...be going to bed, but I'm in one those moods where I quite want to listen to a song another fifteen thousand times before I'm done with it for the moment. (Fast Cars by U2, so it's not as if anyone who reads this will have heard it... ^_~ Sounds like it should be on the Once Upon a Time in Mexico soundtrack. Which may be why I like it.)
So, uh, despite the desire to blog, I don't have a great deal to talk about at the moment. Mainly because I've not done much other than sit and watch News 24. o_0 What? It's my sad default activity when I have nothing else useful to do, and confusedly Anglo-Catholic-tastic as I am, I am interested in the Pope.
The News 24 coverage of events is/was/has been quite bizarre, actually. The workings of the Vatican press office don't exactly lend themselves to the 24 hour society (rightly so on this occasion, at least o_0) so there was an awful lot of bringing in guests and/or going to correspondents in "Catholic" places around the country. Which was actually the main thing I find bizarre. How/why do they feel the need to find out how people around the country are feeling? I mean, do they really think that the reaction in Scotland is going to be wildly different to that at Westminster? o_0 Is it just me, or is it fairly obvious that anyone who isn't a barking anti-Catholic is going to be at least saddened, this reaction increasing with the level of Catholicness? o_0
I'll freely admit that I'm addicted to 24 hour news society, but sometimes it really does show through that it's not always sustainable. I'm all for the publicising of events like the death of the Pope, obviously, not least of all because he apparently didn't want the whole thing to be shrouded in secrecy, but there's coverage and there's coverage.
Of course, there's always the argument that you could turn the TV off, Katy.
....but what would you do if there was a news update?!
But yeah, irreverant discussion of news coverage aside, poor old John Paul. I'm glad they've made a big deal of the fact that he did mean something to people who weren't Catholic, cause it did have me gritting my teeth the number of times they talked about "Catholics everywhere" praying and showing concern for the Pope as if the denominational divide mattered. o_0 I think you have to be a fairly rabid Protestant/atheist/other not to think he was a good influence in the world. (...you're going back to the news thing, Katy.)
The one thing that does get me about the global reaction though, people don't seem as hmm...pragmatic, I think, about it as I'd imagine. As far as I can see it, he was an old man and it seemed like he was in a fair bit of pain at this point. And if there's anyone who should be able to face death with a fair degree of content, I'd think the Pope would be it. If a person like him's not guaranteed a good reward once he's gone, then the rest of us are in trouble! ^__^;; I understand the fact that he's missed and so on, but it just seems like there's more to think about than just that. Heh, there are advantages of being such a morbid person, Katy, you may just have come out the other side. ^__^
So something completely unrelated to reward anyone who got this far, huh? ^_^ I _know_ I ramble too much, but the news is making me do it. Religion has stopped being the crazy aunt people only remember on holidays for the moment and this being my pet subject, it makes me happy. ^__^;;;
Humberto, or Bumface as he is presently answering to, has a new obssession. Carrot cake. Particularly when I'm eating it anywhere near him. @_@ This may or may not be fueling his attempts to scale the upper reaches of his cage every evening. I just had to get the "special" hamster didn't I? ^_____^
Posted by Katyjag at April 3, 2005 7:16 PMAh, y'see, I agree with you on the anti-contraception thing being wrong. I'm not sure to what extent anyone feels like going into a debate concerning why I think natural law philosophy doesn't necessarily mean contraception is wrong, but hey. ^__^ I had less of a problem with the Pope's anti-women-priests stance (but I supose if you're looking at this from an atheist pov that's irrelevant anyway ^_~), so from the main things people held against him, the only one I really objected to was the contraception thing.
I don't know as they will, because I think all but three of the cardinals appointing the new pope were given office by John Paul II, but I think what the Catholic church needs to do is elect a new Pope who will redress the balance concerning the whole issue of contraception and AIDS. If we're looking at this from a theological point of view, what do the church really think God would want more, millions of lives saved by the church encouraging the use of contraception or millions of lives lost by sticking steadfast to the traditional rules of the church?
It surprises me to some extent that no one seems to parallel the way Jesus acted towards situations like this. I mean, in the Gospels, people get cheesed off at Jesus for working on the Sabbath, saying he'd broken the Jewish religious laws. He told them that he was doing what was right in the situation. Which strikes me as being a similar problem as this.
But, John Paul II was a very orthodox pope as far as most commentators are concerned, and the Catholic church is a huge institution very much set in its way. I'm not defending that in the slightest, because I do think it needs to reform, but to some extent I don't think that all the blame for the mishandling of the AIDS crisis by the church can be placed of the Pope's shoulders. The attitude of the whole institution needs to be changed, and if you look to the lower ranks of the church, there is a lobby to change the teachings on the use of condoms.
Alllright, enough of that section of the response. ^_^;; That whole praying for the Pope to live question. I don't understand fully myself, I have to admit. I'm a firm believer in if it's someone's time to go, it's their time to go. I think something both of us are missing, because neither of us are Catholic, is the fact that a lot of people felt an emotional attachment to the Pope similar to how anyone else might feel to a member of their own family. So from that point of view, it's the same as the way people feel about an elderly relative, often. You may know that they're ill and suffering, but the fact that you care about them so much makes you want them not to go. I wouldn't say it was being selfish, but you know the sort of emotion that I mean - not wanting to be separated. So whilst it does seem illogical that they wouldn't pray for the Pope's suffering to end, there's anyway the factor of attachment there.
Katy, posting with the same caveat as Tasha. ^_~
Posted by: katy at April 5, 2005 5:59 PMWhat Katy said. Yeah. Catholics do tend to have stronger feelings towards the Pope than towards the local priest or bishop. I mean, he's mentioned during every Mass, as far as I know. At least for me he was also important because of my culture.
Posted by: Daniel at April 7, 2005 12:46 AM