's ethnicity and country of origin is of great importance. So, I'll be sticking £50 on Cardinal Raymond Burke and praying God clears my overdraft. What? In Lent? Yes! Anyway, I'm starting to advertise Catholic products for free at the end of each blogpost.
6 comments:
Criticising the new translation of the Mass is absolutely de rigueur amongst liberal Catholics usually revealing their ignorance of translation from one language to another.
But let us not forget how exciting it must be for liberals to think that now they may have one of their own as the next Pope. Oh well let them have their pleasures during Lent before their inevitable disappointment at Easter (in more ways than one!)
I agree with your comments re Cardinal Turkson who I must admit I had not heard of until this week. I am disappointed at our Bishop's comments too.
If he were to be elected then the Conspiracy theorists would have a field day as I believe that it was either Nostradamus or St Malachy who have been quoted as saying that the last Pope would be called 'Peter.' And I recently read that there is a church in Rome with pictures of all the Popes, and that there is only one space left!
Turkson sure does seem confident that it just might be him, and by golly, he's ready. How unseemly is that? Whew.
I agree with you ~ why should any Catholic care one whit what country or ethnicity the Holy Father comes from? What does that have to do with leading the Church through these evil days? That seems to me to be secular and Modernist thinking.
My desire to see the Cardinals choose Cardinal Burke is because of his firm traditional orthodoxy and blunt, clear communication style. But it's also because frankly, I don't know anything about the other Cardinals! It's certainly got nothing to do with him being an American. I'd be rooting for him no matter what country he's from. May God's will be done.
I imagine the media like him in the way they liked Mandela the Communist, regardless of his views. (And there is a certain similarity of look, yes?) Orientalism (reverse racism) at work once again.
And I agree, he does seem to covet the position a bit too much.
I would quite like Cardinal Turkson as Pope. He seems boyishly enthusiastic and we need a hands-on leader with a fresh approach and a plan of action. I think Turkson suits the bill.
We have been rooted in the teachings of Pope Benedict (at least those who listened to him)....now we need some practical actions to bring these teachings to fruition. Cardinal Turkson seems a man of action to me.
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