General Chat

he does seem to have a more "human" aspect than the last one

OFTG - thank you!!!

a pope with a sense of humour

how wonderful xx :-D :-D

RamblingRose, has your St Francis got the birds eating out of the palm of his hands?

Must look lovely in the garden.

This election of the Pope does,nt affect me one way or the other,What I can,t understand is, Why do they always elect a Pope who is well past retirement age? why not some one in their late Forties or early Fifties? he would last longer and have a more up to date idea of the World and the needs and wants of the People in it,Apart for modernising the Religion which really needs doing.**M**

TessAkaBridgetTheFidget, he's holding two little birds in his hands, he looks nice against the dark conifer behind him and has violets and mini daffodils at his feet ( he's not very tall but looks in scale with the plants lol). Not stone just resin but he's weathered to a nice stone look :-)

Merlin - I wondered that too, but have heard it said that if they elect a Pope who is reasonably 'young', they could be stuck with him for a long time!! If his policies weren't popular, then I guess there could be even more problems than they have now :-)

I wondered if it was because many if not most of those voting are also getting on a bit and they are entrencehed in their ways. maybe they are scared that a younger pope would have lots of new modern ideas (birth control etc.).

birth control - gasps ;-)

well, most of them do not become Cardinals until into their 50s or 60s ....... the youngest one currently is the Cardinal of the Philippines who is 54 or 55


Thye have to work their their way up the system, just as in any other "job".

Then, I guess, they have to prove themselves capable in the Cardinal position over a number of years

The opportunity to elect only comes along every few years


........ and there is no means of the Cardinals of getting rid of a Pope who becomes incapacitated because of ill health, or does not otherwise fulfill the demands of his job ................


The former can be a problem with a Pope of any age, but ...........


............. the latter could become a particular problem if you have a Pope elected around age 60 who lives to 90 or older, and who is changing in some way the organization of the church that is against the tenets of the church


Plus the cronyism that could well develop with a very long-serving Pope.




Just my initial thoughts ........... that you really do not want a very long serving Head of any organization in most cases.

might it not be a good idea to say have a tenure of four years per pope - long enough to make a mark, but not long enough to become a pain

It probably takes 4 years to get through the paperwork....... :-D

I doubt 4 years is enough ........


and you would probably find that "obstructionism" would creep in ................ those in the heirarchy, whether it be the religious or the Curia bureaucracy, who are not in agreement with whatever "improvements" or "advancements" the Pope wishes to achieve, will just put obstruction after obstruction in place.


Plus, I have no doubt that if Pope A does something, and Pope B doesn't agree ............ then it will be changed by Pope B



It would be like a revolving door!




and then what do you do with all the "retired" popes?




Retirement at age 70 does work well with the Archbishop of Canterbury as the Head of the Anglican Church ................. but he is not in charge of ALL the Anglican churches around the world. He has moral authority, but NOT legislative authority ............. thus The Anglican Church of Canada has its own Primate, Synods, etc

The New Pope thinks gay adoption is like child abuse.
Since when did the Catholic Church
become such experts in child abuse....

Oh wait never mind :-( :-(


shakes head in disbelief

without wishing to ruffle too many feathers here, I feel the RC church, along with many other organisations, has more than enough experience in child abuse

How I agree with you both, particularly the BBC.

Julia in Derbyshire

wondered how long it would take - new pope incriminated in alleged genocide and "lost children" in Argentina

Being raised as an RC I was led to believe - and I was by no means alone in this - that god itself decided the colour of the smoke.
I hope RC adults aren't still lying to children about this.

Wonder how he stands on Argentina's claim to the Falkland Islands?

l'm really not bothered about a new pope, religion is becoming a farce!!

jude :-( :-(