Pope Benedict XVI

My thoughts on the choice of Archbishop John Ratzinger as the new pope:

I'm not Catholic so it doesn't affect me all that much but I was personally hoping that would go with someone who's less of a hardliner (but still not too compromising). I kind of thought one of the Latin American candidates would have been good for the church too allthough from what I'm reading it seems that Cathloics there are overall happy with the choice, espeically due to his adherence to traditionalist orthodoxy. He seems like a good guy but I'm not a huge fan of some of the archaic policies. Time does change things. I'm not talking about having someone who would be a leftist, because if church actions stray from church teaching then there would be less unity and more division, I think.

I hope that he will reach out to Protestant groups the way that John Paul II did...but from some of his statements it sounds like he'll be less likely to do that. I believe the two main groups have made phenomenal reconcilitory progress in the past few decades (just look at the unilaterally positive response to "The Passion of the Christ" from both groups), but there is still a great deal to be done. From a Protestant perspective I think that it is possible because ultimately Catholics and Protestants agree on the single most importiant point (and I believe, the only crucial point to the Christian faith...the unified response to the "Passion" proves this) which is of course Salvation though the death and ressurection of Jesus. Beyond that though, the two sides have some extremely significant differences. I really don't want to see the relashonship between the two main parts of the Church to regress when so much has been done to reverse a bitter and divided history.

- Jordan