Thoughts on the Papal Visit from a "Shane MacGowan" Catholic

2008-04-16 14:50:09

Pope Benedict (known as the Ratz) is here to visit, and will actually be presiding over a Mass about five blocks from my old pad. Since John Paul II was Pope for most of my life, I will always think of Benedict as "the new guy". Sorry, Benny, JP2 was a rock-star, the valiant crusader against totalitarianism, the cool anti-poverty activist who hung out with Bono... we could forgive a certain intransigent doctrinal conservatism (contraception, anyone?) that was probably promulgated by you as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

When John Paul died, I knew that Cardinal Ratzinger was close to him, but I figured that the Church would nominate a pope from Latin America to reflect the changing demographics of Catholicism. I would have bet money on a cardinal from Brazil, the most populous Catholic country.

Of course, Sao Paulo's Cláudio Cardinal Hummes was not nominated... the Church was just not ready to have a Pope appear on the balcony of St Peter's in a Speedo.





Postscript... last night Richard Belzer was on the radio talking about Pope Benedict declining an invitation to dine with President Bush, and was speculation on the reason. The reason is simple, the Pope lives in Rome, why the hell would he want to eat a WASP's home cooking?