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a story prompted by the T-shirt thread…

Posted February 11th, 2012 by Charles Bowling in notes from a sign reader

Hi All,
 
I am not a Christian but I do have a favorite pope. He was known as John Paul the first. If you're not familiar with this person here's a refresher; his time in office was very short only 33 days.
 
My sense of the man is that he was a very modest person, by evidence he didn't seem to have a ‘political bone in his body’; and probably never even conceived of the idea of being Pope. It's difficult to know what goes on in the enclave of the College of Cardinals during the process of selecting a new pope, but the sole prerequisite seems to be membership in that college.
 
Somehow John Paul the first was selected. And my sense is that he said to himself, “What!? Me as Pope!? Inconceivable!?” The man was just too modest for the job; and promptly had a fatal heart attack.
 
Now I happen to admire modesty very much. And I admired this man for this quality -that I saw in him.
 
I saw his death as a purely selfless act. But not one without consequences; as a result the College of Cardinals was called into session once again. And they did something very unusual -they selected the man we know as John Paul II. He was the first non-Italian in centuries to be so selected.
(About this time, on a personal level, I was helping an Italian immigrant to the United States become a citizen here. One day I asked him, “Hey Vito, how come the Pope is always an Italian?" His reply, “We don't want no foreen in there.” Evidently Vito knew nothing of irony.")
 
Pope John II of course, along with Lech Walesa, Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev (and countless others) were responsible for the fall of the Soviet Union -a worldwide important benefit of which was a downgrading of the possible mutual mass destruction of nuclear war.
 
So great is the capacity of modesty -even in the form of catalyst.
 
-Charles

 

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vito's irony & a thread-bare t-shirt

Posted February 11th, 2012 by Layman Pascal

Having spent some time in Catholic churches, being covertly fed wine & wafers, trying to feel out whether this former Great Cultural Machine of Christendom still has any world-organizing "juice" left in it, trying to decide if those cathedrals are gorgeous monuments or dull lumps of stone, wondering if I should join Marshall McLuhan & Anne Rice in conversion to the ancient culture-faith of my people, wondering whether to intentionally extend myself into the religious metaphors of my distant ancestors or... (well, one day I didn't go church.  I went to see the film Iron Man instead.  It was patently obvious that "fun" and "futuristic" are absolutely essential components of any actual religion!)

Yet since then I've been watching "The Borgias" and have delighted in the wonderfully pious & amoral Pope Alexander VI.  He is part mafia boss, part patron of the arts, part saint, part prince, etc.  He was one of the engines of Renaissance despite (or because of) his family's willingness to engage & employ all parts of their society, high and low, spiritual and criminal, puritan and lavish, ironic and sincere, lustful and chaste, ugly and beautiful, etc.  Here we find the figures capable of building Catholicism -- not just those who are prepared to oversee its slow crumble into dogma and irrelevance.  

There was no Christianity in my household as a child but I remember being thrilled by the idea that they had "changed the birthday of their saviour" so that it would coincide with a pre-existing pagan festival.  How wonderful!  A strong vital urge to embrace, include and reorganize the existing energies of the world.  It was precisely this collecting and plugging in of all the energies of Europe that allowed the Holy Empire of Christendom to rise into planetary prominence.  

Yet what do we find them doing today?  Certainly not trying to "take over" the energies of the world.  They do away with any transformational popes after 33 days!  Electing this German Benedict is their idea of a radical-progressive move!  It's heart-breaking & pathetic.  

Catholics no longer know how to be the people who created Catholicism.

--

Thanks, I've been...

Layman Pascal

 

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