Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory suggests that Obama's victory is a foretaste of what will happen in the Catholic Church--once we get around to electing an African as pope. As Richard Owens reports from Rome...
Archbishop Gregory, who in 2001 became the first African American to head the US Bishops Conference, serving for three years, said that the election of Mr Obama was "a great step forward for humanity and a sign that in the United States the problem of racial discrimination has been overcome". Like Mr Obama Archbishop Gregory comes from Chicago, and was previously Bishop of Belleville, Illinois.He said that recent Popes, beginning with John XXIII and Paul VI, had brought prelates "from all nations and races" to Rome to take up senior positions in the Curia, the Vatican hierarchy. This offered "an international vision of a Church rich in diversity", he told the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
Archbishop Gregory said that the next time cardinals gathered to elect a Pope they could "in their wisdom" choose an African pontiff. "My own election as head of the US Bishops Conference was an important signal. In 2001 the American bishops elected someone they respected regardless of his race, and the same thing could happen with the election of a Pope."
I'd also note that within two months of his election as head of the USCCB, then-Bishop Gregory was hit with the sex abuse tsunami. His response to the crisis was (geenrally) considered agile and bold, and his racial breakthrough was soon forgotten. Perhaps Obama will enjoy a similar fate.
In any case, rumors are intensifying that Archbishop Gregory is on the short-list to replace Cardinal Egan in New York. At this point, the American church could use that more than an African pope...
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Jimmy Mac, the Holy Spirit is Real, not a Fairy Tale. We Believe, that is all.(everything)
For a link to the full text of Archbishop Gregory's comments in La Stampa, as well as a list of previous African pontiffs, see the November 7 coverage at CatholicCulture.org ("Archbishop Gregory: Obama's Election 'A Great Step for Humanity'").
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=1061).
Is the archbishop saying that maybe, one day, after we have evolved enough, we will have a pro-abortion/gay marriage pope too? Wow! We will have come a long way , baby!
We all remember that Cardinal Arinze had a chance to possibly become our next Pope a few years back. Nobody cares about the skin color of our supreme shepherd on earth. We do care and insist that he be a true man of God and the Church.
Likewise, the color of Obama's skin is completely irrelevent. The trouble is that he is a pro-child killing, anti-family socialist.
Archbishop Gregory seems to think that simple affirmative action, which is racism, will bring the human family together. The very notion is ridiculous. I believe that he is an example of what is wrong with our church leadership in this age.
Skin color is not an issue. Orthodoxy and adherence to God's Divine Revelation is. Hopefully the weepy and emotional Archbishop Gregory will never be elected Pope - but, gee...I don't want him to cry if he doesn't win.
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