{"id":7493,"date":"2013-03-12T11:30:53","date_gmt":"2013-03-12T15:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=7493"},"modified":"2013-03-13T17:05:13","modified_gmt":"2013-03-13T21:05:13","slug":"could-the-next-pope-be-canadian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2013\/03\/12\/could-the-next-pope-be-canadian\/","title":{"rendered":"Could the next Pope be…Canadian?!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Cardinal Marc Ouellet passing Swiss Guards in Vatican City yesterday. Photo: Michael Swan<\/a>, CC some rights reserved<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

The conclave has begun. Any day now there will be a new Pope.<\/p>\n

There’s been\u00a0vigorous\u00a0speculation about who it might be. According to numerous media reports in Canada, Cardinal\u00a0Marc Ouellet is in the running. And he has a chance, because front runners can sometimes take each other out, so to speak. Here’s how<\/a> the Toronto Star framed it:<\/p>\n

Ouellet is often described as a possible compromise candidate, if the two cardinals widely speculated as the current front-runners \u2014 Italy\u2019s Angelo Scola and Brazil\u2019s Odilo Pedro Scherer \u2014 remain deadlocked.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Going by this Wikipedia profile, Ouellet comes with some\u00a0solid credentials<\/a>:<\/p>\n

He is the present prefect of the\u00a0Congregation for Bishops<\/a>\u00a0and concurrently president of the\u00a0Pontifical Commission for Latin America<\/a>\u00a0since his appointment by\u00a0Pope Benedict XVI<\/a>\u00a0on 30 June 2010. Previously, he was\u00a0archbishop of Quebec<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0primate<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Canada<\/a>. He was elevated to the\u00a0cardinalate<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Pope John Paul II<\/a>, on 21 October 2003. Ouellet is considered a contender to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned on 28 February 2013.[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Ouellet is fluent in\u00a0English<\/a>,\u00a0French<\/a>,\u00a0Spanish<\/a>,\u00a0Portuguese<\/a>,\u00a0Italian<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0German<\/a>. He is known for his\u00a0missionary<\/a>work in\u00a0South America<\/a>.[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bookies actually put odds on the Pope race<\/a> (and why not, for those who bet on anything?). Ouellet is no longer among the top favorites, but looks well-positioned as a compromise candidate.<\/p>\n

Treating this selection process as a horse race or political contest is offensive to any who see the conclave as a sincere attempt to discern and do God’s will. But any organization that involves power and money will attract political motives and strategic\u00a0maneuvering.<\/p>\n

So what is Ouellet like? Here’s 13 Things You Didn’t Know about the Canadian Cardinal<\/a> from the HuffingtonPost.ca<\/p>\n

According to media accounts, Ouellet is not hugely popular<\/a> in his home province of Quebec, largely because he’s seen as a hard-liner in a culture that threw off the yoke of stern religiosity and doesn’t want it back. Here’s how\u00a0Kyl Chhatwal put it:<\/p>\n

One thing is certain however: if Ouellet is elected pope he\u2019ll become a sort of symbol for Quebec to rest of the world.<\/p>\n

And many in la belle province may find that prospect a little \u2026 well, frustrating.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The BBC’s North American Editor Mark Mardell wrote a <\/span>detailed column<\/a> on what Ouellet might be like were he to become the next Pope. Mardell quotes <\/span>Archbishop Gerald Lacroix<\/a>\u00a0on the man he succeeded:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“He’s portrayed sometimes as very rigid and stern and serious. But once you know him on a personal level you see he is very sensitive and very attentive to the needs of people.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Montreal Gazette has this compilation of quotes<\/a> from\u00a0Ouellet on hot-button issues. According to this Globe and Mail article<\/a>, a group that advocates for\u00a0victims\u00a0of sex abuse thinks Ouellet would be a bad choice:<\/p>\n

Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet is among the \u201cDirty Dozen\u201d of cardinals who should not be considered for pope, according to the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).<\/p>\n

SNAP, the largest U.S. advocacy group representing abuse victims, said the dozen would be \u201cthe worst choices in terms of protecting kids, healing victims and exposing corruption.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As readers know, Brian Mann has done extensive coverage of the Catholic Church and the challenges it faces. Hearing about this post Mann commented that there’s a certain irony in Ouellet being a viable candidate, considering his career connection to the social collapse of\u00a0Catholicism\u00a0in Quebec. Mann wonders if that\u00a0experience\u00a0might give Ouellet “interesting tools for thinking about the conflict with modernism in the rest of the West.”<\/p>\n

I am quoting Brian by way of including a great link<\/a> he shared, that discusses just this, as stated by\u00a0Benedict XVI:<\/p>\n

“Nations that once were rich in faith and vocations are now losing their identity, under the harmful and destructive influence of a certain modern culture.”<\/p>\n

It can be guessed that, among these nations that once were exuberantly Christian but are no longer so, Pope Joseph Ratzinger is thinking of Canada, and more precisely of Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

An\u00a0intriguing\u00a0aspect, is it not? One of the many, major challenges the church faces is how to remain relevant in Europe and North America.<\/p>\n

Interviewed by CBC’s Peter Mansbridge, Ouellet called for allowing women more power in the Church, but stated his opposition to female priests. Segments of the exclusive interview are presented here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s impossible to know who the next pope will be. But on the odd chance it’s Ouellet, this post is meant as a small primer on the man and his views.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The conclave has begun. Any day now there will be a new Pope. There’s been\u00a0vigorous\u00a0speculation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[880,6641,11444,11443,4790],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7495,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7493\/revisions\/7495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}