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| Cardinal candidates: how we scored the men who would be pope | Cardinal candidates: how we scored the men who would be pope |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| Judgments such as "conservative", "moderate" and ultra-conservative" are not very nuanced. It's safe to assume that an "ultra-conservative" would change nothing if he had the choice, and that a "conservative" will change as little as possible. But these categories do not map easily onto the secular world. A Cardinal may be conservative in matters of sexual morality and radical economically. Or he could be ferocious in pursuit of gay people but committed to the protection of migrant rights. So they have been used roughly as a measure of how much a candidate has distinguished himself from the party line, rather than where he fits into the secular left/right division. The question of allowing greater autonomy to national churches, which is very important in terms of internal Catholic debate, does not correspond to anything in the secular world. | Judgments such as "conservative", "moderate" and ultra-conservative" are not very nuanced. It's safe to assume that an "ultra-conservative" would change nothing if he had the choice, and that a "conservative" will change as little as possible. But these categories do not map easily onto the secular world. A Cardinal may be conservative in matters of sexual morality and radical economically. Or he could be ferocious in pursuit of gay people but committed to the protection of migrant rights. So they have been used roughly as a measure of how much a candidate has distinguished himself from the party line, rather than where he fits into the secular left/right division. The question of allowing greater autonomy to national churches, which is very important in terms of internal Catholic debate, does not correspond to anything in the secular world. |
| One particular difficulty arises with the line on condoms. Catholics everywhere largely disregard the official prohibition against artificial birth control but condoms, because of their role in disease prevention, are a special case. The official position is that condoms are not the best answer to HIV/Aids and may tend to help its spread by encouraging promiscuity, whereas the best defence is abstinence and monogamy. But if one party in a marriage has the virus, the pope Benedict XVI made clear that it is legitimate to use condoms to prevent disease transmission. So that is assumed to be the default position now. | One particular difficulty arises with the line on condoms. Catholics everywhere largely disregard the official prohibition against artificial birth control but condoms, because of their role in disease prevention, are a special case. The official position is that condoms are not the best answer to HIV/Aids and may tend to help its spread by encouraging promiscuity, whereas the best defence is abstinence and monogamy. But if one party in a marriage has the virus, the pope Benedict XVI made clear that it is legitimate to use condoms to prevent disease transmission. So that is assumed to be the default position now. |
| The "Priorities" category is a similar simplification. The four categories we have offered are not meant to be mutually exclusive. Obviously any serious candidate will have policies for all four of these problems. But it is an attempt to show which issue is the top priority. In Catholic jargon, the problem we have labelled "Recovering lost believers" is known as "the New Evangelism". There is no official term for the shortage of priests because the Vatican policy has been for many years to ignore the problem. Relations with Islam is a proxy for relations with other faiths as well, but there is no question that islam is the most pressing external problem. | The "Priorities" category is a similar simplification. The four categories we have offered are not meant to be mutually exclusive. Obviously any serious candidate will have policies for all four of these problems. But it is an attempt to show which issue is the top priority. In Catholic jargon, the problem we have labelled "Recovering lost believers" is known as "the New Evangelism". There is no official term for the shortage of priests because the Vatican policy has been for many years to ignore the problem. Relations with Islam is a proxy for relations with other faiths as well, but there is no question that islam is the most pressing external problem. |
| Some of the judgments are large and crude, and some will be wrong. The Catholic church is a global organisation, and there are things we do not know about many of its cardinals. There are bound to be things omitted from the official Vatican biographies which have often been our main sources. So if you live in the countries affected, please write in with your views on how we have scored them. |