Religion

This morning I read that Pope Francis has taken the brakes off the the beatification of Oscar Romero. I'm not entirely sure what the requirements are for martyrdom, but Romero certainly met my requirements.  Perhaps you are old enough to remember Pope John XXIII, and the Second Vatican Council.  Perhaps you are old enough to remember Liberation Theology.

Perhaps not, but every once in a while the Catholics remember what Jesus and Christianity once were all about.  Francis seems to have remembered it was about helping the poor, but  the rest of Christianity may take a long time to catch up.

In the meanwhile, Coptic Christians in Egypt are being exterminated by Salafists; Sunnis in Lebanon are being suicide-bombed by by Shi'ia; Muslims in India and Cambodia are being exterminated by Hindus; (who knows what kinds of) Christians and (who knows what kinds of) Muslims are exterminating each other in various former colonial fiefdoms of Africa; and the Sunni-Shi'ia conflict is playing itself out all over the Middle East.

One nice thing about the USofA is that we atheists are far less likely to be suicide bombed than in other parts of the world (unless we work at abortion clinics.)  Maybe it feels good to feel so fucking sure of yourself, but that's no excuse.

Tell your god to go fuck himself.  Take care of all those orphaned children, and all those refugees.  Probably there's no reward after you're dead, but that shouldn't matter.  Do it for now.

Smoke Signals

Why is there so much interest in the next Pope?  Every single Cardinal in the Conclave was appointed either by John Paul or Benedict, so every single one of them is a conservative.  Since they are the candidates as well as the electors, it's inevitable that the next Pope will be a conservative.  European, Latino, North American, or African, it won't make a damned bit of difference in the theological (hence, social) direction of the Church.

No, we're not likely to see anybody like John XXIII again, just in case any of you might be old enough to remember him.  There won't be any liberation theology — that's for sure!  The Church will remain ossified, secretive, and determinedly anti-woman.  Will the occasional boy diddler be outed and prosecuted?  Probably, but only at the lowest levels.  Will there be any structural changes at the Vatican Bank?  Doubtful.

What the Cardinals have to be thinking about most right now is damage control.  They don't dare to elect a Pope who might support married priests, much less female priests.  Even though "Papal infallibility" only dates back to the 19th century, they don't want to mess with it.  It's nice to be infallible, especially when you're wrong.

Bye Bye Benedict

I certainly was surprised to hear of the Pope's impending abdication, but shall reserve judgement until I find out who will be his replacement.  He certainly set a good example for other gerontocrats, and I hope many of them follow his example, beginning with Silvio Berlusconi and John McCain.  Both of them, of late, have been more trouble than they're worth.

I never cared for Ratzinger who, as leader of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under John Paul (whose primary theology seemed to consist of anti-Communism and anti-anything-else-vaguely-resembling-Communism), led the pogrom against the Liberation Theologists, especially in Latin America.  Read the history, and it looks incontrovertibly pro-fascist.

Benedict was better at persecuting Catholic socialist priests than at stopping pedophile priests from diddling altar boys.  Jesus, you might recall, was a socialist, not a pedophile.  Also, when Benedict retires to a monastery inside Vatican City, he'll be out of reach of those who want to know what he knows about kiddie diddling.  Well, he may not know a hell of a lot — top level executives seldom do — but he has to know something.

One might hope the College of Cardinals will select a new Pope just a little more liberal than John Paul or Benedict, but don't count on it.  John Paul and Benedict left the College of Cardinals pretty much the same way George W left the United States Supreme Court — weighed down with conservatives.  If they skip over the front-runners, and pick an African Pope — and a lot of developing world Catholics are holding their breaths hoping for that — you can bet that African Pope will be even more conservative than any of the Europeans in the running.  They execute homosexuals in much of Africa.

The Italians (who are a lot less religious than they are Catholic) really would hate that — or, at least, their calcio (soccer) fans would hate it, judging by all the recent racist rhetoric about Mario Balotelli and a couple of Muslim drafts.  I suspect the Süden Deutsch also will be less than thrilled.

Those of us in the civilized world (wherever the hell we are) should not expect much. After we're all dead, our progeny or our progeny's progeny's progeny may be able to look back on what happened — if they're allowed.