Skip to content

Pope Stuff

Is it just me, or does the entire Cardinal conclave have the media feel of NFL Draft Day? My gosh, the Internet is flooded with Vatican stories, from what the new Pope will wear to Cardinal Dolan's splash in Rome. * * * * * * * For whatever reason, all the stories don't interest me. I don't even have an opinion about who should be Pope. My opinion doesn't matter, so it's fitting that I adopt no position. Once the Pope is chosen, I suspect I'll be reading everything I can about the man, but until then, I'll just go about my regular business while we wait for the white smoke. * * * * * * * Not everyone has this laissez-faire attitude, of course. I received an email from the Cardinal Newman Society that featured all sorts of mean-spirited statements by Catholic academics about Benedict XVI and how they hope this signals the end of the "papal monarchy." Some are even mocking Benedict XVI for resigning (because, of course, they know everything about the resignation, from his spiritual state to the core of his heart):

On Pope Benedict's last day in office, Paul Elie, senior fellow at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, unabashedly took to the pages of The New York Times with a plea to disaffected Catholics to "resign" from the Church en masse for the remainder of Lent.

The Society has lots of examples of this kind of mean-spiritedness by the Catholic left at various universities. It kind of puzzles me how these people, most of them substantially older than me, are preparing to go to their grave with this kind of bitterness. * * * * * * * Georgetown, of course, ought to be burnt to the ground. Okay, that's a bit extreme (and bitter, chuckle). I spent a day there once, and I was charmed out of my socks. I loved the place, but it seems to be over-run by people with a propensity for unkindness. In other words, "jerks." There's no other way to put it.

Something for Lent

"The clue to the asceticism and all the rest can be found in the stories of lovers when they seemed to be rather like lunatics." G.K. Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi

Comments

Latest