I smell a Rat!
April 19th, 2005 at 01:10 pmI am still up at 0332, which means that I’ve been following the election of the new pope since the story broke. And I only have one thing to say.
How does the name Joseph Ratzinger get changed into Pope Benedict XVI?! What kind of crap names does he have to chose from? Is there not any way we can get some new names added to the selection? Pope Goob VI would sound pretty cool if you ask me. Even Google is throwing me goose eggs on this subject. This is a thousand times worse than the old James to Jim switch that some people try to pull on us. IT’S NOT THE SAME NAME! That’s like me going from Ryan to Robert and then saying “eh, they start with the same letters. Close enough.”
Seriously, how do these types of questions go unasked and unanswered in the world?!
I should have taken the safe odds and placed a few bets on Ratzinger.
Seriously though, I was hoping to see a more moderately liberal Pope elected. Guess I’ll have to wait until next time. But it’s good to see a new Pope elected without much trouble. Hopefully he can be as strong a leader and moral force as Pope John Paul II was.
Angel http://temporary-sanity.com/
I’ve heard they were looking for of an interem Pope, nothing to shake up the papacy too much after John Paul II.
My husband was saying that if he were ever elected Pope (he’d have to become Catholic first) that he’d be Pope Leon Katzenmoyer I. He’s a little cooky like that.
Anyway, thank you for pre-registering! I have been clicking your ads a lot, so hopefully I am helping you out as well!
Angela http://bostonbrat.net
If I had to pick my pope name, I’d pick something like Pope SuperGirl XIV.
Amber
Goob, it’s like you read my mind. I was reading about the new pope right before I visited Shyzer…and I too was thinking to myself, “How DO they come up with these names?”
Michael McCoy
Now the names are just historical. Since the early middle ages the Popes have not used their given names. They get to choose their name before they are presented on the papal balcony. Benedict from benedictum meaning “good word” in Latin. There have been some very interesting ones as well, Formosis, Pius (rather arrogant if you ask me), Celestine, Hadrian, Urban (but no Rural for some reason), the most interesting to me being the most ordinary of names John IX in the 930’s was probably Joan I! Found out only when he GAVE BIRTH during a papal procession, or so the story goes.
Shipman
I’ve tried for about a minute to come up with a way to ask this that doesn’t sound like I’m trying to start a fight, but why do you care if the new pope is conservative or not?
I watched hoping they’d elect the black guy or the Mexican, just so I could see the crowd’s reaction, then they brought out a damn German, the guy they’d been picking all along. I see after 2000 years, this church has still not develped a sense of humor.
I’m still hoping they get a real kick-ass pope again, along the lines of Julius II or Alexander VI. Those were the days. Ahhh. I’d like to see a modern pope lead an army out of the Vatican and retake the papal states and roll back that whole reformation thing. Then I would like for him to start handing out some of that sweet papal patronage. I’d convert to get on that gravy train.
Goob http://www.shyzer.com
The reason I was hoping for a liberal pope is easy. A conservative pope is going to strictly stick to the tradition, while a liberal pope will have more leeway in the areas of stem cell research, birth control, celibacy, homosexuality, etc. He may have little political power, but he still is the spiritual leader of over 1 billion people. There’s still plenty of power in that.
But in all honesty, I wasn’t expecting a new pope to just waltz in and say “Aight, gay ministers can now marry and wear condoms!” Of all the institutions who take a while to roll with the times, The Church is notorious for dragging its feet.
But one can wish.
Shipman
Most American Catholics as far as I can tell are agnostics as it is anyway. Even they aren’t, it doesn’t seem like many people listen to the Pope’s edicts, except those who were inclined towards him to begin with. I don’t really see Catholic theology doing all that much to influence American politics one way or another. It does seem as if the Right is cozying up to the Catholic church though, which I thought was strange, if not disturbing. I laughed when I saw two Bushes–whose ancestors came over on the god damn Mayflower–kneeling before the Pope’s un-enbalmed corpse. Well, more like a chuckle. I also noticed that Condie was not sitting next to the Bushes, but was at the end of the row with Clinton–kind of makes you want to say hmm.
Angela http://bostonbrat.net
The Catholic Church will never change, no matter who’s the pope.
Goob http://www.shyzer.com
The pope’s edicts may not influence American politics, but it can in other countries around the world, especially where Catholics make up the majority of the population in 3rd world countries.
Fellner
Yeah, now that you mention it, there are a lot of Catholics in third world countries. What’s with that? Are we not good at getting jobs? Do employers not appreciate Catholocism in the workplace? Maybe we could start playing the ‘Catholic Card’ a little more often and get Jessie Jackson or somebody to come make a big deal out of it. Just a thought.