"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Peggy Noonan on the Selection of the Next Pope

I think she hits the right notes here:

We will be hearing a great deal of speculation the coming weeks. We should keep in mind that it doesn’t matter all that much what insiders say about who might have an inside track....   The outcome will be determined more by questions like these:   Who is the most ardent, loving and truth-minded among us? Who, in that group, has been able to do things?   What is the mood of the cardinals as they begin to think and ponder? What assumptions do they hold about what the world most needs?   What specific and pressing need of the church—the re-evangelization of Europe and the West, growing tensions with Islam, the need to dramatically reach the world’s young, the need to make the church new again, to have it understood as a revolutionary force again—is in their view predominant? And which cardinal’s gifts, character, talents and history most closely match that need?. ...   What will the Holy Spirit do? In what direction will the Holy Spirit lead them? That is the most important question of all.

Again, the College of Cardinals comes at the decision from perspectives that are very, very different from the perspectives of the liberals at the New York Times.   They won't be moved by who is the most telegenic, or politically correct, or most progressive.   They will select a priest touched by the Holy Spirit and moved to bring the light and truth of Christ to the world.  

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