Tuesday, April 19, 2005
NEW POPE
White smoke sighted.
UPDATE. Windows open on the balcony.
UPDATE II. Some old guy speaking Latin.
UPDATE III. Ratzinger!
UPDATE IV. Pope Benedict XVI.
UPDATE V. Reuters:
German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the strict defender of Catholic orthodoxy for the past 23 years, was elected Pope on Tuesday despite a widespread assumption he was too old and divisive to win election.
Cardinal Pell would be excited by the decision and would be celebrating with the remainder of the 115 cardinal electors, Cardinal Pell’s aide said today.
“We haven’t been able to get in contact with him but I would expect that he’s perhaps celebrating with the pope tonight,” the aide said.
AFP:
”(It is) a missed opportunity,” Tony Kerrigan, senior media officer at Marie Stopes International, said.
“It looks like this particular cardinal will continue with the line on contraception, condoms, and HIV prevention that Pope John Paul II had. It’s regrettable because that will impact so terribly on the lives of millions of people, particularly in the developing world.”
Most of German society succumbed to Hitler, compromising itself. To choose a man brought up at that time and in that place is to state that the most corrupted human society can be redeemed.
AAP:
The election of Ratzinger to the papacy has disappointed the Ordination of Catholic Women who were hoping to begin a modern era with a new pope.
“Ratzinger is not the pope that we would ideally like,” associate convener Joelle Battestini said today.
AP:
As a Roman Catholic cardinal, the new Pope Benedict XVI warned American voters against departing from church teaching at the ballot box, drew criticism from victims of clerical sex abuse and opposed married or women priests.
Father Mario Sanderson, of Mayfield, East Sussex:
“I’m absolutely unbelievably delighted and full of joy. I think it’s absolutely wonderful, wonderful ... He’s a wonderful person; he’s called The Rottweiler.”
The choice of conservative German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new Pope has divided Latin America, a region he battled leftist priests and whose poor and hungry often cannot afford to follow Roman Catholic doctrine.
US President George W.Bush today praised the choice of conservative German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new Pope, calling him a “man of great wisdom and knowledge”.
At the age of 14, he joined the Hitler Youth, as was required of young Germans of the time, but was not an enthusiastic member.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have sent their “best wishes” to the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI.
AFP:
Senior members of the influential conservative Opus Dei group, close to the heart of the late Pope John Paul II, today hailed the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as his successor.
Mixed Reaction In Ohio
I knew he would be named. The rest of the names were just ROVE tricks to throw off everyone. He was placed there by the likes of BushCO. It sends a STRONG signal to the non white people of the world that “WHITE POWER” is the name of the game.
Blog reaction, plus other media.
Reaction from Germany.
UPDATE VI. A must-read roundup from The Moderate Voice.
UPDATE VII. Mathew Henderson-Hau is STUNNED and AMAZED:
I never believed for a minute that the Catholic Church would actually elect a former member of the HITLER YOUTH to the papacy ON HITLER’S BIRTHDAY!
Earlier, Mathew had anticipated just such an ASTONISHING occurrence:
Could you imagine the perverse irony if they give the nod to Ratzinger (the German candidate) on today of all days? They reckon he’s in with a chance too.
Not sure what he means by “irony” there. Hey, why isn’t the media PAYING ATTENTION TO THIS HITLER THING?
Am still yet to see any MSN references to Hitler’s Birthday/Ratzinger elected new Pope.
In fact, why hasn’t ANYBODY ELSE EVEN NOTICED?
Has anyone made the slightly unnerving connection that the Vatican has elected a former Hitler youth member to the papacy ON HITLER’S BIRTHDAY!
Mathew’s about to EXPLODE with UNNERVINGNESS! Just as well Andrea was here to explain international time zones, and to gently point out that Benedict XVI was elected on April 19.
Hitler was born on April 20.
UPDATE VIII. I never believed for a minute that the Catholic Church would actually elect a former member of the HITLER YOUTH to the papacy ON JIMMY CARTER RABBIT-ATTACK DAY!