A Personal Reflection on the New Pope
	We all need faith and hope. But the locus of faith and hope is not in the city of Rome or in the institution of the papacy. Faith is not found in priests. Nor is it found in bishops, in popes, or in institutions. It is found in the heart, one's innermost being where the Ground of Being resides. The cardinals took the easy way out. They voted with their heads, not their hearts, for the heart is the seat of the emotions, the truth, and, above all, compassion. Their heads, their intellects, told them that the German cardinal was the best man for the job, the job of proclaimer of orthodoxy. But the pope's real job is to be an alter Christus, another Christ, a living example of the compassion of Jesus of Nazareth. If, in time, Benedict XVI meets this job description, I'll become a believer in miracles again. I thank God for this election, but in a way different from many. I thank God for this election because it says to me that my heart, my intuition, my faith journey has been on the right, albeit circuitous, path all along. It says this closed, control-hungry, infallibility-claiming, dogma-proclaiming, empathy-deficient institution called the Catholic Church needs reform more than ever. This election confirms, in a very loud, very clear voice, the need for major, essential church reform. April 19, 2005, the day Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected as Pope Benedict XVI