The Sky is falling!

I never thought I'd say this (at least not in public), but I really do sympathise with Chicken Licken...

After many hours of mini-hysteria, I have finally conceded that it was only an acorn, not the sky, that fell on my head earlier this afternoon.

My first thought on hearing that Papa Ben had shockingly resigned, was, rather (predictably?) solipsistically, 'Well, there goes my number!'

I was never going to be a one-pope girl the minute JP2 died. Now, my crush in The Vatican was hellbent on pushing my number up. :-)
It is afterall, all about me...

My next thought was, 'Is he alright? What really brought this on? Is he sick? Did something happen? Talk to me! Talk to me!

:-)


Well, it has been rather sudden. Even his closest aides apparently didn't know until this morning...



Then... panic set in.


Oh no. Was there something really constitutionally wrong with what Pope Benedict did?
I mean, no Pope had resigned for 700 years!

Was Popedom not for life?
Was it not 'till death us do part' like it is for marriage?

Were we witnessing the ultimate "catholic divorce" here, oxymoronic as it may sound?

I had smugly reacted to the recent abdication of Queen Beatrix of Holland in favour of her eldest son, Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, with the silent retort, 'Well, the Queen of England or The Pope would never do that!'


Um...


Head spinning, frenzied conversations and head scratching being the order of the day, it has been an interesting few hours.
A friendly priest provided much needed calm: No, it is not a sin for a Pope to resign. In fact, resignation in light of poor health is very much encouraged. JP2 was advised to step down long before he died.

Calmness restored, much in the manner of a well-known recently departed British film-maker's catchphrase of 'Calm down, dear!' thoughts now turn to...


Who is next in line?

Who will be my next alpha fix?
Who gets my religious affections?
Who will my hypergamous intent focus itself on next?

There is an impressive list of candidates already.

But...as they say, one enters the Conclave as a Pope and emerges as a Cardinal.
None of these highly-placed priests are guaranteed successors to 'God's Rottweiler'.
They are all fiercely conservative though, as Big Ben is known to be.



The Church will be safe in the hands of whoever emerges from the White Smoke: I am fairly confident of that.

In the meantime, I pray for the health of Papa Benni.

Long live The Pope!

Pope Game

Awww, I LOVE Pope Benedict!

Erm, is it inappropriate to declare this in public??
Is this my irreverent Brit side coming out?
:-)

I think if God is the ultimate Game practitioner then Pope Benedict is his ultimate wingman.

Our very own Pope Ben.
AKA Joseph Ratzinger Jr.
I think he's so cute. Just like Danny's Paw-paw.


It's getting to that time in the Church's calendar when we will be seeing more and more of Pope Benedict. Recently back from Cuba and Mexico, he will be leading us into Holy week beginning on Palm/Passion Sunday.

Like most people of my generation, Pope John Paul II is the only other Pope I have known in my lifetime. He was the longest serving (modern) Pope.
He so happens to have been a very likeable character. Young and old easily identified with him. Wherever he went, he was an instant star. He had something that even Pope Ben doesn't have. I can't give it a name. Perhaps the thing that comes closest is charisma?
Yes he came under a lot of criticism for the whole abuse thing. I am not sure of the ins and outs of these, but I suspect all popes had/have this cross to bear on behalf of their more deviant subordinates, aka predatory priests.


Pope Ben is more 'quiet' than Pope John Paul II, in my humble estimation. He was an academic, an intellectual. Not really at home 'on stage'. But he does his best. He has to, because he is 'on stage' whether he likes it or not.

My hypergamy is not limited to the SMP/MMP.
I grew up with priests.
Ordinary priests.
The ultimate priest is the Pope.
Let's just say I am hopelessly susceptible to 'Pope Game'.
If the Pope in question is tall, handsome, famous (everyone knows the Pope, right?), earns more than me (not difficult - the Catholic Church is arguably the richest empire in the world), speaks several languages, travels a lot, has a fancy house (St. Peter's in Rome is not a pauper's abode), has a fancy car (the Popemobile has got to be the coolest car in the world - even if its top speed is 5 km/hour LOL) and is Catholic (um, the Pope is Catholic, right?), he's got my attention :-)
Except...he's taken.
By God.
(The ultimate pre-selection :-)
Zut alors.

Most Popes are usually really old by the time they start their popedom, but I am sure if one did a poll on young women (Catholic or otherwise), one would find that there are at least some who have major 'crushes' on them. Religious hypergamy at its very best :-)
Or maybe I just need help.

Has anyone been in the tower at the Vatican? I have, twice in the last 3 years. The second time, I and all the other lucky tourists spotted Pope Ben taking a stroll in his magnificent gardens during his daily evening Rosary time.
Considering my 'feelings', I kinda felt like a stalker. Aherm, this can't be good :-)

Every Pope has a team of ceremonial 'guards' of young men who 'guard' them. They are known as the Pontifical Swiss Guards.
Catholic boys in Switzerland have the option of doing this instead of the usual National Service (which is obligatory for all boys in Switzerland, bar a medical reason).

I love their uniform:

If I have a son who comes of age in Pope Benedict's lifetime, he is getting conscripted into this army. No questions asked. Nevermind that I am not in fact Swiss. I might have to beg, borrow or steal a swiss passport for him.

Pope Benedict was born in 1927. At 78, he became one of the oldest Popes in history. Apparently he attempted to 'retire' from the priesthood three times by the time he was 75, due to health reasons (stroke) and the desire to return to his academic lifestyle and write books. But he was denied three times. To add insult to injury, they elected him Pope three years later :-)

I am not sure how widely known the following story is, but it is indeed true.
His father Joseph Ratzinger  Sr. was a police officer who apparently wasn't getting too much luck with the ladies. (What's new, eh boys?)

To help his situation, he put an ad in the local paper specifying that he needed a wife who could cook and clean. Only one woman answered.
So not too many takers for poor ole Ratzinger then. I can't really explain this. Perhaps he wasn't an attractive prospect? But why not? As a police officer he would have been a very good prospect in any generation, no?
Or is it that 'personal ads' in the paper were frowned upon in the 1920's?
Dunno.

Anyway, that woman was Maria Peintner. She got the job :-)

Pope Benedict was the youngest of their three children.
Big brother Georg is also a priest. Big sister Maria never married and managed Pope Benedict's household until her death in 1991. In this manner she fulfilled the role I describe here.


So, Papa and Mama Ratzinger produced two priests and a virtual nun.
Interesting.

I don't know how long we will have our Pope Ben for. He himself has (worryingly) predicted a short reign as Pope due to his health problems. I hope he is wrong.
After seven years he is fast filling the big shoes left behind by John Paul II.
That is no mean feat.
John Paul II was a hard act to follow.


Seven years ago to the day, I, like millions all over the world, was pacing up and down and biting my nails anxiously as I waited for the white smoke to come out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel and to hear the words 'Habemus Papam!'
And then, all I wanted to know was, who was going to be our new Pope?
Would I like him?
Would he be as cool as JP II?
Would he lead The Church well?
I needn't have worried.
The rest, as they say, is history.

Unlike in the secular world where we all vote for who we want as the leader of our respective countries, (except of course those unlucky enough to live under a dictatorship), a new Pope is always a 'surprise' :-)
Sometimes a nice surprise, as in the case of Pope Ben, sometimes a not-so-nice surprise - not mentioning any names :-)
So I pray and hope that Pope Benedict will be with us for a long long time.

I always wanted to be a one-Pope girl.
But failing that, I would be happy with 'two-Pope' girl.
Hey, just trying to keep the number low :-)
And I hope Pope Ben obliges me by staying alive.



Benedict/Benedictus/Benoit/Benedetto.
Indeed he is blessed.
Viva il Papa!

 Aww, crying for his predecessor JP II.

See? He is not just 'alpha'. He's got a sensitive side too :-)

Dominus vobiscum!

Happy Easter to all.

Is God Gaming Me?

Charming Disarray, this one is for you.
It is a tongue-in-cheek post designed to kill two birds with one stone.

1. I feel rather playful today. (Grasshopper, I am wearing 'blue' today :-)

2. CD, I know you belong to the Faith beginning and ending with the letter 'C'.

I also know you detest with great intensity all things 'Game'.
This strangely amuses me.
But... my guilty pleasures aside, I thought to myself: how can I make this a bit more palatable to her?

The answer came to me bizzarely enough on a Sunday:
Just add 'God'.

:-)

So here we are. Game-food for the uninitiated, with a few sprinkles of  'God' as 'relish'.
Buon appetito.

I see God as a man. Masculine. Male.
Whether I am picturing the 'brimstone and fire' old dude with the long white beard in the Old Testament or the 'hippy' type fellow with the long hair and sandals in the New Testament.
Both are undeniably male. I have no other versions of God in my head, except of course the abstract versions like the roaring thunder in a fierce storm depicting 'the wrath of God' (again, Old Testament-like) or the 'still small voice' during a gentle breeze over the lake on a sunny day (?New Testament).
Both are still masculine, in my eyes.

To digress a bit, there is some music I 'see' and not hear. Some composers really know how to depict 'rage' or 'wrath' that I can 'see' - good examples are Beethoven's 'Rage over a lost penny' and Sibelius' sultry, moody violin concerto. Both seem to be innocuous on the surface, and then when you 'see' it, you feel there might be no escape, like I imagine the 'Great Wrath' to be.
On the other hand, Beethoven especially is the absolute master at creating that 'still small voice' too.
Practically all of his symphonies' second movements are so gentle, you could almost imagine hearing God speak.
Something to do with his deafness perhaps? He did afterall live in a silent world.


This masculinity of God was always the traditional view of God.
Until that is, the feminists tried to get a foothold in the Church.

There was a time when there was a drive to change 'The Lord's Prayer' into 'Our Mother, who art in heaven'...

It didn't catch on.
Not in the Catholic church, at least.

For all the Catholic Church's sins, deviation from the Patriarchy is not one of them, unless I am grossly mistaken.
Unlike many other churches in christendom, the Catholic church refused to and still refuses to ordain women as priests. It refused to accord women certain powers as demanded by secular society (read: feminists).

And yet the Catholic church, to me, is one of the most 'woman-friendly' churches there is.

Why is this?

The Catholic church, since 1970, has begun to accord some of its highest honours to women. There are now three female 'Doctors of the Church' (St Theresa of Avila, St Catherine of Siena, St Thérèse de Lisieux - this last one is referred to as a 'Doctor of love'!) and there are many more on the list, being considered by Pope Benedict.

The Catholic Church has always placed a high importance on Our Lady. To an extent that some people outside the Catholic Church believe that Catholics 'worship' Our Lady. They therefore have confused the Church with a 'Matriarchy'.
If indeed Our Lady is a Matriarch, then it is only in the sense that she is the type who defers to the Patriarch.
She, afterall, was very quick to say "Thy will be done" when she was given the task of becoming mother to Our Lord. No easy task considering she was a young, unmarried but betrothed Jewish girl, and she lived in a society where if a woman was found to be pregnant outside of marriage, she was stoned to death, no questions asked.

According to the Catholic Church, Our Lady is the 'highest' of all the saints.
It is no secret that some Popes, like John Paul II adored her till his dying day.

I am pretty sure there will never be a woman Pope in the modern era.
But I am sure there will be no need.

Again, I wonder: why?

Do I need God to be 'female' to feel better?
Do I need to have a woman Pope to feel any more validated in this life?

Strangely, I feel the answer is 'no'.

But, alas I will never know. Because I have not experienced the above scenarios before.
But that's OK. I can live with that.

A woman does not need to be a 'leader' to be 'powerful'.
Because feminine power is an entirely different animal from male power.
It is less 'out there', but it is there, nonetheless.
You might miss it if you blink. But if you are looking for it, you see it.

Interestingly, speaking of composers above, I note there aren't that many female composers, if at all.
Why?
Afterall, there were many women authors from time immemorial.
What is the difference between the written word and a musical note?



So, because I see God as 'male', I sometimes correlate his 'behaviour' to that of men in general. This is done in jest, a kind of intellectual joke I play with myself.

If I need a prayer answered and I don't get what I want, I wonder, "Is God gaming me?"

If I ask God to intervene in my daily life and it doesn't quite happen in the way I envision, I think "Is God GHOW where I am concerned?"

If I don't seem to get an answer from him, I think,  "Am I being negged?"

And then when he does do something nice for me, I secretly think, "Is he going all beta on me?"

And then he is back to alpha.