Benny 16 update (with more Ratzinger/Rove theories!)

Amerika's favorite Commie has some good insight with the whole Ratzinger/Hitler Youth story. I braved a few minutes of Keith Olbermann last night, and of course this was the first story---Hitler's Pope, yadda, yadda....

Of course, it's ironic hearing someone named Olbermann lecture on the sins of the German people.

I had a long talk with my Mom last night about the Conclave---she was hoping for one of the third world cardinals, if only for the Church to address the issues of women in the Church (my Mom is no militant by any stretch of the imagination, but is quite perturbed on this point).

I don't know yet what to think. To me, what's interesting to see is the beginning of the cannonization of John Paul II---and how people are beginning to refer to him as John Paul the Great. I really don't mind this.

But for me the larger question is what is the legacy of the Church in both America and the world. Obviously, the role of the Church is not to be popular, but to stand for doctrinal Truth. To me what was the funniest about the hyperventilated commentary was how quickly commentators were aghast that the new pope believes in.......Catholic doctrine. Not to mention how quickly folks like Axis Sully were predicting the new Inquistion, as if the Diocese of Boston is going to start burning heretics at the stake in downtown Provincetown.

If I were Dan Brown, though, I'd be keeping a low profile and be on the lookout for legions of flying monkeys descending from the sky.

For me it's difficult, as a child of Vatican II. I don't remember the old ways at all---I was born in 1966. Our parish was constantly in trouble with the Diocese because we did some things the old ways, but in other ways we were in line with the flow. I get a little ticked sometimes (in a way that is peculiar to me, as our long-time reader Mrs. Robbo's Mom knows) because my age cohort got screwed growing up by the establishment: we got new math, language arts instead of grammar, social studies instead of history, and don't EVEN get me started on teaching us the damn metric system. But, the Church experimented on us too, with rather fuzzy-wuzzy instruction. Sad to say, I do in fact know most of the words to "Kumbaya." We are the children of Paul VI---we came of age before John Paul Magnus reenergized the youth, but after Vatican II's introduction of the vulgate and guitars.

So where does this all lead for me? As I said, I don't know. I like having a Pope I disagree with, if only to force me to think that much harder about things and not be complacent.

But I worry that this Pope will launch a new crusade, one that it will lose.

And that would be a bad thing, indeed.

D'Oh! How did I miss this joke yesterday? Chai-Rista is going to have to whack my repeatedly upside the skull with a Starsky and Hutch lunchbox.

UPDATE: The Irish Elk looks back fondly on then Cardinal Ratzinger's leading of the theological smackdown of Liberation Theology.

UPDATE DEUX:

Axis Sully:

THE POLITICAL ANALOGY: I was trying to explain last night to a non-Catholic just how dumb-struck many reformist Catholics are by the elevation of Ratzinger. And then I found a way to explain. This is the religious equivalent of having had four terms of George W. Bush only to find that his successor as president is Karl Rove. Get it now?

Yeah, we sure do.

And man, that next fund drive's going to be a bitch, no?

MORE AXIS SULLY: I know, I know I shouldn't, but I'm a naughty boy...

THE POLITICAL ANALOGY: I was trying to explain last night to a non-Catholic just how dumb-struck many reformist Catholics are by the elevation of Ratzinger. And then I found a way to explain. This is the religious equivalent of having had four terms of George W. Bush only to find that his successor as president is Karl Rove. Get it now?

Yeah, the same company that made the voting machines in Ohio and Florida sold the Vatican its hay for the smoke.

More gems:

What many of us are asking for is simply the ability for lay Catholics and indeed priests and theologians to be able to debate respectfully such pressing issues as mandatory celibacy for the priesthood, a less rigid biological understanding of the rights and dignity of women, and a real dialogue with gay Catholics about how we can practically live lives that reflect our human dignity and our profound human need for intimacy and sexual expression. We'd also like to see greater autonomy for national churches, a respect for political secularism, and a more open hierarchy that cannot get away with a criminal conspiracy to hide the widespread sexual abuse of children and teens. None of this is that radical in the context of change in the last fifty years. None of it is subject to infallibility. And what we object to is the arrogant notion that lay people - let alone theologians or priests - do not even have the right to raise these questions within a formal church context.

In other words, Anglicanism.

THIS IS WHY I LOVE BLOGWORLD: Macktastic Rusty Wicked nails it.

It's days like these that I do indeed miss Allahpundit...