New pope

Pope Benedict XVI

Although I don’t really care, there’s a new pope in town, and his name is Pope Benedict XVI, formerly known simply as Joseph Ratzinger. And who wouldn’t want a evil-looking, hyper-conservative, ex-Nazi pope to rule the catholics for a decade or two?

Personally, I was hoping for the Nigerian cardinal Francis Arinze to get the job. A black pope, that’d put a shock into a few million catholic rasists out there, wouldn’t it?

I’m not part of catholicism, nor any other religion. But due to the widespread of the Norwegian state church, the fate of my religious belonging was in the hands of my parents and family. Personally, I don’t believe in a god, I believe in spirituality in general. One, that doesn’t mean I think all other religions are wrong, and two, I just need to go through a little heap of paperwork to officially disconnect myself from the state church here, and I thought I might as well wait until all my grandparents are dead (there’s only one left as of today), just to minimize the shock up in the family chain. After all, I’m not completely heartless. I just plan to let my grandparents pass away with the illusion that I have the same religious faith as themselves.

Speaking of my grandparents, I said that I only have one left. That would be my grandmother on my mother’s side. She turns 81 next month, and she’s still shaking about with Parkinson’s. Just barely, though. Her husband (my grandfather, duh) died back in 1997, if I remember correctly, and my grandmother on my father’s side died back in 1995. I never knew my grandfather on my father’s side, since he died a year and 3 months (to the date) before I was born.

But enough about dead people, I do feel that the old pope went away a couple of years too late. On his last days, he did just seem like a parody of himself. I can best recall how he waved away the doves in that strange, yet funny, crippled way. That’s just too much. The popes should at least have a retirement option; let them withdraw from the public eye before they just become more hilarious than serious. I know that a pope is elected for life, but isn’t there a way to shorten down that period? No, seriously. They’ve already changed a few rules regarding the election itself among the cardinals, why not make a few changes to the length of time a pope can reside? That is, a self-chosen time to resign. I’m not talking presidential (ie. American) conditions here, with a reality show where the least popular candidate is voted into the White House every 4th year.

I might as well puke out an opinion article about this some time this week, who knows?

And, of course, I couldn’t resist putting up this one:

Over The Hedge, by Michael Fry and T Lewis - Reprinted without permission whatsoever. Again and again.

One Response to “New pope”

  1. nick name says:

    heaven can wait. One million isn´t enough!