RIP Pope Francis Discussion Mega-Thread

Good luck to The Pope.

Soul master Jerry Butler died a couple of days ago. This song is sort of apropos...

 
Of. course, a pope is almost always old at the time of election -- it does not do to get too attached to one.
 
The late Pope John Paul II was 58 years old when he won the Papacy in 1978.
John Paul II was the exception to the rule, and I believe he was a consequence of the fossilized Catholic Cardinals who voted as a bloc to routinely elevate Italian cardinals to the papacy, culminating in the disaster that was Pope John Paul I, who perished 33 days after becoming Pope and a week or so after announcing the reformation of the massive (and massively corrupt) Vatican Bank.

Ultraconservative cardinals recognized their personal piggybank was a risk, so they got rid of John Paul I and elevated a non-Italian conservative-but-not-ultraconservative charismatic young-ish Polish cardinal who would turn a blind eye to Vatican financial chicanery.

One of the only "official pronouncements" from John Paul 1's brief reign was the making IVF babies "legitimate" in the eyes of the Catholic church (hard to believe now that that was actually up for debate!). He qualified that by proclaiming "I hope this does not relegate women to the status of "baby factories", which caused a stir. Somewhere in Manhattan at the time, a young Donald J. Trump took pause from his worship of Mammon and was heard muttering "'Baby Factory'? That actually sounds like a great idea!".
 
John Paul II was the exception to the rule, and I believe he was a consequence of the fossilized Catholic Cardinals who voted as a bloc to routinely elevate Italian cardinals to the papacy, culminating in the disaster that was Pope John Paul I, who perished 33 days after becoming Pope and a week or so after announcing the reformation of the massive (and massively corrupt) Vatican Bank.

Ultraconservative cardinals recognized their personal piggybank was a risk, so they got rid of John Paul I and elevated a non-Italian conservative-but-not-ultraconservative charismatic young-ish Polish cardinal who would turn a blind eye to Vatican financial chicanery.

One of the only "official pronouncements" from John Paul 1's brief reign was the making IVF babies "legitimate" in the eyes of the Catholic church (hard to believe now that that was actually up for debate!). He qualified that by proclaiming "I hope this does not relegate women to the status of "baby factories", which caused a stir. Somewhere in Manhattan at the time, a young Donald J. Trump took pause from his worship of Mammon and was heard muttering "'Baby Factory'? That actually sounds like a great idea!".
You're implying JP I got whacked?
 
What's the hammer for?
Catholic doctrine calls for the deceased Pope to be ceremonially struck three times on the forehead to "prove" he has died.

Fun Fact: At one time there was a Catholic liturgical hymn that accompanied the ceremony of the three taps, it is no longer performed because the hymn's lyrics were changed and the tempo sped up to become a secular hit song ("Knock Three Times") for Tony Orlando and Dawn back in the 1970s.
 
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