Here's a transcript of a WashPost chat with Father Sirico.
And here's a little something to whet your appetite...
Calgary, Canada: What were the cardinals thinking???
Why elect someone that we, the people didn't want?? Why not someone from the Third World??
117 cardinals voting and not one who listened to or is serving the needs of the world's catholics??? I am so disappointed.
WHY????
Rev. Robert Sirico: Well, I suppose the Cardinals (and there were 115 of them voting - 2 were absent due to illness) could have chosen someone like Card. Arienze, but I doubt that would be acceptable to you either. The Church is not a democracy and I think the sooner people stop thinking of the Church as a political entity, the better their understanding is going to be of the Faith. I am sorry you and Desmond Tutu are disappointed, but pleasing people is not the object of the Catholic Church.
Refreshing read. I love how he pithily dismisses buffoonish questions.
Catholic without apologizing. I loved how he ended with asking for others interested in the faith to read the catechism.
Yes - that was a nice touch!
My own favorite passage was this one:
Dover, Del.: Gaze into the crystal ball for a minute. How likely is it that we'll see a schism in the Catholic church down the road, with the American church perhaps going its own way and anointing its own Pope?
Rev. Robert Sirico: Progressive American Catholics don't have to create (and I doubt they are interested in creating a schism). They can always join the American Episcopal communion.
****
Given all the recent tumult and shouting in the Episcopal Church USA, surely some sort of exchange could be worked out? Disaffected US Catholics can switch to the ECUSA, while fed-up Episcopalians go over to the RCC.
This from a lapsed Episcopalian.
My own favorite passage was this one:
Dover, Del.: Gaze into the crystal ball for a minute. How likely is it that we'll see a schism in the Catholic church down the road, with the American church perhaps going its own way and anointing its own Pope?
Rev. Robert Sirico: Progressive American Catholics don't have to create (and I doubt they are interested in creating a schism). They can always join the American Episcopal communion.
****
Given all the recent tumult and shouting in the Episcopal Church USA, surely some sort of exchange could be worked out? Disaffected US Catholics can switch to the ECUSA, while fed-up Episcopalians go over to the RCC.
This from a lapsed Episcopalian.
Please consider my new blog:
http://benedictsixtinth.blogspot.com/
It is a collection of articles on Benedict XVI.
Angelo