At Faith Value (11) For all believers: In your opinion: Should you be able to select... your Pope?

Question

Serious question. No offense intended. This is for real self searching.
Please don´t answer with verses, I won´t read them.
Be sincere, you´d only be fooling yourself if you´re not.

Why stop at a minister? Should the pope seat be up for elections? Some might say that he is god´s appointee, but the white smoke/black smoke signals are decided by human cardinals... Right?

Answer 1

I'm not Catholic, but I think the Pope should be elected by everyday run of the mill Catholics.

Answer 2

*Is Catholic*

No, not at this time.

First there is a theological problem. The Pope is the sole legislative authority in the Catholic Church. A Pope could decree that his successor be elected in such and such a manner and that is the way it would be. But the next Pope could simply undo that. There is no legislative law that a Pope cannot undo.

Secondly there is a practical reason. The majority of Catholics are not well educated in the Faith. You want electors that are educated and well formed in the Faith. So until there comes a time when people are well educated, then we cannot elect the Pope by popular vote.

Also we Catholics have been electing Popes for almost 2000 years now. The system that is in place works very well because it is tried and tested and modified when there have been problems.

Answer 3

The pope is selected by God not man-the process is to have tested men of God pray and seek God until they come to a consensus on the man that God has chosen. Though there is some political wrangling before hand-and during-often once they are behind closed doors God takes over and surprises the world.

If the common church member had a say, first of all it would take too long, secondly you could not rely on that many people having a close enough relationship with the almighty to be lead by the Holy Spirit. There also would have to be much more stringent rules and regs for church membership and voting rights. It would be a mess.

Most of us trust God with this, and in our day God seems to be in control and doing a fine job.

Keep in mind the Bible, Church doctrine, and truth are not things that are going to change with the winds of popular opinion. Thank God for that!

Answer 4

Sorry--not Catholic. Besides, I have always felt that the idea of the Pope was merely Christianity's answer to the Pharisees of Jesus' time.

Part of Jesus' message was that we no longer need priests to be intermediaries between us and God, and the Pope and much of the Catholic hierarchy seems engineered to do just what Jesus told us not to do.

If there is to be a Pope, it is for the Catholic church as a whole to decide how he should be chosen. I will say, however, that a representative democracy is often better suited to and more efficient at making decisions that affect the masses. We elect senators, representatives, assemblymen, etc... to represent us in the drafting and implementing of our laws--not because we do not want a say, but because we may not be knowledgeable in certain issues. Therefore we select these people to serve as full-time lawmakers to make these decisions for us. If we like the decisions they make, we reinstate them; if we disapprove of the decisions they make, we vote them out. But it is when we try to make the laws ourselves, rather than leaving it in the hands of our elected lawmakers, that the most problems arise.

Seriously, how much does your average Catholic really know about the inner workings of scripture? Probably about as much as your average Protestant, I would guess. But those who have dedicated their lives to studying and teaching God's word are better suited, both in position and experience, to select from themselves the one who they feel best represents the teachings found in the Bible. Therefore, the individual Catholic churches should be able to select their own priest; the priests should elect the representative of their subdivision; the representatives of the subdivision should elect the representative of their divisions; and those representative should elect the Pope.

Answer 5

I have complete faith in the Holy Spirit to make sure everything happens according to the Will of God, even if we, having only puny human brains, find it hard to understand God's choice at times.

Choosing a new pope the same way it has been done for almost 2,000 years is good enough for me.

Remember God is in control. The war is already won.

With love in Christ.

Answer 6

Elected officials of all sorts simply pander to the masses. It's very, very rare that a democratically elected official of any sort provides inspired leadership. The only times that I can think of it off of the top of my head were times of war, when a great deal of latitude is traditionally given to figures who were dealing with extraordinary circumstances. Churchill, Lincoln, Roosevelt... the hell if I can think of any others beside that.

Very often, democratically elected leaders represent our lowest common denominator.

Examine white house, assume from diagram.

Answer 7

Mat 23:9 And call no [man] your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

Sorry but my words have no meaning. Let God speak for Himself.

Answer 8

there should not be a pope Jesus is head of the church. men are only human and all fallable how can people chose some one they don't even know.

Answer 9

you ask alot of questions, yeah i think i should be able to vote for Pope