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..not an American pope.
There is speculation around the world that the time has come for an American pope. The two cardinals most often mentioned are Sean O’Malley and Timothy Dolan.
As I mentioned, I met Cardinal Sean (as he prefers to be addressed) once. This was twenty five years ago, when he was bishop of Fall River in Massachusetts. He was a very likeable man, and seemed prayerful. But an internet search found little in the way of addressing issues of justice and war, except that he did not think that war and injustice were as important as abortion in forming one’s conscience in an election. While it is certainly true that the Church unambiguously opposes abortion as an intrinsic evil and Catholics can disagree about details of policy regarding other issues (but not about principles), it is also true to anyone with eyes to see that abortion is not going to be illegal in the foreseeable future and that to base one’s vote solely upon that issue means, in an American context, not only wasting one’s vote but choosing other grave evils.
At any rate, moral and social issues other than abortion do not seem of great concern to the cardinal. And while a conclusion drawn from silence must be a tentative one, it is not unlikely that Cardinal Sean is, like most prelates, and most Catholics in this country, an Americanist.
However appealing a pope in a Franciscan habit may seem, this is no time for an Americanist pope. I can think of fewer things that would be as disastrous. We have had two successive “peace popes”, ones who publicly speculated that just war is no longer possible, given the nature of modern weapons. John Paul II, with Cardinal Ratzinger, definitively made the case that capital punishment can no longer be justified. Let us pray that the next pope will make a similar judgement regarding war. American exceptionalism is one of the great threats to world peace. A pope who believes in this deluded national illusion would be horrible for the Church and for the world, and not least for American Catholics.
But if Cardinal Sean would be bad, Cardinal Dolan would be worse.
The conclusion that he is an Americanist is not base upon his silence, but on his very words, uttered more than once, and that very publicly. His two public prayers at the national party conventions last summer were exercises in American Civil Religion of the worst sort.
While I am not one who believes that the conclave of cardinals is guaranteed to make their decision under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the presence of that Spirit is certainly among them. But the conclave is a human construct, not divinely established, and shares about as much in the charism of infallibility as the diocesan tribunal. And we all know what that has meant.
But Holy Spirit aside, one would hope, and desperately pray, that the world’s cardinals would have enough damn sense to not elect an American – and an Americanist- as pope.
I could handle it if Cardinal Burke was elected Pope, for reasons other than the usual given.
His Eminence grew up on a farm. While Bishop of La Crosse, he was active with the National Rural Life Conference, and was its president from 1996-2001. He is a vigorous defender of the family farm, and just as vigorously opposed to corporate farming as currently practiced,
See http://catholichomesteadingmovement.freeforums.org/national-catholic-rural-life-conference-t729.html for more information on His Eminence’s position.
Regarding Cardinal O’Malley: As far as social justice issues go, I would recommend looking at what he did as a priest in Washington DC and as bishop of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. I also think that the mainstream press deliberately omits or downplays any of His Eminences positions and activities on social justice issues, since they don’t fit the anti-Catholic media template.
Lastly, I think the priority in positions may change depending on the job or diocese. Cardinal Burke has little to do with the family farm in his current post, but I have no doubt his opinions on the family farm remain the same. Cardinal O’Malley has much more on his plate as Archbishop of Boston, so what he does with social justice is overshadowed by other issues. Even for Cardinal Dolan (who was my archbishop for nearly seven years, and I appreciate very much what he did here), being the head of a large, prominent, and relatively stable East Coast see is different from taking on a mid-sized Midwestern diocese in upheaval.
You know, I had completely forgotten that when I first heard of him he was pastor of that Hispanic church on Thomas Circle (I lived near DC at the time). Sacred Heart, right? And you are right; he was a dedicated servant of the poor. How that translates into policy issues is anyone’s guess.
How that translates into policy issues is anyone’s guess.
Like I said, it depends on the position or diocese. Cardinal Burke has other things to do as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, but if he is elected Pope, the farmboy from Richland Center, WI may re-emerge in some way. If O’Malley is elected (and I don’t think he wants the job at all), he would devote some considerable time to the Church’s social teachings. And I’ll give this for Dolan: the man communicates clearly and plainly on the Church’s teachings, and is serious about vocations to the priesthood and religious life. I cannot say enough about the turnaround at the seminary in Milwaukee. There are still parts of the Weakland mess to clean up, but that will take some time, but Dolan left the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in better shape than he found it.
This is good. Burke has no chance though.
One more item regarding Cardinal Sean: John Allen’s piece on the American papabili at http://ncronline.org/node/47166. I trust Mr. Allen’s assessments.
I want a pope who will not only teach doctrine, but clean up the Church. God alone knows who that is. And if we all pray for a good selection, then I believe God will give us that man.
As far as abortion, well the numbers really mean nothing anymore, as this president has done all in his power to make the morning after pill as readily available as vitamins; it ends the life of a baby without a scheduled abortion. Those abortions don’t even show up in the stats. The next thing coming down the line will be cloning.
I hope this election does not end with an American pope–as most Americans suffer from “eclipse of the conscience”–but if that is what we get, then we must give it time to bear fruit before judging.
Glad to see that there are reasonable people here. ;-)