so for the past two days i've had a constant feeling that i should write something about the pope. not really because i have anything to say, but because i feel like it's what i "should" do, you know, being catholic and everything.
so riddled with my own self-imposed sense of obligation i have come up with these thoughts.
i've never seen this process happen before, the last pope having been chosen before my time. so the whole process has brought out some interesting and unforseen emotions in me. these emotions came out when they officially announced the new pope, cardinal ratzinger of germany, now benedict xvi. i know nothing about ratzinger other than what i've heard from the media. so i really have no opinion about him one way or the other (not that it would matter anyway). what this whole process has done for me, however, is called into scrutiny my questions on my faith and trust that God is leading the Catholic Church and not a person or people. with the announcement of the new pope it suddenly came to my mind how vulnerable the Church is to human judgement and mistakes and how much could potentially change in a relatively short period of time. i guess that's what the folks thought immediately following vatican ii!
what i have realized, though, is that this is God's plan for the Church. and, as paula said at bible study tonight, we won't really know the results until the end. i don't know if she meant the end of time, but really that's the time scale we're
looking at here. whatever steps the Church is taking it's taking it with a purpose in mind (it's just not our purpose nor our mind!).
one of the things i really like about the Catholic Church is that it is not a democracy. this is also the thing that i think i struggle with the most, especially when the Church issues a statement in which we do not see eye to eye. but i must remember that no matter what i think is right or wrong, no matter who i "would have chosen" (if i had someone in mind, which i did not), no matter what i think is the best course of action for the Church to take, it's not up to me. and i guess that does provide me with some level of comfort. so, in God i trust to lead our Church (and in some sense provide leadership to the world) in an age of importance (though i guess everyone thinks "their age" is an age of importance, huh?).
1 comment:
you know, i'd had the same thought about what paula said...i think she meant the end of benedict's term as pope, but i agree it won't be until the end of time when we can really know.
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