Hi David! Yes: I, too, was yelling at the news outlets when Benedict XII resigned about the precedent being Celestine V and not the Great Schism. And of course was surprised when the church wound up with Francis and not a Boniface VIII clone. Oh right: that was Ratzinger . . . I was at an event at a Medieval Academy meeting when JPII died and was talking with a bunch of folks who were teaching at Catholic universities and suggested to them that the likely pick was going to be Ratzinger, as a backlash candidate since JPII had been on an apology tour for some time (loved it when he apologized for the 4th Crusade) and the conservatives were having kittens. I was told by all of the Catholic boyz and gurls "Oh no! They'd never do that!" I silently rolled my eyes. Et voilà . . . So I suspect that, since he has kidney failure as well as double pneumonia, Francis's days are numbered. And my automatic question is "reform or backlash?" I suspect backlash. What do you think?
Hi David! Yes: I, too, was yelling at the news outlets when Benedict XII resigned about the precedent being Celestine V and not the Great Schism. And of course was surprised when the church wound up with Francis and not a Boniface VIII clone. Oh right: that was Ratzinger . . . I was at an event at a Medieval Academy meeting when JPII died and was talking with a bunch of folks who were teaching at Catholic universities and suggested to them that the likely pick was going to be Ratzinger, as a backlash candidate since JPII had been on an apology tour for some time (loved it when he apologized for the 4th Crusade) and the conservatives were having kittens. I was told by all of the Catholic boyz and gurls "Oh no! They'd never do that!" I silently rolled my eyes. Et voilà . . . So I suspect that, since he has kidney failure as well as double pneumonia, Francis's days are numbered. And my automatic question is "reform or backlash?" I suspect backlash. What do you think?