Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Which American Roman Apologist Should Be the Next Pope?

As I venture around the Internet, I keep coming across the sentiment that technically any baptized male is eligible to be the next Pope.  So, I started trying to determine which American Roman apologist, who already functions as an interpreter of Rome, should be deemed the next infallible interpreter of Rome. I've narrowed it down to Jimmy Akin and Scott Hahn. Suggestions?

18 comments:

Paul Hoffer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Paul Hoffer said...

Mr. Swan,

Without looking it up, I seem to remember that it has been about a thousand years since a member of the laity was elected pope. The rules nowadays make it virtually impossible that a layman would be elected to the office.

While all of the gentlemen mentioned in this post and the prior comment could be great popes, if called upon to serve the Church in that capacity, perhaps it might be more fruitful for you to pray that the Cardinals wisely pick a pope that would work to heal the division in the Body of Christ?

God bless!

Andrew said...

I'm throwing my support behind Gerry Matatics.

Rooney said...

"technically any baptized male is eligible to be the next Pope"

So this job position is theoretically open to baptized closet Traditionalists/Fundamentalists/Atheists/Liberals/Gays etc?

For me, the ideal apologist Pope would be a mix of Dimond brothers + Sippo/Bonocore.

I would be happy if a fire-breathing Traditionalist takes the Vatican and flames all the false ecumenism and flames all the New Atheists in debate, then pronounces once and for all that Evolution is false. This will show us the real RCC in action.

If this doesnt happen anytime soon, maybe I'll just become a closet Traditionalist one day and pull off the stunt myself [joke of course, but who knows].

John Bugay said...

Nice try, James Swan :-)

Good Pope John

Rhology said...

Frank Pavone

He might actually do something about abortion. Even better, since his income would come from the Vatican, he might actually aim at abolishing abortion rather than aim at fighting it.

The Blogger Formerly Known As Lvka said...

Which American Roman Apologist Should Be the Next Pope?


Me ! :-)

Pete Holter said...

Can I vote for Monsignor Charles Pope? Pope Pope.

With love in Christ,
Pete

Truth Unites... and Divides said...

Alan Keyes!!

Truth Unites... and Divides said...

Francis Beckwith!

Algo said...

I vote for Dr. Art Sippo.

He can spot a "Prot Hretitic" a Mile Away.

PeaceByJesus said...

James, thought you would be interested in this, A Reformed Farewell to Benedict XVI, Michael Horton: http://networkedblogs.com/IMB7L

PeaceByJesus said...

Perhaps it would be fitting to provide a few quotes from the pope at this time:

For nearly half a century, the Church was split into two or three obediences that excommunicated one another, so that every Catholic lived under excommunication by one pope or another, and, in the last analysis, no one could say with certainty which of the contenders had right on his side. The Church no longer offered certainty of salvation; she had become questionable in her whole objective form–the true Church, the true pledge of salvation, had to be sought outside the institution.

It is against this background of a profoundly shaken ecclesial consciousness that we are to understand that Luther, in the conflict between his search for salvation and the tradition of the Church, ultimately came to experience the Church, not as the guarantor, but as the adversary of salvation. (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1987), 196)

At the moment of his encounter with the Risen One he understood that with Christ's Resurrection the situation had changed radically...The wall is no longer necessary; our common identity within the diversity of cultures is Christ, and it is he who makes us just. Being just simply means being with Christ and in Christ. And this suffices. Further observances are no longer necessary. For this reason Luther's phrase: "faith alone" is true, if it is not opposed to faith in charity, in love. Faith is looking at Christ, entrusting oneself to Christ, being united to Christ, conformed to Christ, to his life. And the form, the life of Christ, is love; hence to believe is to conform to Christ and to enter into his love. So it is that in the Letter to the Galatians in which he primarily developed his teaching on justification St Paul speaks of faith that works through love (cf. Gal 5: 14)." (Pope Benedict XVI,11/19/08 General Audience; http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20081119_en.html)

"over the pope as the expression of the binding claim of ecclesiastical authority there still stands one's own conscience, which must be obeyed before all else,"[2] it cannot be allowed to be determinative of truth, and the Catholic is obliged to form it according to Catholic teaching.[3] cf. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19900524_theologian-vocation_en.html

"the Fathers were not Roman Catholics as the thirteenth or nineteenth century world would have understood the term, they were, nonetheless, ‘Catholic,..’” (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology)

“the response of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is, broadly, that what is signified by this is already better expressed in other titles of Mary, while the formula “Co-redemptrix” departs to too great an extent from the language of Scripture and of the Fathers and therefore gives rise to misunderstandings..”

“Everything comes from Him [Christ], as their Latter to the Ephesians and the Letter to the Colossians, in particular, tell us; Mary, too, is everything she is through Him. The word “Co-redemptrix” would obscure this origin. A correct intention being expressed in the wrong way. “For matters of faith, continuity of terminology with the language of Scripture and that of the Fathers is itself an essential element; it is improper simply to manipulate language” (God and the world: believing and living in our time, by Pope Benedict XVI, Peter Seewald, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2000, p. 306

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, no theological liberal, writes that purgatory may involve "existential" rather than "temporal" duration (cf. Ratzinger's book It may be something one experiences, but experiences in a moment, rather than something one endures over time. http://www.ewtn.com/library/answers/how2purg.htm

steve said...

Clearly they should elect Robert Sungenis. The papacy started going downhill after they backpedaled on the Galileo affair. They need to put the One True Church back on the solid foundation of geocentrism.

PeaceByJesus said...

Yes, under Sungenis the odds against JP2 being canonized would greatly increase: http://beggarsallreformation.blogspot.com/2011/04/sungenis-alone.html

Rooney said...

Under Sungenis, at least we would have a debating Pope [RCs claim he has *never* lost a debate], unlike John Paul II who allegedly backed down after being challenged by Ahmed Deedat to debate at Vatican in 1984.

James Swan said...

After weeks of secret activity behind the scenes,a conclave of the most popular Reformed bloggers will meet and will determine which American Roman apologist should be the next Pope.

Since we're bloggers, we will be meeting in a secret location in cyber-space. Maybe Pal talk, or maybe a chat room.

Two secret ballots will be given to these select Reformed bloggers each day via e-mail. Ballots from inconclusive votes will be printed out and burned with straw and chemicals to produce black smoke from the headquarters of aomin.org. This will tell everyone that no Roman apologist has been elected pope. However, ballots from the conclusive vote will be burned without straw and chemicals. This produces white smoke. The white smoke rising signifies to the world that a Roman apologist has been elected Pope.

James Swan said...

Yoda for Pope