Digital Sainthood for Norman Teigen

The Seattle Post Intelligencer cartoonist David Horsey reports the results of their burning question of what the new Pope should do. Honorable mention at the end is my dad's suggestion:

There were plenty of other suggestions for what a new pope should do ranging from less fancy clothes for the curia to a new gym for St. George School on Beacon Hill (all politics is local, even church politics). E-mailing all the way from Hopkins, Minn., Norman Teigen offered this very novel idea: sainthood for Martin Luther.

Read it.

[Update: 23.04.05: I didn't see this complation of responses]

A Papal Epiphany

I know today has been busy... but one last thought:

I've been thinking about all the interest in Pope speculation, especially among non practioners and unbelievers, and why it may be important for non-catholics to care about who the new Pope may be. With today's naming of Pope Benedict XVI, that importance came in sharp relief.

Besides International NGO's, Corporations, and elected officials in their native lands, Catholics in South America, Africa and Asia are also deeply impacted by the Pope, as that's where the church is growing. So if we're concerned about AIDs in Africa, we should be concerned about Pontiffs that refuse to encourage contraception, even as their new found congregations are dying of it....By "it" I mean AIDs, though the church isn't discouraging the myth that people are dying of contraception



PS. On a happier note we are totally digging Andrew Bird's "The Mysterious Production of Eggs" something we have recent experience pondering.

An incapacitated pope versus a dead pope

Italy is revisiting the attempted murder of the Pope in 1981. While other news sources indicate that Pope is now being fed by a nasal tube. Given the Vatican's stance on the Schiavo ordeal, we can safely bet that the pope will not be issuing a DNR order.

Which begs the question? Which is best for the Catholic church? A dead Pope is replaced, but an indefinately incapacited pope lingers, and does nothing to respond to worldwide abuse by clergy or the popularity of the Da Vinci Code.