Ambiguity is good.
…or is it?
Daniel
It would indeed. But would “Joe the Rat” be acceptable, since his first name was Joseph?
I don’t think Joe the Rat will simply uphold the status quo; I think he’ll be even less concerned with social justice than John Paul II, and even more concerned with issues of sexual morality. (Except where priests and children are concerned, I’m sure.)
Apparently they have a saying, “Always follow a fat Pope with a thin Pope.” The idea is that two Popes in a row with the similar mindsets, wanting to take the RCC in similar directions, will have similar blind spots, which is bad in consecutive papacies.
IMHO, this is like following a thin Pope with an anorexic Pope.
Called to the bosom of the Great Queen Spider.
No, no, stick with “crusade” . . .
Benedict? I think I’ve eaten some of his eggs… 
I don’t see much in the way of the majority of Catholics desiring women priests, or married priests. And homosexuality is condemned by the Bible. Any pope that supported these things would alienate the vast majority of Catholics. The new pope is just mainstream on this. It’s things like birth control that the RCC is out of touch with the world today. Yeah, the Bible does say be fruitful and multiply. However, the population then was 2 people.
Oh, he’s very much interested in Europe. And I don’t mean Catholic strength in Europe, I mean European affairs generally. In particular, he has spoken out strongly (and in his official capacity as a Vatican spokesman) against admitting Turkey to the EU, on cultural/religious grounds. http://www.cathnews.com/news/408/96.php That scares me more than anything else about him. Hell, if his actions as a cardinal are any indication, he might even threaten to excommunicate any Catholic who supports Turkey’s admission! He did write a letter to American bishops last year advising them to deny communion to anyone who supported abortion rights (a not-so-subtle dig at Kerry). MSN | Outlook, Office, Skype, Bing, Breaking News, and Latest Videos
I think this could be quite a good appointment.
It’s very difficult for a pope to directly contradict a previous pope so whoever got pontified (is that even a word?) would have had his hands tied. JP2 made quite a lot of pronouncements during his tenure so it won’t really be necessary for Ratzo to make many pronouncements - JP covered most of the bases.
Ratzy has quite a lot of work to do in re-organising the internal workings of the Vatican. Many cardinals felt that the popeship became too centralised under JP2 when it should be more of a curia thing. So Ratboy can have a perfectly profitable and fruitful popeship just reorganising things, without making any major announcements.
Since he’s 78, let’s assume he’s got about 7 years or so left of straight thinking time ahead of him. He may of course live much longer than that but one assumes that once one gets to 85 or so it would take a really exceptional person to still have the heart for battle. So we’ve only got a few years of him with any meaningful popeship and he probably won’t make any “big” policy shifts in that time (no need to since JP2 already did everything).
Thus the next pope will have a free hand and so can make all the big moves that people make such a big fuss about (ending celebacy for priests, allowing animal sex etc).
Of course, the next pope will have much bigger issues to deal with like the end of world and stuff (if Malachy is right and doesn’t the Mayan calender finish soon?).
Dunkelzahn for President!
Wasn’t there a character in The Stand called Ratman?
The line even works in confession: “The Ratman…forgives you.”
Popehood?
Popeness?
Popity?
But apt, for a conservative who wants to remind the world what an ancient and durable institution he is leading.
Popourri? 
Waitamminit! I was just reading this MSNBC article – http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7560325/ – and this guy’s from Bavaria! Bavaria, in the name of Weishaupt! :eek: Ewige blumenkraft! Ewige schlangenkraft! Heute die Welt, morgens das Sonnensystem!
Eternal flower power and eternal serpent power? 
From one of those Robert Anton Wilson books, right?
Yes, the Illuminatus! trilogy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminatus!) – but Wilson and Shea’s Illuminati are (very loosely) based on the real-life Bavarian Illuminati, founded in 1776, suppressed in 1784, but still stock figures in conspiracy theories. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati#The_Bavarian_Illuminati.
And let’s see what Jack Chick does with that! 
I surprised by the number of people who are upset about Pope Benedict’s conservatism. Where have you guys been the last couple of decades? That train has long since left the station. Pope John Paul was very much a conservative and favored the then Cardinal Ratzinger because they held such similar beliefs. If there is a difference it’ll be because John Paul was a charismatic person and it remains to be seen whether Benedict will be the same. Benedict might end up acting as George Bush to John Paul’s Reagan.