[Apologetics] Aidan Cardinal Nichols, OP, of Westminster??

[Stephen Korsman]

Hi all

On the website of UK newspaper "The Telegraph", Damian Thompson has a blog called Holy Smoke that deals with a lot of Catholic issues.  Most readers are conservatives, as is he, so this doesn't necessarily (and probably doesn't) reflect the will of the English Church.  But it's certainly interesting, and a very good choice too.

Damian has had a vote running for the next cardinal of Westminster, after Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor retires.  He promised to submit the nominations to the English nuncio, for what that's worth.  Judging from what he writes, the English bishops sound like a pretty fickle lot, and there has been speculation (not just from him) that HH Pope Benedict XVI will bring in an outsider to replace Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor.  Cardinal Pell of Sydney got some votes, but it's hard to imagine them moving him.  He'd be an excellent choice, though.  My experience with our bishops is that we could do with a few of him too.  Our previous nuncio impressed me; one of the few other bishops who has done so tells me that our current cardinal can't be trusted, and my own impression is that he's a smooth talker who aims to please.  I suspect that's more on the political side than anything else.  But I've been highly disappointed in our bishops' conference and their attitude to several Benedictine policies/statements/requests/instructions.  It's as if they're waiting for a better pope.  Our local bishop (a German, no less) - how he comes across in person and what happens in his diocese are as contradictory as a rabbi running a pig farm.  I don't know what to make of him.  He infuses the soul with cognitive dissonance.  I've been told to wait for him to retire for things to improve.  I'm not at all surprised that the Indian liturgies are graciously hosted in the Baptist church hall when their priests visit every few years.  Perhaps it's because here the priests are expected to face their audiences, unlike pilots and bus drivers and orchestra conductors and many Eastern priests who perform their duties "with their backs towards the people."  I've heard of other places where the Latins have run the Eastern Catholics out of their parishes.

Anyway, enough bickering, and back to the new cardinal ...

The votes came in with Fr Aidan Nichols OP in the lead.  He's a fan of the pope, the pope is a fan of Fr Nichols, and they're listed as co-authors (Nichols - "contributer" on Amazon) of "Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life (Dogmatic Theology)" - volume 9 of something that seems to be a bigger collection.  In the edition I have, Nichols is the translation editor.
http://www.amazon.com/Eschatology-Death-Eternal-Dogmatic-Theology/dp/0813206324/

Fr Nichols also wrote "Thought of Pope Benedict XVI: An Introduction to the Theology of Joseph Ratzinger" - http://www.amazon.com/Thought-Pope-Benedict-XVI-Introduction/dp/0860124215/

More on the (in)fidelity of the English bishops - http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ukcorrespondents/holysmoke/dec07/fidelity-of-english-bishops.htm

Fr Nichols, IMHO, would be a good choice, although he might be wasted on leadership when he could do good work in theology and writing.  The chances are there will have to be a compromise between the papists and the English bishops.  One certainly can't expect Fr Nichols to make a short-list based on conservative votes on a conservative blog.

The analysis of the votes is here - http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ukcorrespondents/holysmoke/jan08/nextcardinalchoice.htm

God bless,
Stephen
--
Stephen Korsman
skorsman at theotokos.co.za
The Theotokos Website
A Rural Virologist  ||  RSS feed
Sabbath Keepers  ||  RSS feed
 
IC | XC
---------
NI | KA
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gathman.org/pipermail/apologetics/attachments/20080130/9d24898a/attachment.html>