Troika

[c9]

Knowing that many of my friends have different interests, I present several different items for comment:

1. This morning, when there's normally mindless pap, a local radio station accidentally allowed actual conversational debate to leak through: one DJ was defending his decision to never vaccinate his children, and the others were talking about how diseases used to wipe out thousands or millions every few decades, but vaccination has curbed this. His take was that "humans are the only species that does not allow nature to take its course," i.e. Darwinism. Thoughts?

2. The Pope has had a feeding tube inserted to help his caloric intake. a) would the reports have placed feeding tube in the headlines if Terry Schiavo hadn't taught us all the lingo? b) He is *so* not long for this world. Watch for the white smoke at the Vatican, kids.

3. Yesterday, school buses throughout large sections of Ontario north of London were delayed for two full hours. By fog. WTF?

Comments

[jpman.livejournal.com]

It has to do with Papal infallibility, I think. What if the Pope resigned, a new Pope was elected, and the old one recovered enough to have outspoken opinions? If they ever publically disagreed on something, you have two people who have been considered made infallible by God disagreeing. The old Pope can't lose his infallibility, because that could potentially undermine a lot of the his authority.

[gueny.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about Catholicism (although I was baptized Catholic), but isn't the Pope supposed to be the representation of Jesus Christ on earth?

It's a divine right and responsibility. Can Jesus Christ just give up being Jesus Christ because of illness. I think they argument might be that it is simply not possible, since JP is the Pope, and the only way to "resign" is through death.

I could be wrong. I just seem to remember something about this.

[jpman.livejournal.com]

Could Christ have just cured himself if he wanted to? :)

Could be both, really. Or maybe my reason is just an added complication.

Although, I'm not sure. They call it the "Throne of Peter" not the "Throne of Christ". While he is God's representative on earth, he takes Peter's place, not Jesus'. But since Peter they've come up with the whole infallibility thing, although that too has been played with. Now the Pope isn't always infallible, just sometimes. Certain statements are now considered inspired by God and those ones are infallible.

I gave up Catholicism a long time ago. I can't remember all the twist and turns. Any more knowledgable Catholics out there wanna take a shot?

[gueny.livejournal.com]

He takes Peter's place, not Jesus'

Wasn't the idea that Peter took Jesus' place?.. and then someone took his place, and so on?

If not, then wouldn't the Pope simply be taking the last Pope's place?

nihilicious will know. He was practically on his way to being Pope a few years ago. Unfortunately, now all he has is the dress and the feeding tube.

[nihilicious.livejournal.com]

It works this way: The moment a Pope dies, a new Pope is automatically created. All that remains is for the College of Cardinals to find and recognize the new Pope. It has happened that a Pope has died and a new Pope created, only to have the old Pope revived. In that scenario, there are effectively two popes. One lives in Rome, the other in Avignon, France. They work together to fight evil, but occasionally there is tension between them (we call that "the Great Schism".) In the end, though, they end up being friends and fighting side-by-side, slaying vampires to the end.

[jpman.livejournal.com]

Didn't those two Pope excommunicate each other? I may be remembering wrong, but wasn't it a case of they both died around the same time and another Pope was chosen that both factions agreed upon? I only dimly recall this bit though.

The Great Schism was when Eastern and Western Christianity spilt -- Constantinople and Rome.

http://www.kosovo.com/schism.html

[jpman.livejournal.com]

Wait, there seems to be two Great Schisms...

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/grtschism1.html

[nihilicious.livejournal.com]

No, I'm pretty sure both Popes were still alive in the series finale, though a lot of other minor characters were killed off. I distinctly remember the look on Pope Buffy's face.

[jpman.livejournal.com]

A brief schism history:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13539a.htm

Each side went through a bunch of Pope's before it all ended. Boniface was dead long before the reconciliation and had been succeeded by Innocent VII.

Pope Buffy's face, Pope Boniface... amusing :)

[nihilicious.livejournal.com]

At this point, I feel obliged to disclose that I was making a lame joke conflating Catholic dogma with Buffy the Vampire-Slayer plotlines.

For greater clarity: there were no vampires involved in the Great Schism.

[jpman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I caught that. Being a Buffy fanatic, I was amused.

[primary-suspect.livejournal.com]

So basically the church wouldn't want people to easily see that the Pope is just in fact human. ;-)

[jpman.livejournal.com]

Yup. Kinda like the way medieval monarchs had an almost divine air about them, the Pope is supposed to be like that.