so what does the Pope really do anyway?
Apparently the pope is in the hospital yet again. It's pretty amazing that he's still hanging on. It's also amazing watching the people on TV - the ones who sit and wait for a mere glimpse of the pope. Why does he have the influence he does? How can one person demand such reverence? Or is it even the person at all? What does he stand for? Hope? Peace? Domination? Someone to tell you how to run your life?
I tried to google what the Pope does....and so far all I've found is that he seems to pray for people and set up weeks like "the week of prayer for Christian Unity." It also appears that every once in a while he issues statements about 'questions of great importance" such as evolution, organ transplant, cloning, marriage, etc. Do we really need someone to tell us what to think? Is it the easy way, rather than individually studying the issues and thinking for ourselves? Or are we really unwise, and need scholars to tell us right from wrong?
There's so much doctrine out there. Whatever happened to looking up at the stars and saying thankyou. Does making everything formalized make it more real? More proper? Or simply easier to indocrinate more people?
I think we have the potential to experience a revolution in the Catholic Church when the pope passes. Who will take over? Someone young? Someone who knows how to bring the church out of the traditional era? A female (umm...nope, we're not important enough)? How about a gay person, as one of my roommates suggested? Wouldn't that change the world? Or will it be some 50 + cardinal who knows the traditional ways of the church and will keep up the old status quo?
Hmm, apparently if you want to email the pope and ask him himself, just write to john_paul_ii@vatican.va Though of course they say that he's really busy and might not get back to you....
And from the pope's address in 1995: "In some cases, the need for women to work in order to provide for the needs of their family and an erroneous concept of freedom, which sees child care as a hindrance to woman's autonomy and opportunities, have obscured the significance of motherhood for the development of the feminine personality. " Isn't that wonderful? Apparently I'm not completely feminine until I'm a mother.
Though I was raised catholic, it appears that I know nothing about the workings of the church or the doctrine that I was raised in. Did I simply not pay attention through school (k-12) and life? Or was that information not readily given? Do those who go through daily lives as catholics really understand the hold the church has on them? Do they know the history, the drama, the war that was played out in the name of the church? Has it changed in modern times? for those who have gone through life and remarried after a divorce, did you know that you were immoral? (a new union after divorce is a moral disorder, which is opposed to precise requirements deriving from the faith - Pope's address 1997)
And so on and so forth. Who defines what is moral? Is it for the protection of ourselves that we listen to a governing body; waiting for the Vatican to decide whether we live in 'sin' or not? Or does that matter? Isn't the point to live morally within our society as to protect other people around us? Are you right in your ways? Am I? Are the muslims? There are so many things wrong with our culture, so many conflicting ideas; fighting and debates. Why is it that any question of religion and morality eventually comes to the question of the purpose of life?
What is your purpose? How do you chose to live life?
I tried to google what the Pope does....and so far all I've found is that he seems to pray for people and set up weeks like "the week of prayer for Christian Unity." It also appears that every once in a while he issues statements about 'questions of great importance" such as evolution, organ transplant, cloning, marriage, etc. Do we really need someone to tell us what to think? Is it the easy way, rather than individually studying the issues and thinking for ourselves? Or are we really unwise, and need scholars to tell us right from wrong?
There's so much doctrine out there. Whatever happened to looking up at the stars and saying thankyou. Does making everything formalized make it more real? More proper? Or simply easier to indocrinate more people?
I think we have the potential to experience a revolution in the Catholic Church when the pope passes. Who will take over? Someone young? Someone who knows how to bring the church out of the traditional era? A female (umm...nope, we're not important enough)? How about a gay person, as one of my roommates suggested? Wouldn't that change the world? Or will it be some 50 + cardinal who knows the traditional ways of the church and will keep up the old status quo?
Hmm, apparently if you want to email the pope and ask him himself, just write to john_paul_ii@vatican.va Though of course they say that he's really busy and might not get back to you....
And from the pope's address in 1995: "In some cases, the need for women to work in order to provide for the needs of their family and an erroneous concept of freedom, which sees child care as a hindrance to woman's autonomy and opportunities, have obscured the significance of motherhood for the development of the feminine personality. " Isn't that wonderful? Apparently I'm not completely feminine until I'm a mother.
Though I was raised catholic, it appears that I know nothing about the workings of the church or the doctrine that I was raised in. Did I simply not pay attention through school (k-12) and life? Or was that information not readily given? Do those who go through daily lives as catholics really understand the hold the church has on them? Do they know the history, the drama, the war that was played out in the name of the church? Has it changed in modern times? for those who have gone through life and remarried after a divorce, did you know that you were immoral? (a new union after divorce is a moral disorder, which is opposed to precise requirements deriving from the faith - Pope's address 1997)
And so on and so forth. Who defines what is moral? Is it for the protection of ourselves that we listen to a governing body; waiting for the Vatican to decide whether we live in 'sin' or not? Or does that matter? Isn't the point to live morally within our society as to protect other people around us? Are you right in your ways? Am I? Are the muslims? There are so many things wrong with our culture, so many conflicting ideas; fighting and debates. Why is it that any question of religion and morality eventually comes to the question of the purpose of life?
What is your purpose? How do you chose to live life?
posted by meesh @ 11:39 p.m.
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