Back When "Is The Pope Catholic?" Was A Joke

 Jack Cashill has the story at the American Thinker entitled The Euro Media Welcomed Benedict XVI The Way Ours Welcomed Trump, To give context to the election of Benedict XVI to be the new Pope after Saint John Paul II death, Cashill spends quite a bit of ink. You can read this for yourself. I will start here:

Having a day to kill before the conference on April 20, I wandered around Paris jet-lagged and found my way to Notre Dame—back when the famed cathedral still had a roof. Two things surprised me when I entered. One was that there were large TV screens set up in several places, which struck me as a tad blasphemous. Even more surprising was that the pews "reserved for the faithful," were actually filled with the faithful watching the TV screens.

I was in the cathedral no more than 30 seconds when the image on the screen switched from a French talking head to the balcony of the Vatican. There it was announced that a new Pope had been selected, and it was German Cardinal Josef Ratzinger.

Upon hearing the news, the faithful stood as one and cheered, and I shouted out impulsively, "I know that guy!" In fact, in 1998 I had interviewed Cardinal Ratzinger for a documentary we had done on the revival of the traditional movement within the Catholic Church, a revival that Cardinal Ratzinger had encouraged and that inspired me to return to Catholicism.

Not everyone was pleased with the choice. An American woman standing next to me blurted out, "This is a terrible day for women!" As I learned, the media were not too pleased either. By the time I left the church they had descended on the square in front of Notre Dame. They even interviewed me. In my half-assed French, I explained why I thought Ratzinger was a "bon choix," a good choice. The reporter rolled his eyes when finished, I thought, because of the quality of my French.

It should be pointed out, in case it is not fairly clear, that the Christian faith has not changed since Christ died and rose again on that Easter Sunday 2023 years ago. That was when God completed his plan for our salvation.  So the comment that Benedict XVI would not be good for women displays a misunderstanding of that faith. The faith does not change, ever. People change, but God never does. In this sense, Pope Benedict XVI was "conservative." During his time in office, the old joke "Is the Pope Catholic" was just that: a joke. Today, it has become a serious question.

Update: Gentle readers should also read John Daniel Davidson's piece at The Federalist entitled Amid the Ruin of Modernity, Pope Benedict XVI Championed a Restoration of Reason and Faith. The article is excellent. In fact, faith and reason are not at odds, but support each other. What many call "science" is nothing of the kind, but rather calls to authorities that are of dubious scientific value. But even science has its limitation, and where science leaves off are the place where faith and reason take over. The one bone I would pick with Davidson's article is the description of the current problems as "modernism." What plagues our modern world is actually as old as the serpent in the Gardern of Eden. Marxism, Socialism, Facsism, Progressivism, or the older Fabianism are not new ideas. In fact they are as old as the original sin. Like everything else, we should call things by their true names. It is just men pretending to be God.