Pope-pourri

From Jane Galt:

I'm pretty sure that we're going to see a lot of articles bemoaning the choice of Ratzinger (who is very conservative) and claiming that the Catholic Church is going to implode without ordination of married and female clergy, relaxed standards on birth control and divorce, and so forth. I don't think I buy this. Protestant denominations like the Anglican Communion have been liberalising like mad, and with each decline in membership, they decide that what they need is to liberalise some more. Doesn't seem to have worked so hard. Personally, if I were going to be religious, I'd want a religion that was demanding. Otherwise, what's the point?