Papal Tiger

I had covered this a bit previously, but I feel it necessary to repeat; I'm finding it difficult to hear the media pundits implying that the new pope might 'bring change' to the Catholic Church. Pure nonsense. As a "recovering Catholic," I'll grant that I don't exactly have my finger on the pulse of the Catholic Church, but I really don't see them giving the idea of female clergy a fair shake, or backing down on contraception, abortion, abstinence or celibacy. Stem cell research is arguably a possibility, I suppose. But even that's a stretch, and 'The Church' would first go through 20 years of debate and I find it hard to believe they wouldn't lose more members than they'd gain with such a move. And the polls (such as THIS ONE) I'm finding on U.S. Catholics wanting a more progressive pope are absurd. They're irrelevant. People fail to understand that the U.S. is NOT a policy-maker in the Catholic Church and hold little sway in its policies. Do you want to see a Catholic priest laugh 'til he cries? Walk up to one in the next two weeks and say "I sure hope the next pope is from the U.S." He'll wet his frock.

As an afterthought, Do you think the death of the pope was the only thing that saved us from "The Fight Over Terri Shiavo's Remains" stories or was it common decency? Don't be too sure. They were starting up already that night when John Paul took a turn for the worse but have since been blissfully buried. Maybe God does exist, and in His/Her grand plan, the pope was meant to die at that appointed time, in order to save us from ourselves. Or was He/She two weeks late?