I am not a Catholic. Truth be told, I know very little about the process for picking the next pope. As a Protestant pastor I probably know more than most about Catholicism, but when it comes to all things papal I confess ignorance, (confession is good for Protestants too).
When I look at the luminaries, from Emma Curtis Hopkins and Myrtle Fillmore to Louise Hay and Jean Houston, who have been an integral part of both the New Thought Movement and the development of Centers for Spiritual Living, I recognize that without them there may not have been a New Thought movement at all.
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI promised “unconditional” obedience to his successor during a farewell meeting with cardinals on Thursday (Feb. 28).
“Among you, in the College of Cardinals, there is the future pope, to whom I promise my unconditional reverence and obedience,” he said in the last official act of his pontificate before his resignation becomes effective at 8 p.m. on Thursday.
The Rev. Frank Case, vice president for mission at Gonzaga University in Spokane, spoke to the Gonzaga Guild on Thursday about the 18 years he spent serving in Rome at the headquarters of the Society of Jesus.
When aging religious leaders reach the top echelons of temporal and spiritual power, their followers have a certain expectation: Till death us do part. But Pope Benedict XVI’s surprise resignation has shifted that calculus, prompting introspection about traditional understandings of religions’ senior management and when, if and how to let them go.
The latest speculation to fill the vacuum created by Pope Benedict’s shocking resignation is that his almost unprecedented action was prompted by the discovery of a gay “mafia” inside the Vatican.
On Saturday, one day before Pope Benedict XVI's final blessing in St. Peter's Square, the Vatican lashed out at the media over what it called defamatory and false reports it says are an attempt to influence the election of the pope's successor, according to the Associated Press.
"Italian newspapers have been rife with unsourced reports in recent days about the contents of a secret dossier prepared for the pope by three cardinals who investigated the origins of the 2012 scandal over leaked Vatican documents," the AP reported.