The Western media is always ready to put their dirty fingers into the affairs of the Church when it suits them right.
From issues against clerical sex abuse, to calls for equality in the role of women in the Church most specifically in issues of women ordination and altar girls...
The Western media will talk about the Catholic Church when it suits their taste. You'll never see them whip up an article praising the encyclicals or apostolic constitutions. They'll be quick to attach the Church and even quicker to say who is likely to be pope.
And some lay Catholics are not far from this attitude of the MSM.
Notice how a so-called list of papabile, cardinals who are likely to be elected pope always comes out before a conclave. With only a matter of hours before the famous "extra omnes" is said by the papal Master of Ceremonies, Msgr. Guido Marini, most look at the list written by men who couldn't care less at the Church but cares that a cardinal which the MSM thinks thinks like them...
And so let us go back in 2005 when we had the conclave that elected Benedict XVI...
In this post at Rorate Coeli, we notice how a list that Vaticanista John Allen who writes for the National Schismatic Reporter missed out the cardinal who became pope.
Ennio Antonelli, 68, Italy; Francis Arinze, 72, Nigeria; Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 68, Argentina; Dario Castrillón Hoyos, 75, Colombia; Godfried Danneels, 71, Belgium; Julius Darmaatmadja, 70, Indonesia; Ivan Dias, 69, India; Claudio Hummes, 70, Brazil; Lubomyr Husar, 72, Ukraine; Walter Kasper, 72, Germany; Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, 68, Dominican Republic; Wilfrid Fox Napier, 64, South Africa; Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, 68, Cuba; Marc Ouellet, 60, Canada; Giovanni Battista Re, 71, Italy; Norberto Rivera Carrera, 62, Mexico; Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, 62, Honduras; Christoph Schönborn, 60, Austria; Angelo Scola, 63, Italy; Dionigi Tettamanzi, 71, Italy.
No Ratzinger, eh? Honestly, I don't like Allen at all.
Now even famed Vaticanista Sandro Magister who always had a scoop about the Vatican, gave a list that included Joseph Ratzinger as a papabile, albeit with hesitation because as he wrote, "the indication of Ratzinger as the next pope is perhaps more symbolic than real." Whatever that meant!
The Pope Blog, who monitored the 2005 Conclave and is monitoring this year's conclave, posted this list of papabili often mentioned by the MSM:
Cláudio Hummes, Archbishop of São Paulo (Age 70)
Miloslav Vlk, Archbishop of Prague (Age 72)
Ivan Dias, Archbishop of Mumbai (Age 69)
Francis Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacrament (Age 72)
Geraldo Majella Agnelo, Archbishop of Salvador, Brazil (Age 71)
Godfried Danneels, Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels (Age 72)
Giovanni Battista Re, Cardinal Bishop, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops (Age 71) -
Dionigi Tettamanzi, Archbishop of Milan (Age 71)
Oscar Andrés Rodríguez, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras (Age 62)
Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna (Age 60)
Angelo Scola, Patriarch of Venice (Age 63)
Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, Archbishop of Cape Coast (Age 56)
Angelo Sodano, Cardinal Bishop, Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals (Age 77)
Alfonso López Trujillo, Cardinal Bishop, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family (Age 69)
Norberto Rivera Carrera, Archbishop of Mexico City (Age 62)
Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster (Age 72)
Lubomyr Husar, Ukrainian Rite Major-Archbishop of Lviv (Age 72)
Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop of Genoa (Age 70)
Dario Castrillón Hoyos, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy (Age 75)
Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Age 61)
Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity (Age 72)
Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, Archbishop of Lima (Age 61)
José da Cruz Policarpo, Patriarch of Lisbon (Age 69)
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires (Age 68)
Still, no mention of Ratzinger.
Catholic News Service also ran an article about the papabili in the 2005 Conclave. He was described as "the dominant personality among the electors" but the article also adds that Ratzinger "may be perceived as too old for the rigors of the papacy. He has a history of heart problems which, while mild in themselves, are enough to heighten that concern.
More important, Cardinal Ratzinger has been a lightning-rod for controversy both within the Church (because of his disciplinary action against wayward theologians) and outside (because of his insistence that Christ is the sole means to salvation). His public image as the authoritarian Panzerkardinal, although it is completely at odds with his mild personality, would make him the target of vitriolic attacks by secular liberals.
Until recent weeks, those obvious drawbacks seemed to be enough to eliminate Cardinal Ratzinger from serious consideration as a candidate for the papacy. Yet as the cardinals gathered in Rome, their thoughts turned toward him. As they begin their deliberations, the cardinals will all face the same initial question: whether to vote for, or against, Cardinal Ratzinger. No other prelate commands nearly the same consideration. Even if he is not the 265th Pontiff, his support could be crucial to the conclave's eventual choice."
I wouldn't call that piece betting on the next pope, but look what happened in 2005!
Moral of the story? A man who comes into conclave a Pope, comes out....
No, not that one.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD.. (Is. 55:8) For what person knows a man's thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (1Cor 2:11)Whoever thinks they know what the cardinals are thinking right now, are definitely out of their minds and think they are more cardinatial than those in the red robes themselves!
The list is nothing but pure conjecture.
So for the LOVE OF GOD!!!
JUST PRAY, WILL YOU?
And just like what Pope Benedict XVI said in his last Audience in Paul VI hall in February 14...
WE ARE NOT A CHURCH OF THE MEDIA! WE ARE THE CHURCH OF GOD!
John Allen has spent far too much time at the NCDistorter. His once balanced writing has become reduced to gossip mongering and tabloid journalism. He has sold his soul as much as the NCDistorter has sold its soul to profiting from dissent.
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