Lest We . . .

. . . forget . . .

. . . there was another pope, in our lifetime, with the same potential as Pope Francis.  Tragic story though. . . 

(from http://www.nairaland.com/3339/murder-name-god-slaying-pope)

Pope John Paul I died only 33 days into his Pontificate (August 26, 1978 - September 28, 1978). It was one of the shortest reigns in the annals of the papacy. The official cause of death was myocardial infarction (a heart attack). But there was a great deal of confusion in the details of his sudden death, and many were crying - murder! 

The "Smiling Pope," as he was affectionately called was born Albino Luciani on October 17, 1912 near Belluno, Italy. He was ordained in 1935, made Bishop in 1958 and became patriarch of Venice in 1969. He received his cardinal's hat in 1973. He was a staunch believer in ecumenism and the reduction of Church wealth. He was warm, humble and had no aspirations for the papacy. After Pope Paul VI died, Luciani was elected on the second day of the Conclave in 1978. He refused to wear the papal tiara or to be carried in the gestatorial chair. He was praised as a liberal reformer who read Mark Twain. He was on a mission to reverse the Church's position on contraception, cleaning up the Vatican bank and dismissing many Masonic cardinals. 

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If I Were. . .

. . . the Pope . . .

Yeah. I said the Pope.  Don't know why, but I dreamed the other night that I was elected Pope (and I don't recall that I was even running).  Well, actually I do know why I dreamed I was elected Pope.
I recently read "In God's Name: An Investigation Into the Murder of Pope John Paul I" by David Yallop and am in the midst of "Illustrissimi: The Letters of Pope John Paul I" by Albino Luciani.
Not that by any stretch of the imagination do these things qualify me for the office of Pope.  Obviously tuna salad with extra onion and two boiler-makers do indeed qualify me to DREAM that I have attained the office of Pope.

The first action that I took in my new position, if I recall the dream correctly, was RUN.  I'm not sure why I ran nor why I was being chased.  But run I did.  And all the while I was pondering the great changes that I will make as the new Pope.  I almost made sense that I was being chased in light of the radical nature of those changes.  

Not sure if I would have been a good Pope. . . or a BAD one. . .

. . . but then we'll never really know.  Will we?

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Letters . . .

(from Illustrissimi by Albino Luciani [Pope John Paul I])

[from a letter to G. K. Chesterton. . . ]
". . . Progress that involves men who don't recognize a singe Father in God becomes a constant danger: without a parallel moral progress, which is continuous and internal, it develops what is lowest and  cruellest in man, making him a machine possessed by machines, a number manipulated by numbers; he becomes what Papini called 'a raving savage, who, to satisfy his predatory, destructive, and licentious instincts, no longer uses a club, but has the immense forces of nature and mechanical invention to draw upon.'

Yes, I know there are plenty of people who think the opposite of this,  They consider religion a consoling dream, invented by oppressed people who imagine another world, a non-existent  world in which they can later find what is stolen from them today by their oppressors.  These oppressors have arranged the whole thing for their own benefit, to keep the oppressed underfoot and to quieten the instinct towards a class struggle, an instinct that, were it not for religion, would urge them to fight.

It is no good reminding these people that the Christian religion itself favours the revival of proletarian awareness, that is exalts the poor and foresees a just future. . ."

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Popes. . .

(from 'In God's Name' by David Yallop)
". . . Albino Luciani then gave an extraordinary demonstration of his own abhorrence of a wealthy, materialistic Church.  He exhorted and authorised all of his parish priests and rectors of sanctuaries to sell their gold, necklaces, and precious objects.  The proceeds were to go to the Don Orione centre for handicapped people.  He advised his readers that he intended to sell the bejewelled (sic) cross and gold chain which had belonged to Pius XII and which Pope John had given to Luciani when he had made him a bishop.

'It is very little in terms of the money it will produce but it is perhaps something if it helps people to understand that the true treasures of the Church are, as St Lorenzo said, the poor, the weak who must be helped not with occasional charity but in such a way that they can be raised a little at a time to that standard of life and that level of culture to which they have a right. . .'"

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