Comments on: A Capuchin Pope?

By: TXW

TXW — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:11:49 +0000

Nice to read J.E.’s post. The AP story is already written when the pope is announced: it is like a madlib. Sex abuse, power, men only, DaVinci code stuff. So it will be worse if O’Malley bcomes pope, because no matter what happened, he will be the one who caused the abuse in Boston, according to the AP.

By: harry

harry — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:33:22 +0000

O'Malley strikes me as a very good man. I wonder, though, if he is up to being in charge of the entire Catholic Church. He did the right thing in backing out of a deal between the Boston archdiocesan health care system, known as Caritas, and the state of Massachusetts that would have had Caritas providing the state's abortion-covering health insurance, but that was after months of controversy due to the intense objections of Catholic and Pro-Life groups. See: Boston Catholic Hospitals Pull Out of Abortion Venture at 11th Hour" And then there is this: Boston Catholics call on archdiocese to end relationship with Obama-backing multi-millionaire" The Obama-backing multi-millionaire is Jack Conner, Jr. An excerpt:

At the helm of the Connors Center [for Women's Health] is its co-founder Paula A. Johnson, a former chairman of the board for the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, who also served on the board for the Center for Reproductive Rights. When the HHS mandate for free birth control began this month, the Connors Center celebrated the news and Johnson appeared on local media as an expert touting the mandate’s benefits: Johnson herself was a member of the Institutes of Medicine Committee that recommended the contraception mandate to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in 2011.

Not that O'Malley doesn't have a good heart, but one has to wonder if a Capuchin Franciscan who grew up in Pennsylvania is really up to dealing with the corrupt "powers that be" as Karol Wojtyla was after dealing with the Communists for years before becoming Pope. Maybe O'Malley's apparent inexperience with the ways of the world...

By: Craig Payne

Craig Payne — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:36:37 +0000

Are you sure that’s not a photo of N.T. Wright in partial disguise?

By: Llyn

Llyn — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:29:40 +0000

Nicely said, J.E. What a pope the good Cardinal would make, but I would hate for the U.S. and Boston to lose him; he has given the city some redemption…and the fact that he comes from a monastic tradition is a plus.

By: Michael PS

Michael PS — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:46:37 +0000

In France, the Capuchin, Père Joseph de Tremblay’s book « Introduction à la vie spirituelle par une facile méthode d’oraison » [Introduction to the spiritual life through an easy method of prayer] has never been out of print since it was first published in 1616. It is an adaptation of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises to Franciscan spirituality.

Nowadays, Père Joseph is, perhaps, better remembered as Cardinal Richelieu’s « éminence grise » ; not only his confessor and spiritual director, but his trusted confidante and adviser, special envoy and spy-master.

He is a reminder that deep spirituality is by no means incompatible with practical abilities.

By: Publius

Publius — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:51:15 +0000

“Too ambitious”? You clearly do not know this man….

By: Roman romano

Roman romano — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:53:00 +0000

Not my man. Too beardly and ambitious!

By: J.E.

J.E. — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 20:44:04 +0000

I’ve lived in the Archdiocese of Boston all my life. The troubled recent history of the Church in the Boston area is no secret. It has been a long, arduous, painful ordeal, in which our Christian community has seen so many of its members, and neighbors walk away from the Church in light of the scandal surrounding the sins committed by some of her clergy. During this time, one of the greatest sources of reconciliation, healing, and reform in our local Church has come from the prayerful, humble leadership of Cardinal Sean O’Malley. My respect for him has only continued to grow, as he has patiently shepherded the Archdiocese through the indescribably discouraging challenges that have arisen. His wisdom, humility, warmth, and insight recommend him as a true man of God. Not only has he led the Archdiocese through its darkest spiritual moments, but he has also guided it through some daunting temporal ones as well: every day, this man must administer an organization with a severe lack of funds, a shortage of personnel, and a hateful, blatantly biased local news media constantly assaulting it for its opposition to the modernist permissiveness of the day. Cardinal Sean has, in my view, handled these challenges with creativity, resourcefulness, and grace. Each time I’ve met him, it’s been apparent from his personal, attentive manner that he truly cares for each individual amongst his flock. The emphasis he has placed on reaching out to lapsed Catholics in our diocese illustrates how much he loves his people. It is, naturally, impossible to know how the conclave will turn out, and I do not anticipate that an American would be elected to the papacy any time soon. However, if Cardinal Sean emerges onto the balcony above St. Peter’s Square next week, I, for one, couldn’t possibly be happier.

By: pentamom

pentamom — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 20:16:08 +0000

That would really make a monkey out of a primate.