Well, maybe not really schadenfreude, and it’s not about Rumsfeld (although that is certainly noteworthy), but in the wake of last night’s mid-term elections, I want to celebrate a couple of recent positive developments that give me hope that things are moving in the right direction - one political, and one ecclesiastical.
I was tremendously gratified to see Bob Casey Jr. defeat Rick Santorum in the senate race in Pennsylvania. I believe that Bob Casey will turn out to be a very fine senator for the people of Pennsylvania, and this takes me full circle to the very first post on this blog, Why Senator Rick Santorum Had It Wrong.
In another exceedingly positive development, Pope Benedict has replaced Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos with the Brazilian Cardinal Cláudio Hummes as Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy. Read John Allen’s take on it here.
5 comments:
if I remember my german, you're taking joy in the misfortune of others :-) me too.
Yeah, Santorum was horrible. He was number two on my "most embarassing Catholic" list (after Bill Donahue). He and George "Macaca" Allen were the top two on my list of people I wanted to lose the election.
I also was pleased to see Hummes get his job. He was one of the papal contenders I was rooting for.
I get the impression that Benedict is doing much better than his predecessor in his appointments. I think one of John Paul's greatest failings was that he prized loyalty and centralization so much that many of his bishops were neither terrible intelligent nor pastorally sensitive.
Hi Cystal,
Did you take German in High School? That's the toughest one! Does that mean you can comprehend "Ahnold" out there in California better than the rest of us?
It's a long word, but not as long as some of those incomprehensible words that they string along for 30 letters or so.
Hi Liam,
He and George "Macaca" Allen were the top two on my list of people I wanted to lose the election.
You know, it's amazing (and sobering) to me that Allen got as many votes as he did. I'm glad Jim Webb won that race. I've always kind of liked him. He's a great author too. Have any of you ever read Fields of Fire?
I'm a great admirer of JPII, but I'm inclined to agree with you that he appointed too many mediocre men to the episcopate whom he chose primarily for being "yes men" rather than for their pastoral and leadership abilities.
I took spanish in high school and german in college. Actually, german is one of the easiest languages to learn for an english speaker, as english is a germanic language. It's a lot easier to pronounce than french! All I had to remember was ... when two vowels go awalking, the second one does all the talking :-)
I passed the German exam for my PhD requirement and I don't know exactly how that happened. There's a couple of books in German on my bibliography that are gathering dust on my shelf and that I try not to think about too much.
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