04-20-2005, 03:29 AM
Of course it seems weird to you. You're 21, you've only known of one pope for your entire life.
Pope John Paul II was in his 50's when he was elected, and that was unusual. Why did they choose such a young pope last time? Well, think about what happened to Pope John Paul I. He went and pulled a William H Harrison on the Church.
While it's all well and good that there a new pope, is it really going to affect the way any Catholic lives their lives? I don't think so. The message is still the same, the mass is still the same. I don't know why so many non-Catholics give a shit, or attempt to express their own half-assed opinion on what they think a Pope should be. You'll never meet the Pope, he's gonna make a few trips to the US, and that's it. If you can't even name the diocese you belong to, then you should just be quiet, and go back to your secular humanist lifestyles. Americans are too used to have so many organizations willing to coddle them, and support whatever opinions they have, so that, when it comes to dealing with something like the Roman Catholic Church, they feel they should be able to pick and choose which parts they like, and which parts they don't like, and yet still be recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. If you really want to make a statement about homosexuality, abortion, marriage in the priesthood, then get yourself ex-communicated. Get a formal declaration from the church that they have disowned you.
Everyone wants to be part of the club, but they don't want to play by the clubs rules. Too fucking bad, go become a seventh day adventist or some other dumbass protestant faith, go and be yelled at by fundamentalist wackos who take the Bible word for word.
Pope John Paul II was in his 50's when he was elected, and that was unusual. Why did they choose such a young pope last time? Well, think about what happened to Pope John Paul I. He went and pulled a William H Harrison on the Church.
While it's all well and good that there a new pope, is it really going to affect the way any Catholic lives their lives? I don't think so. The message is still the same, the mass is still the same. I don't know why so many non-Catholics give a shit, or attempt to express their own half-assed opinion on what they think a Pope should be. You'll never meet the Pope, he's gonna make a few trips to the US, and that's it. If you can't even name the diocese you belong to, then you should just be quiet, and go back to your secular humanist lifestyles. Americans are too used to have so many organizations willing to coddle them, and support whatever opinions they have, so that, when it comes to dealing with something like the Roman Catholic Church, they feel they should be able to pick and choose which parts they like, and which parts they don't like, and yet still be recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. If you really want to make a statement about homosexuality, abortion, marriage in the priesthood, then get yourself ex-communicated. Get a formal declaration from the church that they have disowned you.
Everyone wants to be part of the club, but they don't want to play by the clubs rules. Too fucking bad, go become a seventh day adventist or some other dumbass protestant faith, go and be yelled at by fundamentalist wackos who take the Bible word for word.