How The World Is Run

[poliphilo]

It happened again. They put the ballot papers on the fire and the smoke coming out the chimney was white. Everybody in the square was jumping up and down, weeping and clapping their hands- we have a new Pope! And then the smoke turned black. Sorry, folks, no Pope today.

Quaint.

But communicating by smoke signals isn't the half of it. We're choosing a man to fill one of the most powerful posts in the world and the electorate consists of a handful of (supposedly) celibate old gents in their seventies.

Why aren't we laughing?

This is the 21st centry, not the 14th.

But I guess you and I don't get to vote for the chairman of Microsoft either.

Comments

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

a rabbi once told me that he sometimes envied priests for their solitude, that it can be hard to sheperd a group of people and be their spiritual advisor when you have all the domestic distractions of a husband and father as well.

of course, it also makes them massively out of touch with the lives of the laity. but i think maybe both perspectives are important.

Eastern Catholic priests are allowed to marry, so i don't see why we can't allow all priests to make that decision for themselves.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

But Catholic priests still have their sexual desires.

Unfulfilled sexuality may be just as distracting as married life.

A lot of priests hit the bottle.

And a lot (as we're finding out) abuse children.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

unfulfilled sexuality might be just as distracting as married life, you're right. but then again, it might not be. buddhism and hinduism teach that the path to enlightenment is through the renunciation of all worldly desires. however, it is a voluntary renunciation. i think the problem is not celibacy itself, but the fact that it is required by the church and not decided by the individual.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree with that. Voluntary renunciation is fine, but compulsory renunciation causes all sorts of problems.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

i just posted a bit of an article that i read in a catholic magazine yesterday. an another example of clergy communicating by smoke signal in an age of satellites, i suppose.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I like it....

Pity they retired the silver hammer.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

yes, it seems kind of silly that they'd retire the silver hammer but keep the rest of the formal procedures. i wonder how they decide which archaic practices to continue, and which to discontinue.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I guess they thought the silver hammer laid them open to mockery.

"Bang, bang Maxwell's silver hammer came down upon his head,
Bang, bang, Maxwell's silver hammer made sure that he was dead..."