Atheling: "You don't know the most basic things about the Church! They're called "Cardinals" and they wear red robes. They assemble in a "conclave" where they remain in seclusion till they have a 2/3's vote for a Pope... sheesh!"

 

How enlightening! Unfortunately, there is not complete overlap between the College of Cardinals and that of Bishops; moreover, priests and laymen can be made cardinals. Your response was as informative as a CNN soundbite.

 

Atheling: "At Pope John Paul II's funeral Cardinal Ratzinger read a homily about the dangers of Europe's secularism and moral relativism. That cinched it. The election of Joseph Ratzinger clearly meant that the Church's priority is saving Europe from extinction."

 

Nevertheless, the Roman Catholic Church as an organisation remains committed to Catholicism first, which aside from a handful of European countries (incl. Poland, Portugal, Spain and France) is stronger in Central and South America than in Europe, not to mention those African states that are former colonies of France and Portugal. In the final analysis, the Church's priority is saving Catholicism from extinction, which includes both European and non-European Catholics.

Atheling: "KA's bigotry as usual blinds him to fact..."

 

Bigotry against whom, the Catholic Church?

 

Atheling: "If what he alleges is true then why did they elect a European Pope?"

 

The senior members of the Catholic Church remain largely European, however, this will change to reflect the increasingly non-White demographics of Catholicism.

"The Papacy is more concerned with maintaining its hold over the masses of Latin America, Africa and Asia than it is with combating Islam in Europe. Roman Catholicism is universal (or "catholic"), not European. Thus to tether Western civilization to it is a mistake."

KA's bigotry as usual blinds him to fact...

If what he alleges is true then why did they elect a European Pope?

Charles: "Back during the Roaring ‘20s, a then-contemporary witticism had it that four institutions would prevent the takeover of Europe by Communism: the German General Staff, the British House of Lords, the Academie Française, and the Holy See."

Actually the Polish victory against the Soviets in 1921, prevented the Red Army from marching to "Red Berlin," and link up with German communists, who were prepared to establish a Soviet republic in Germany. Had the Soviets secured Germany, France could have been annexed also. Like Sobieski's contribution to the Battle of Vienna, this important victory was overlooked due to largely British prejudice against Eastern Europeans. Moreover, the British government was ambivalent towards the Red Army's offensive, and British and French factory workers regularly sabotaged the shipments of materiel that London and Paris occaisionally sent.

 

Charles: "The German General Staff was corrupted by Hitler, and destroyed by the allies..."

 

The German General Staff was useless. Only until it was allowed to absorb the Freikorps (or S.A.), which had defeated communist uprisings throughout the Weimar Republic was it a serious army again. Even then, senior officers of the German army were too cautious and unimaginative, and the National Socialists had to rely on the naval and airforce leadership as well as ensuring that the rising stars of the army's officer corps were promoted. Furthermore, Germany was a repeat aggressor until 1945, with little concern (save that of Bismarck) for multilateral co-operation or existing balances of power.

 

Charles: "Islam is the obvious external threat – not merely in terms of terrorism and the like, but by a seemingly inexorable birth-rate within the Mother Continent herself. […]"

 

Agreed. 

 

Charles: "[T]he Catholic Church is a bellwether for the health of Western Civilization in general […]"

 

I disagree. The schisms and Reformation ended that.

 

Charles: "Restoration of liturgical sanity and unity within the Catholic Church will inevitably have a beneficial “trickle-down” effect far beyond the Church’s borders."

 

The Papacy is more concerned with maintaining its hold over the masses of Latin America, Africa and Asia than it is with combating Islam in Europe. Roman Catholicism is universal (or "catholic"), not European. Thus to tether Western civilization to it is a mistake.