Hi all,

By now you've probably heard about the passing of Pope John Paul II, one of the best popes ever and far more liberal than many past popes would have been on such current issues as the AIDS endemic in Africa and the war in Iraq.

Now the future of the Catholic Church may take a drastic turn towards an earlier regressive era and the world won't have a Pope continuing what has been John Paul II's role in world politics: acting as a key voice for peace in an increasingly chaotic world.

In 15 to 20 days, the Cardinals of the Catholic Church will head to Rome to elect a new pope, and once they start deliberating, they're closed off to the rest of the world.

What I'm wondering is, should Progressive groups such as ours lobby for a Progressive Pope? I assume that alot, if not most of DFNH's members, aren't Catholic, and if they are Catholic or are "technically" Catholic such as myself(I haven't been to mass since the late 90s, and now I'm closer spiritually to Unitarianism and Buddhism/Taoism than Roman Catholicism), they realize that trying to compare the Catholic Church to our political process is an very imperfect analogy at best.

However, maybe the death of John Paul II can change all of that, maybe this Papal Election can another "revolution of Democracy" such as what has happened recently in the Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and internally in the Democratic Party.

And we're lucky enough to have a Dean-esque figure in the College of Cardinals: Godfried Daneels, the Archbishop of Belgium. In the past he's spoken in favor of changing the church's policies on birth control, increasing the roles of women in the church, and has even advocated term limits for popes!

He's a dark horse to be sure, but he'd be a great pope and I hope we can consider it appropriate for us to act however we can in this important period.

Here's a list of the cardinals, not all of whom will be voting.

http://www.catholic-pages.com/hierarchy/cardinals_list.asp?orderby=Surname&submit=Reorder%21