MSNBC: Why Not Let Sonia Sotomayor Become The Next Pope?

-By Warner Todd Huston

On a February 17 broadcast of MSNBC Live, panelist Chris Smith thought it would be a great idea to have U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor replace retiring Pope Benedict as head of the Catholic Church.

Smith, a contributing editor of New York magazine, thought Sotomayor would offer a “trifecta” of liberal attributes.

“Here’s a trifecta: Latin, female, American. It would do a lot of good. I mean it’s ridiculous, we’re talking about a religion here where women can’t even become priests… but it would speak to some of the issues about how the Church needs to open itself up,” Smith said.

Smith also offered another reason that Sotomayor would be a great Pope. It is because she is a Puerto Rican who lived in the Bronx and is “someone who lived in the real world.” Smith felt this “real world” life is something that “would be good for whoever is Pope.”

Smith was the only one that offered a “fantasy pick” for the new Pope. The other panelists picked current cardinals.

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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.

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