Many Catholics worldwide (a pun unintended), will be praying and hoping for a Pope who will fulfill their varying ideologies. For the devil delights in political polarities! Yet God delights in Truth, especially the Truth of Mercy revealed in His Son, the rejected and crucified Prophet, who Rose to vanquish the evil polarity of the devil.
Jesus prophetically predicts, and fulfills, the lot of prophets: http://bible.cc/luke/13-34.htm
So, hopefully, the next Pope is first, and foremost, a prophet, ready to be rejected, exactly like his Divine Master!
"...No longer shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime..." Isaiah 65:17-21
Today's Scripture readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/031113.cfm
Hopefully, the next Pope, awake to the impulses of the world, speaks to that impulse solely through the Truth giving Holy Spirit about the dis-ease of the culture of death! The next Pope, moreover, must be the prophet who risks being rejected in his own home town by proclaiming the goodness, truth, and beauty of God's design in marriage, solely between a man and a woman. The next Pope must expose the devil's rouse in secularism and materialism and the war on Christianity, currently waged in the Western world. Definitively, the next Pope must be a Pope who inspires disciples ready to be the seed of faith through the witness of the disciple (martyrdom) who seeks for God alone.
Tertullian and the blood of martyrs: http://www.tertullian.org/works/apologeticum.htm
For the world wants a progressive-secular Pope, and when they are disappointed, the Pope, and his people must be ready to suffer.
Ultimately, the next Pope must be the Pope of the Crucifix, the Eucharist, the Perpetual Sacrifice of Jesus Christ in the Mass, and he must be the prophet ready for rejection in a world not ready to listen. And, as faithful Catholics, so must we.
Agree? tranz4mation@comcast.net
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