God Bless Benedict

You can tell when Matt and I actually have grown-up conversations because we tend to blog similarly. LOL I have been so moved by the whole Pope events that have occurred recently. First of all, I felt a great deal of warmth regarding Pope JPII. I appreciated the ways in which he used his authority. Granted, since I'm not RC I may not be aware of all of the ins and outs of his papacy, but what I did hear seemed to make sense, and held closer to Biblical teachings than some protestant churches I know. I don't think the RC is on target with their entire theology, but I can't think of one denomination who is. There may be some former RC friends out there who are reading this that react to the fact that I won't toe the line and condemn this religion. I have some wonderful friends who are definitely alive in the Spirit who are RC. I have a variety of friends who are protestant that are not. I think I'm harder on the protestant denominations because it's through these churches (the "Holiness Movement" in specific) that I became confused and disenfranchised with Christianity, so it's often despite Protestantism that I follow Jesus. Perhaps friends who used to be RC and are now protestant feel similarly...

Another strange emotional link that I had with PJP2 was 9/11. For some reason I remember a camera shot of the Pope in is his special place of prayer that day at the Vatican. It was a side profile from a distance, he was leaning on a beautiful podium in prayer, and in the silence he began to weep, his hands covering his face and he slumped over the podium. That image has stuck with me. Not sure why, maybe it confirmed the tenderness I saw in him.

My mother's mother also had Parkinson's Disease from a very young age. My earliest memories of her were with the masked expression, sunken posture, and occasionally, incomprehensible slurred speech. When the conversation turned to "Hellooo? Is the Pope Still in There? How Can He Possibly Be Functioning?" I always thought of my grandmother, and the value that her family placed on her, though the interactions were becoming fewer and farther between... the whole sanctity of life thing. I thought about the caregivers that gently fed him and cared for his failing body. I thought about the humiliation that often accompanies the deterioration of the body, and how in the faithful it often adds a beauty to the spirit. So I cried when PJP2 died.

My stomach turned and churned on Sunday when I Matt and I paused on a televised protestant church service. At first we were taking note of the traditions that so annoyed us... I won't go into them lest I play my hand. ;) And then the preacher stood up and open with an illustration of the "chaos and emptiness exemplified by organized religion"-- and he had the balls to begin ranting about the RCC, the Pope's death, blah blah blah. I was flabbergasted at the disrespect, condescension, and hypocrisy of it all. I thought, You sit there singing your hymns in your robes, standing behind a pulpit, looking out over your pews, praying the Lord's prayer in unison, and you give no credit to the very religion that spawned you?!? Nice. Some protestants are quick to bitch and forgetful of their own past. And I think every religion has their own "We're right, everyone else is damned" clause. Must we be so acrid about it? True Christ-followers, regardless of the name over the door, possess the winsome beauty of the Holy Spirit, the character of Jesus, and kinship with the Father's own children, their spiritual brothers and sisters.

So I cried again when the bells rang that "Habemus Papum!" What a rich tradition. And a humble man's life is changed forever. As he commented on trusting in the prayers of his people, I thought, I don't think the prayerful devotion of the RC for their leader on a world-wide scale has any duplicate in the protestant realm. We don't view praying for our leaders as seriously as I've witness within the RC.

Well, my rant is fading. Thanks for listening. My daughter has become mobile so I need to run. God bless Pope Benedict the Sixteenth.