Catholic! It seems the secular media don’t seem to grasp this. The way they talk about the late Pope John Paul II, it sounds as if the the Church’s beliefs were based on him. They are not. The Pope did not invent or reverse dogmas of the Church. He preached and presented what the Church already believes. He did so in a wonderful fashion, placing the truth out there for us and challenging us to live it, saying, “Be not afraid!”.
The media has been focusing on JP2’s “orthodoxy and conservative teachings” with respect to the next pope, hoping that the next one will magically change the Church’s beliefs on the hot-button issues like abortion, homosexuality, contraception, euthanasia, women’s ordination, etc., and thus be more “progressive” and “modern”. It is apparent that they don’t understand that a pope does not have the power to do that. And as far as being “conservative”, I would hope the pope is, as it is his job to conserve, preserve, and uphold the deposit of faith given to us by Christ and the Apostles. Infallible dogmas are just that; they cannot be reversed. Can they be expanded on and developed? Yes, but they cannot be rescinded because of popular or worldly opinion.
Paul Ambro 