The first American Pope

  • Thread starter Thread starter Maximilian75
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Yes, because they see his comments in context and understand his motives.

Francis’ words, through no fault of his own, can be spun by media with less than good intentions.
Bizarrely, he and trump hold this in common haha
 
I don’t think anybody want to return to the way the media portrayed the Church under Pope Benedict, though. That was a PR disaster.
 
To the Church, the United States of America is still a newfangled social experiment that might not really last … give it a few more centuries and we might be ready to produce a Pope.
 
Certainly the Church was stronger doctrinally, but I get what you mean. A balance needs to be found.

I barely remember him, but stuff like this makes me miss JP2.
 
No doubt, put it allowing for such might be part of God’s plan for the later days of the Church Age…a time may come when, the pickings may be slim for an available clergyman to become Pope.
If we run that low on clergy, finding someone to elect Pope is going to be the least of our concerns.
A lot of the previous popes were from the Roman Empire, which was the world superpower of its time.

I don’t see it as an impediment.
Well, when one country not only rules but is essentially half of the entire known world and is centered on the diocese over which the Bishop of Rome presides, that is going to increase the odds. The United States fits neither description.
Since the United States of America is the only country in the Americas with the name America, calling ourselves Americans is correct. Just as the people in Canada call themselves Canadians or people in Columbia call themselves Columbians. I know people in the other countries of the Americas think we have just taken over the word because of our “arrogance”, but what else are we to call ourselves when that is our name? I guess we could be the United Statesers…
I think we started calling ourselves Americans when we were still British. Among the British, we were the Americans.
 
Eh… On your first point, having a strong Pope in such a time, IMO, would be vital. That stress would absolutely lead to fragmentation
 
Lincoln is unlikely.

To be elected Pope, you have to play nice with others. If you play nice with others, they will probably get you out of Lincoln long before they make you Pope.

Unless you like Lincoln, but then the spectre of Celestine discourages choosing a hermit.
 
You will have some say Pope Francis is the first Argentian pope, but that isn’t technically true , he is European / Italian .
He was born in Buenos Aires. You may as well say that every US President has really been at least partly European until we have someone elected who is from nothing but aboriginal pre-1492 “stock.”
 
In my OP, I simply meant a priest originally ordained for Lincoln. He could be bishop of anywhere haha
 
The maximum age for a cardinal to be among the electors (and therefore, within reason, a papabile) is 80.
Sarah is 72
Francis is 81

So, unless Francis dies in the next 8ish years, Sarah essentially is out of the running.
This is a non sequitur. Cardinal Sarah is 72, which gives him still a good number of years in which he could be considered a candidate. Both Benedict (78) and Francis (76) were older than that when they were elected. You then make it sound that it is unlikely that our octogenarian pope (81) will die within the next eight years, which seems an extraordinary assumption. Given Benedict’s age (91), I get that people, including Pontiffs, are living longer, but to conclude that Cardinal Sarah is “out of the running” unless Francis dies in the next 8ish years simply seems to rest on rather far-fetched assumptions.
 
He was raised in a totally Italian family, somewhat isolated from Argentine culture for the initial part of his life.

We really havent had a US president raised in such a culturally isolated and unassimilated situation…
 
Yes, but a sede vacantus is nessecary for a papal conclave, and I cannot see Francis leaving the Seat (either by death or resignation) within the 8 years of Sarah’s conclave eligibility.

Did I make sense? Sorry if I didnt
 
but to conclude that Cardinal Sarah is “out of the running” unless Francis dies in the next 8ish years simply seems to rest on rather far-fetched assumptions.
It’s not merely the age, it’s also that he doesn’t seem to have fully internalized Pope Francis’s vision of where the Church should go in the future. The fact that he has been reprimanded and corrected by Pope Francis give the impression that he is not a “team-player”.
 
He was raised in a totally Italian family, somewhat isolated from Argentine culture for the initial part of his life.

We really havent had a US president raised in such a culturally isolated and unassimilated situation…
He may have been an Argentine raised in an Italian manner, but he had a his education in Spanish and was not isolated from Argentine music, dance, etc. Argentina herself is heavily influenced by her Italian immigrants, but so is every country in the Americas influenced by each one’s immigrants from Europe.

As far as his priesthood goes, he is about as far from “culturally isolated” or “unassimilated” from Argentine culture as any Archbishop that Buenos Aires ever had.
 
I cannot see Francis leaving the Seat (either by death or resignation) within the 8 years of Sarah’s conclave eligibility.
An 81 year old man in good health only has a life expectancy of about 7 years.

Francis could live to 89, but the odds are against him.
 
Certainly it looks like Francis has kept himself in good shape, but he has a chunk of one lung missing from childhood (tuberculosis, I think) and sciatica.

We’ll just have to wait and see
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top