“We have a pope”

So today, the western media have breathlessly broken into all their news bulletins to say that the cry of “habemus papum” (We have a pope) has gone up from the Vatican.
Like that’s news? Like, the 120 or however many aging male cardinals were going to sit around forever and not come to agreement on which of their number would become pope?
But when, I wonder will we hear the joyous cry from Baghdad that “We have a democratically accountable government”?? (Do you think it would sound better in Latin? My dear late father, a Latin-and-Greek teacher, would be ashamed of how unable I feel right now, several languages later, to compose this simple phrase in Latin…)
This new Pope sounds incredibly Dick Cheney-ish, don’t you think? The guy was put in charge of a high-level political “search” process that ended up discovering that the best candidate for the job in question was indeed…. himself???
Just thinking about this whole process makes me unbelievably glad I’m a member of a faith community (the Quakers) that doesn’t believe in the “anointing” of some people to be spiritual “leaders” while others– including, in the case of the Catholics, all the females on God’s earth– get stuck in the role of merely doing what they’re told.
I’ve been wondering, too, if the cardinals who think that they might, just might, get appointed pope at the next “conclave” spend much time along the way picking out their future papal “names”… How long do you think this Cardinal Ratzinger has been practicing signing his name “Benedict”??
But back to my main point. Ratzinger/”Benedict” was “elected” today, and will be installed as Pope on Sunday. Five days. In Iraq, the UIA list was elected to head the National Assembly back on January 30th, and huge numbers of factors have since intervened– including, most recently, the desperately obstructive maneuverings of long-time CIA cat’s-paw Iyad Allawi; not to mention Don Rumsfeld– to prevent that list from even forming its government, let alone taking over any of the reins of real power in Iraq.
79 days, and still counting. It makes even the Vatican look like a model of efficiency.

12 thoughts on ““We have a pope””

  1. I think the whole pope thing was fixed- of course he had lots of practice signing his new name. Catholic orthodoxy on the use of condoms as pronounced by JP2 and as it will be no doubt by Benedict is absurd and cruel…what about AIDS, and the majority of people in developing regions who will not be able to afford medicine for the relief of AIDS, or the TB that flares up in combination with AIDS? An agonizing and hopeless condition. Where is the humanity of the Church in a case like this?

  3. I read in the Daily Mail yesterday that an Irish “saint” called Malachy had prophesied about characteristics of all the popes, and that this one would be “the glory of the olive” – and people said this meant that he would come from the Benedictine order. Ratzinger doesn’t, and neither did any of the known “papabili” (Basil Hume of England did, however, but he died). So conveniently they “fulfil the prophecy” by having this pope assume the name Benedict.

  5. I don’t know why people/media keep on saying the very same legends. What the “orthodox” catholics are meaning is: don’t go for sex outside marriage, so you won’t need condoms (because they impede fertility). That’s all. Should you have sex with anybody else, they give NO advice (about condoms or whatever) at that point.

  6. I visit here very regularly (I see Shirin does too 🙂 Hi Shirin. ) But this is the first time I’ve commented.
    Yusuf I wouldn’t take the Daily Mail seriously as an accurate source on Catholicism. Malachi btw isn’t a canonical saint (that means we Catholics DON’T believe he’s a saint) and his “prophecies” were long ago condemmed as being “disordered.” Or to put it another way the church reckons he was out of his tree when he made them.
    As to the condoms/aids in 3rd world issue. The preceding commentator is correct. I’ll just add that in fact condoms are sanctioned in marriage as a barrier to preventing infection. Something that was confirmed both by the late pope’s personal theologian and the African bishops at their last conference in Yaounde.
    Actually Roxie the Vatican has campaigned long and hard for affordable medicines to be made available. That’s why they excoriated the recent Indian patent laws which at Amercian insistence effectively make illegal the manufacture of generic drugs. including the ones supplied to Africa. They also condemmed the TAL in Iraq which effectively rewrote Iraqi law to bring it into conformance with American. Knowledge of facts is helpful. I’ll be the last person to stand up for some of the doctrines and work to change them, the difference between us in this particular instance though, is that I know what I’m talking about.

  7. Irrespective of what one thinks of him btw – he’s very much a man of peace. He’s consistently condemmed the Iraqi “adventure.” zenit.org , comunione-liberazione.org , and catholicpeacefellowship.org are all good places to look for more info.

  8. Ratzinger has been nicknamed the “Panzer Kardinal” in Italy and at the Vatican (for those who don’t know a Panzer is German Tank used during WWII; it was famous for it’s irresistible power and its role during the first victorious phase of the war).
    During his papal years John Paul II had nominated 113 of the 117-120 cardinals who took part to the conclave. And didn’t pick progressive ones. So the result was to expect. Here around me people were hoping a non European pope, an African or South American. I think that who is pope here in EU won’t make a lot of difference.
    Looking at all the rituals shown on TV these past weeks, they seems terribly archaic and even anachronic. Most of these rituals were aired on TV channels where they didn’t look much different than the last exotic show. It’s a power show at the same time : with all the rich clothes made of precious luxury fabric, with the pope sitting on a chair supported by 6-8 men, protected by a canopy. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a two men slowly moving large feathered fans stuck at the top of long poles. (the whole looked like the arrival of sheik from the tales of the thousand and one nights).
    All this remembered me the burrying of John Paul II and the presenc of not less than three US presidents/ex-presidents .. Naive believers kiss the feet of the statues of saints, or of the Madonna, hoping to get blessed, to receive grace. Some of these statues are worn out and shining from thousands and thousands of pious strokes.
    Bush (and the other heads of states with him) did more or less the same as the small pious naive people : he flocked to the burrial as if the grace would come upon him (and them), but they are less ingenuous, just hoping that the fame and charism of the former pope will reflect on them.

  9. One point to remember is that European and North American Australia/NZ catholics aren’t all that typical. South American and African catholics in my experience are VERY conservative. A very well known case in point is the late Archbishop Romero of El Salvador, whom I knew actually knew reasonably well. He was very very conservative in many ways, far more so than I or most European Catholics would be.
    He also was a very brave man who though he was often very frightened continued repeatedly spoke out against the death squads – he was right to be frightened – he was murdered by a death squad.
    The point I’m trying to make is that the left/right distinction doesn’t really work in this context.

  12. By the way, it is ‘habemus papam,” not “… papum.”
    Papum would derive from papus, not from papa.
    Papa, or pope, is one of those rare first declension Latin nouns that is masculine. This has carried over into modern Romance languages (e.g. “el papa” in Spanish).
    End of today’s Latin lesson.

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