An American Pope?

Mark Noonan

Interesting bit of news over at NRO:

For weeks, rumors were swirling that the retiring, scandal-plagued cardinal archbishop of Philadelphia, Justin Rigali, would be replaced by Charles Chaput, archbishop of Denver. Yesterday, word came that it was official: Chaput, a member of the Franciscan order of Capuchins, would go to Philadelphia…

…A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about the possibility of an American pope, as relayed by Inside the Vatican editor Robert Moynihan from one of his Vatican sources, “Father Jeremiah.” At the time, I totally missed the pun Father Jeremiah closed with, when he said it may be time for a “cappuccino.” But in an e-mail this evening, Moynihan confirmed what many readers had told me in the interim — that the cappuccino Jeremiah was talking about was a member of the Capuchin order: “This is what I meant when I told you a few weeks ago that it may be time for a cappuccino. Rome has seen the need for this type of profound, traditional Catholic spirituality . . . and not only in Philadelphia.”…

Archbishop Chaput only rose to prominence a few years ago but his clear thinking, firm defense of basic truth and willingness to challenge a spiritually vitiated society have marked him out as a man to watch.  And Benedict XVI is already 84.  Naturally, no one knows how long Benedict will live – he certainly is vigorous for a man his age.  But it isn’t like he can count on 10 or 20 years.  So, this move (as well as others) are clearing the decks for what will come after.

It would be interesting to see a man of the United States elevated to St. Peter’s chair – and also interesting to see what a relatively young, vigorous and deeply spiritual man like Chaput would do.

3 thoughts on “An American Pope?”

  1. bardolf July 21, 2011 / 7:01 pm

    “It would be interesting to see a man of the United States elevated to St. Peter’s chair – and also interesting to see what a relatively young, vigorous and deeply spiritual man like Chaput would do.” – Mark

    Archbishop Chaput is 66 years old which is only relatively young on B4V. The current pope was supposed to be a care-taker to be followed by another in the mold of John Paul II, that is someone in his late 50’s. Someone of Chaput’s age would have to be a scholar like Benedict to be elevated. I might add that many Italians are big fans of the pope not being Italian since he is less involved in local politics. OTOH the Romans would prefer an Italian since the pope is also the Bishop of Rome and the last 2 popes spend less time in the local churches than previous ones.

    • neocon1 July 22, 2011 / 4:19 pm

      Among the investigation’s key findings is that the Fed unilaterally provided trillions of dollars in financial assistance to foreign banks and corporations from South Korea to Scotland, according to the GAO report. “No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bailout a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the president,” Sanders said.

      sure al- Obummer raise our taxes, while the looters on both ends LOOT the middle class.

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