White Smoke

[liadnan]

... and the BBC news page overloads...

That was suprisingly short. Did they run out of coffee and cigarettes? (I speak from my own obsessions here.)

ETA: Oh arse, not him.

Comments

[eccles.livejournal.com]

Ratzinger or how ever it is spelled.

[liadnan]

Oh fuck. Really?

[eccles.livejournal.com]

Yup, no black lesbian this time. We're stuck with the conservative ex Hitler youth member (though Snow says he didn't have much choice as it was compulsory). On the plus side he's quite old.

[booklectica]

The new Pope is an ex Nazi??

[liadnan]

Um, yes. Well, I assume so. He was a member of the Hitler Youth. To be scrupulously fair, an awful lot of young men at the time were. There's more than enough else to wory about in his more recent career (as head of The Holy Office of the Papal InquisitionThe Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.)

[eccles.livejournal.com]

I think it was compulsory.

More importantly is, what sort of name is Benedict 16th????

[spyinthehaus.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, in the way that most Germans over a certain age are "ex-Nazis". Worse than Schindler, better than Heidegger. Membership of the Hitler Youth, or the Nazi Party, is a very big and ambiguous thing. Whereas very few people were Head of the Inquisition.

Same line as JPII, same weaknesses - AIDS, women, homosexuality, failure to deal with paedophile priests. Best guess, he's a holding midfielder, expected to last a few years while the church works out how to deal with the massive removal of local power overseen by JPII. I give him 13 years, because the world is funny like that.

But, dude. Palpatine. Seriously.

Same line as JP II

[liadnan]

... only more so. JP II had saving graces, in my view. This guy, not so much.

Re: Same line as JP II

[spyinthehaus.livejournal.com]

Well, Ratzinger doesn't have an evil empire to overthrow. Our under-bed bogeymen these days tends to be broadly in sympathy with much Vatican thinking post-John XXIII, which makes life a bit more difficult.

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

Fuck yes.

Should we all have a "we're officially leaving the church" party.

I'm actually crying here. I never knew it meant so much to me.

[hano.livejournal.com]

shit. I've been lapsed for years - this pushes me even further away.
Still, he's 78 so hopefully won't be around long enough to do too much damage

[liadnan]

Aye, we're mostly vaguely lapsed round here.

[coughingbear]

Shit shit shit. I can't believe they did that.

Maybe he'll not last long.