Do you think it takes courage to be a Pope?

  • Thread starter Thread starter redrosetea
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I am glad you could see the humor.
Prayers & blessings
Deacon Ed B
 
I think it takes a lot of courage to be a good Pope, since the world would fight him at every turn. However, I don’t think it would take any courage at all for a Pope to go along with the political correct ways of the world.

It wouldn’t take any courage for a Pope to continuously praise the “good qualities” of a false religion, but it would take courage for the Pope to point out their errors.

It wouldn’t take any courage for a Pope to do nothing if the Seminaries became cesspools of immorality and heresy, but it would take a lot of courage for him to do what was necessary to clean them out.

It also would not take any courage for the Pope to apologize for certain politically incorrect practices of the Church during the middle ages, but it would take a lot of courage for him to defend those practices against the historical lies and distortions.

It took a lot of courage for our current Pope to admit that the old Mass had never been abrogated. That took a lot of courage, since it was exactly contrary to what the Magisterium had implied for the previous 37 years. It would have taken far less courage for him to merely issue a phony “indult” for the old Mass, and allow the Bishops to continue to forbid it.

It also took a lot of courage for our new Pope to admit, contrary to what the Church had taught for the previous 37 years, that “pro multis” has been mistranslated in the consecration of the vernacular masses (no small thing). It would have been much easier for him to simply ignore the issue and let it persist for another Pope to deal with.

In conclusion, being a good Pope takes a heroic amount of courage. Being a bad one takes no courage at all.

Let us thank God that we now have a Pope who is showing some courage in the face of great opposition, and let us pray continually for him that he does not flee his duty for fear of the wolves.

Pope Benedict XVI: " Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves".
 
Deacon_Ed_B said:
It takes more courage and faith than any of us will ever know. It is the most difficult thing that any human could ever even begin to undertake.
Prayers & blessings
Deacon Ed B
Click to expand...
who knows, one or more of us may know in the future
 
JRKH said:
I certainly agree with what you say here!! It is a huge responsibility.

On the other hand, the Pope has the assurance of the Guidance of the Holy Spirit, thus he should be able to sleep easily (in theory anyway)
Click to expand...
The Holy Ghost does not direct every action of the Pope. The Pope retains his free will and has to make decisions using his reason. He can make errors in judgment, and can fail to do what he ought to do. The Pope is not a puppet of the Holy Ghost.

If the Holy Ghost directed all that the Pope does, they would all be saints. Instead, there have only been about 4 sainted Popes in the past 800 years.
 
Pax_et_Caritas said:
Originally Posted by JRKH
I certainly agree with what you say here!! It is a huge responsibility.
Click to expand...
Agreed. 👍
This is why I did not use the term “direct”, or control.
Sorry if you though I was implying such.

Guidance naturally implies a sense of one receiving advise and gentle teaching. “Direction” implies a stronger, more controlling, action than Our Lord tends to employ.

Peace
James
Click to expand...
 
Absolutely. Remember, (more particularly earlier Popes) but even now - once a Pope - their lives become more rigid and private. We see the Papal Blessings of crowds or Papl visits - and get lost in that moment. But the Popes must retreat again - to the Papal Chambers - constant prayer - and responsibility of who knows how much - as Vicar of Christ on earth. We know just the newsmaking items - not what the Popes face priivately. Remember Pope John Paul II - who loved his native Poland and we’re all sure he felt ever-so separated from. The Popes are blessed and honored to have become the Vicar of Christ - but hold awesomely serious responsibilities. And their demandings schedules constant - despite ailments, etc.

On the “sort-of” ficticious side - has anyone seen the movie, “Shoes of the Fisherman”? The Pope (played by Anthony Quinn) when voted in - didn’t want it - telling the Cardinals, ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ - because he was from a country behind the Iron Curtain - and feared political issues, as well. Also, remember in the movie - how lonely that fictitious Pope became - sneaking out of the Vatican - just to walk the streets of Rome with the people - and how a limo suddenly arrived to bring him back to the Vatican. Who knows how much of this rings true?
 
Yes, I think it does.

I would never want to be Pope. (I wouldn’t want to be president, either.)
 
The Pope is a tremendously influential world leader. During the dreaded Clinton Presidency, John Paul II was the true leader of the Free World. 👍
 
This is a wierd thread. Yes it takes courage, yes, the sky is blue, yes a bear does his business in the woods. Courage comes in many forms, Courage to be in the arned forces, courage to be a peace protester, courage to strap a bomb on you and blow up a mall, courage to be pro life,courage to flip off abortion protesters on your way to kill your baby.
Courage can be misplaced, when people express an opinion of a Pope good or bad they are not calling into question His courage, just His judgement. Even the less than desireable Popes had as much or even more courage a JPII who was a corageous man as is Pope Benedict. Benedict may even have more in facing some of the isssues on the Church head on, SSPX, Abuse Cases, Traditional Concerns, World at War.
 
Matt33 said:
This is a wierd thread. Yes it takes courage, yes, the sky is blue, yes a bear does his business in the woods. Courage comes in many forms, Courage to be in the arned forces, courage to be a peace protester, courage to strap a bomb on you and blow up a mall, courage to be pro life,courage to flip off abortion protesters on your way to kill your baby.
Courage can be misplaced, when people express an opinion of a Pope good or bad they are not calling into question His courage, just His judgement. Even the less than desireable Popes had as much or even more courage a JPII who was a corageous man as is Pope Benedict. Benedict may even have more in facing some of the isssues on the Church head on, SSPX, Abuse Cases, Traditional Concerns, World at War.
Click to expand...
Matt, does it take courage to be you?😃
 
I don’t think it takes allot of courage…the Pope deals in spirituality and intellectuality…not physical danger.

A soldier in combat, a police officer facing off against an armed suspect, a fire fighter charging into a burning building, a paramedic climbing into an upturned vehicle to tend to an injured person, regular people putting themselves in danger to help others…those are examples of courage.

I know that everyone wants to think of a Pope as a very courageous person, but he is surrounded by all sorts of people who help him with his decisions.

Our Pope may in fact be a very courageous man, but I don’t think courage is a necessity.

Benoit IX was Pope when he was 12 years old…how much courage does a 12 year old possess? They haven’t even started puberty yet.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top