It’s Snowmageddoning in Chicago today (and it’s
actually kind of Snowmageddon-y, for a change), so I’ve spent entirely too much
time futilely shoveling snow so that I can go back and futilely shovel a little
less snow later on … but it’s never a bad time for a history lesson, n’est-ce
pas?
Kidding aside, I was reminded of that famous scene
from Life Of Brian (1979) when a Facebook friend observed that that
the Roman Catholic Cardinals are meeting in Rome to decide when to meet to
decide who the next pope will be. NPR
explains:
Roman Catholic
cardinals are in “no rush” to set the date for the start of their conclave that
will choose the next pope, a Vatican spokesman told reporters Tuesday.
According to Vatican Radio, 110 of the 115 cardinals who are
eligible to vote are now in Rome. It adds that “Fr. Federico Lombardi ... one
of the few people present during the congregations [pre-conclave meetings of
the cardinals] ... added that he sensed that the cardinals want to ‘understand
how long is needed to properly prepare for such an important event without
hurrying things in anyway.’ He added that the fact that the cardinals have
opted not to hold afternoon sessions Tuesday and Wednesday in the general
congregations is ‘significant’ of the cardinals intention to take their time.”
Not that I care what the Cardinals do, but wouldn’t
it be great if John Cleese was one of them? Right. This calls for immediate
discussion …
If ever there was an institution that prefers
Byzantine rules and procedures to actually doing anything beneficial for the
world, it’s the Church of Rome. Is it any wonder why those of us who were
raised Catholic are predisposed to love baseball and grow up to be lawyers?
In any event, this must be beyond tedious for the
significant majority of Americans – not to mention, the significant majority of
the world’s population – who aren’t Catholic. Even though I hardly consider myself to be one
any more, as an erstwhile Catholic I feel like I should apologize to the rest
of you for the obsessive media coverage of the whole thing. Must be that
Catholic guilt.
In the end, of course, after all the major news
organizations waste untold hours covering the selection of the next pope,
nothing will change in any appreciable way. The Catholic Church, as an
institution, will still treat women as second class citizens, will continue to
deny responsibility for the worldwide child sex abuse scandal that’s gone on
for generations now, will still give aid and comfort to the wealthy and
powerful, and will still – even
in the 21st century – fight tooth and nail against full equal rights for
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people all over the world.
Of course, I know that there are many individuals within the Catholic Church who work tirelessly for
social justice. I know this, because many of them are and have been in my own
family, including priests and nuns. But in a strictly hierarchical church,
individuals have essentially no power to change the soul of the institution.
And so it goes.
On the upside, though, I’m gonna make a killing
selling I Went To The Papal
Conclave And All I Got Was This Lousy Pope™ t-shirts.
Finally, on a lighter note, it appears as though Cardinal Fang made an unannounced
appearance at the Vatican:
Meanwhile,
on Monday “a man dressed in fake ecclesiastical robes was escorted out of a
meeting of Catholic cardinals by Swiss Guards after trying to sneak into the
closed-door Vatican meeting,” as
Australia’s ABC News reports. His black fedora (instead of a cap) was one of the
hints that he wasn’t what he pretended to be.
Fake Cardinal in a fedora – for the win!
Okay, kids. Now get back to shoveling that snow.
[Cross-posted at Angry
Black Lady Chronicles]
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