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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Advocating . . .

(from Hitch 22; A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens)
". . . When the late Pope John Paul II decided to place the woman so strangely known as "Mother" Teresa on the fast track for beatification, and thus to qualify her for eventual sainthood, the Vatican felt obliged to solicit my testimony and I thus spent several hours in a a closed hearing room with a priest, a deacon, and a monsignor, no doubt making their day as I told off, as from a rosary, the frightful faults and crimes of the departed fanatic. In the course of this, I discovered that the pope during his tenure had surreptitously abolished the famous office of "Devil's Advocate," in order to fast-track still more of his many candidates for canonization. I can thus claim to be the only living person to have represented the Devil pro bono. . ."

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Stagnation . . .

. . . and immediate gratification . . .

. . . which is worse, exemplifying the first or demanding the second?


(http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/mcdonalds-all-day-breakfast-may-debut-nationwide-october-n396621)
". . . Pope Francis' popularity in the United States has dropped significantly . . . fueled in part by conservatives . . . 59 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the pontiff, down from 76 percent a year ago. The plunge was greatest among those who identify as conservatives — from 72 percent a year ago to 45 percent now. . . Francis' criticism of capitalism, comments on climate change and focus on the poor may have hurt him with conservatives. Liberals who were drawn to Francis' populist message may have become impatient with the slow pace of change in church policy, the pollsters theorized. . . "

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Ah . . .

. . . life

. . . goes on . . .


Tsarnaev sentenced. . . the Pope says you're not a Christian if you have a gun. . . white supremacist kills nine innocent people in a church. . . serious consideration is given to removing confederate flags from government facilities. . . heavy summer thunderstorms. . . prison seamstress smuggled saws to prisoners inside raw meat. . . Putin marches on. . . Kurdish forces say they seized a military base from ISIS fighters just 30 miles from the self-declared caliphate's capital city in Syria. . . both sides of the political spectrum accuse each other of using the South Carolina Church shooting for political motives . . .


. . . the music goes round and round . . .

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An Offer . . .

(from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/13/pope-francis-mafia-target-corruption)
". . . Prosecutor says pope's attempt to bring transparency to Vatican is making mobsters agitated. Pope Francis's crusade against corruption has made him a target for Italy's all-powerful mafia clans, a leading anti-mob prosecutor has warned.

Nicola Gratteri, who has battled Calabria's shadowy 'Ndrangheta mafia, said on Wednesday that Francis's attempt to bring transparency to the Vatican was making the white collar mobsters who do business with corrupt prelates "nervous and agitated".

He told the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano: "Pope Francis is dismantling centres of economic power in the Vatican.

"If the bosses could trip him up they wouldn't hesitate. I don't know if organised criminals are in a position to do something, but they are certainly thinking about it. They could be dangerous."

Francis, who has called for "a poor church", has backed reform at the Vatican's bank, which has been suspected for years of being a channel for the laundering of mob profits. This week police impounded a luxury hotel on Rome's Janiculum hill – formerly a monastery – which the 'Ndrangheta allegedly purchased from a religious order.

In a fiery sermon on Monday, Francis railed against corruption and quoted the bible's advice that practitioners be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck. . ."

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It Will Come Back. . .

 (from http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/19/20582863-mozart-and-french-cars-what-we-know-about-the-popes-likes-and-why-it-matters?lite)
". . . Pope Francis took a selfie with youths from the Italian Diocese of Piacenza and Bobbio inside St. Peter's Basilica in August.

— Selfies. Benedict XVI started the official Vatican Twitter account, @pontifex, and Francis makes use of it almost daily. (Why not? He already has more than a billion followers.)

But the new pope is just as much an Instagram guy. In August, a group of 500 young people was visiting the Vatican from a diocese in Italy. He called them “bearers of hope,” and then mugged for the camera. Behold, the papal selfie. . ."






. . . and when you smile for the camera. . . 

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Fall Like. . .

. . . a house of cards

(thanks to http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/19/20580271-pope-francis-says-church-cannot-focus-only-on-abortion-and-gay-marriage?lite)
I'm no holdout rooting for the preservation of the Catholic Church, but it can only be good news that the organization now has a man in charge who appears to be logical, reasonable and totally human.  His latest comments about the church's preoccupation with abortion, contraception and gay marriage being revisited further drives home this point.

The Pope spoke of finding a 'new balance' adding that "Otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards. . . " He also said, quite eloquently I might add, “A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: When God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person.”


TUMBLING DOWN
©1994 Raymond M. Jozwiak





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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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Alms. . .

. . . for the "poor". . .

(from In God's Name by David  Yallop)
". . . Pope Paul's poor Church for the poor grew instead immeasurably richer. The Vatican divestment of Italian wealth had resulted in men like Sindona and Calvi robbing the world to pay St Peter and Pope Paul. . . "

(from Father Jesus Lopez Saez writes of David Yallop)"
". . . (Yallop) eloquently demonstrates that the Vatican practiced a disinformation campaign. . .Lies about little things, lies about big things. All these lies had but one purpose: to disguise the fact that Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul I, had been assassinated. . ."

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