roman catholic church

Chris Knight's avatar

This may or may not be a fun time to share this.  But there’s been a lot of good humor about the papacy in the past couple of days (I think the best joke I’ve heard is that Chicago’s NBA team is changing its name to the Papal Bulls) so why not?

Inspired by Steve Jobs (who had tried impersonating Henry Kissinger), in the spring of 1996 I attempted to telephone Pope John Paul the Second.  I had managed to find the number to the Vatican switchboard and so I called it.  I disguised my voice to sound like that of President Bill Clinton.  I told the operator who “I” was and that I had to speak with His Holiness.

Several minutes after being put on hold a gruff-sounding man picked up the line.  He said something in a thick accent and then demanded “Who is this??”

“Sir, I ...

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Cardinal Robert Prevost was announced a little while ago to be the next pope, Leo XIV. 

He’s the first American to become pope.  He is also likely the very first person from Chicago elected to office who will end his term without going to jail.

(Oh come on, nothing wrong with a little humor!)

Although I am not a Catholic, I will be praying that Pope Leo XIV will lead his church with wisdom, humbleness, and courage to do right in all things.

...

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Chris Knight's avatar

The Roman Catholic Church as we know it will no longer exist… and sooner than later.

Bookmark this post, because it is something I would wager serious money on.

Four people I have long known, good Catholics each, have left the Church in the past two months.  One walked out and left after the minister delivered a homily that literally begged parishioners to ignore the massive scandal involving homosexual abuse on the part of Church clergy.  And it’s only going to get worse.

Consider this: Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano – one of the most respected Catholic officials in the world – is now for all intents and purposes a fugitive in hiding from his own Church.  Ever since blowing the lid off of the abuses and now stating that Pope Francis was actively involved in covering up the behavior when he was still Cardinal Bergoglio in Argentina, Vigano has been ...

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From the homily that Pope Francis delivered this morning in his first Mass as the newly-elected Bishop of Rome:

“We must always walk in the presence of the Lord, in the light of the Lord, always trying to live in an irreprehensible way. We can walk all we want, we can build many things, but if we don’t proclaim Jesus Christ, something is wrong… When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we proclaim Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly. We may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, all of this, but we are not disciples of the Lord.”

Francis also spoke about returning to the Gospels. That without building upon spiritual values and instead trusting in worldly values, all is like a sandcastle before “everything comes crashing down”.

I am not Catholic, but in less than ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Either those cardinals are taking one heckuva break for Camels, or they have just elected the next pope!

Watching it right now.  Awesome scene at Saint Peter’s Square.  Now we just gotta learn who it is that’s been voted on.

Whoever it is, may God’s wisdom and grace be upon him.  I’m not Catholic, but I appreciate my Catholic brethren’s enthusiasm and I absolutely have to wish them and their new leader well 🙂

“Habemus Papam!“

UPDATE 2:26 p.m. EST: Here’s a pic of that white smoke going up!

Conclave, new pope, white smoke, 2013, Vatican, Sistine Chapel

UPDATE 2:44 p.m. EST: Lots of humor about this on Twitter right now.  Thankfully none or very little of it seems to be vulgar 🙂

UPDATE 3:15 p.m. EST: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina is the new pope! A Jesuit from Argentina.  I think that makes him the first “New World” pope.

UPDATE 3:20 p.m. EST:  So ...

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The two sessions of morning ballots have been cast by the cardinals sequestered (that seems to be the popular buzzword of late) inside the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. What sayeth them?

Nope. No pope…

Sistine Chapel, black smoke, second day of voting, 2013, Conclave

Two more ballots this afternoon. They should begin being cast around noon EST.

Monastery of San Benedetto, Birra Nursia, beer, Norcia, Conclave, cardinalsUPDATE 9:27 a.m. EST:  Hey, they’ve got BEER in there!!  The monks of Norcia at the Monastery of San Benedetto serve the Lord while also making Birra Nursia: their own brand of brew.

Here are Brother John and Brother Francis dropping off several cases of Birra Nursia beer at Domus Sancta Martha (where the cardinals are staying) on Monday, the day before the Conclave began.

All those cardinals, deliberating about the next pope while downing some suds.  Hey, it could happen.  Lord only (literally) knows what is going on inside the Sistine Chapel during Conclave.  Personally, I don’t think ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Looking at CNN right now: black smoke is pouring out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel… and how!  There’s not gonna be any confusion this time around.

So we know that the cardinals within have had their first ballot and no one has been elected pope.  Which was what most people were expecting anyway.

Two more votes tomorrow.

UPDATE 2:59 p.m. EST:  Scott Bradford notes that there will be four ballots tomorrow – 2 each in the morning and afternoon – and not two as previously reported.

As an aside, I’m seeing some good-humored jesting about this.  One friend said that based on the black smoke “Willie Nelson has just been elected pope”, while someone on Twitter is reporting that the Black Smoke Monster (from Lost) is the new pope.

Come to think of it, that’s the blackest black smoke I’ve ever seen.  We need John Locke ...

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The chimney has been installed and tested.  The Swiss Guard are even now still sweeping the place for bugs and spies.  Saint Peter’s Square is bracing for the crowds…

Tomorrow morning (Rome time) the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church will enter the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.  Once it has been confirmed that no one else is present (apart from a very few medical personnel and other attendants who are pledged to uphold secrecy) the doors will be closed and sealed, and the cardinals within will begin deliberation and voting on who will be the next pope.

It is called Conclave (from the Latin cum clave, meaning “with a key”)  And it is a ritual which has endured for more than eight hundred years.  But what does happen among the cardinals once they are within the Sistine Chapel and its doors tied off with red silk ...

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Bishop Basilius, Ralph Napierski, Roman Catholic Church, Italian Orthodox Church, Vatican, conclave, Cardinal Sergio Sebiastiana
“One of these is not like the others.  One of these
just doesn’t belong.”

No matter your religious persuasion (even my Catholic friends are finding this hilarious) you gotta admit that this is pretty funny!

On Monday a man identifying himself as “Bishop Basilius” of the Italian Orthodox Church arrived at the Vatican supposedly to attend the meetings in advance of the conclave of cardinals which will elect the successor of Benedict XVI, who stepped down from the papacy last week.

The problem is, there is no such thing as the “Italian Orthodox Church”.  But that’s not what aroused the suspicion of the Swiss Guard.  It was mostly because Bishop Basilius was wearing a cassock that was too short, black tennis shoes, a “strange-looking chain” holding his crucifix, and a purple scarf around his waist instead of the traditional sash.

Oh yeah, and he also donned a black fedora.

Basilius ...

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Pope Benedict XVI, retirement, abdicates, abdication, Roman Catholic Church, history, helicopter

Pope Benedict XVI, the first pontiff in nearly 600 years to depart the seat of Bishop of Rome voluntarily instead of dying in office, flies off by helicopter: leaving the Vatican and the post he has held since 2005.

Now begins sede vacante. The “time of the empty chair”. One which in the days and weeks ahead, the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church will seek to fill in prayerful guidance. Thus will this most persistent of institutions continue with a lineage of leadership stretching back to the ancient of days.

But in the meantime, though I am not Catholic, this blogger wishes good luck and godspeed to Benedict XVI. May his days be long and fruitful!...

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