Sunday, April 03, 2005
The Pope is Dead
So, Pope Jean-Paul II died about 24 hours ago. It's obviously a fairly big news Story in Canada, more because it's a World Event than because Canada's a big Catholic country - people here are a bit sad that he's dead because he seemed to be a good man, but there's not the same level of weeping and gnashing of teeth that you'll see in Latin America, Italy and of course Poland. The BBC seems to have gone a bit over the top, providing wall-to-wall Pope-TV both before and after his death. Continuous coverage of the is-he-dead-yet-...-no-...-let's-go-over-to-Rome-for-reaction-to-the-news-that-he's-not-quite-dead-yet... Surely there are other things happening in the world, but you wouldn't know it on the Beeb.
Interesting dead-pope related facts gleaned from the ever-excellent National Post yesterday:
1. Population of the country we call 'The Vatican City' - 900 souls, living in 109 acres
2. How do you tell if the pope's dead? The Vatican's Chamberlain (the camerlengo) goes to his bed along with 4 other cardinals and shouts his real Christian name into his ear three times while hitting his head three times with a small silver hammer. If there's no response to the shouting/skull-tapping, then he's tatie-bread.
3. What happens then? Well, the Vatican's Chamberlain is officially in charge until the new Pope is found, and all of the Vatican cardinals except him and three assistants are immediately sacked. The Chamberlain then immediately smashes the Pope's Fisherman's Ring and destroys the Pope's seal. The Ring has been around for the last 800 years or so, and will be reforged for the new Pope.
4. The Vatican post office will issue a special stamp carrying an image of two crossed keys but no papal headgear which can only be used until a new Pope is elected.
5. The Pope will be buried in three coffins, one inside the other - the inner one is cypress, the middle one is lead, with his names and dates on it, and the outer one is unmarked elm wood.
6. In the past there have been up to three Popes at any one time. In the Great Western Schism (1378-1417) there was one actual Pope and two anti-popes for a while.
So the Pope will be buried in 4-6 days after death and then 15-20 days after his death all the cardinals get together and elect a new one, issuing white smoke from a stove in the Sistine Chapel when they've decided. These are the runners and riders tipped by the National Post at the moment:
I haven't listed any of their names because it's all Greek to me. But this is the first time this whole how-do-you-do has taken place since 1978 - isn't it time the Catholic Church got with the 21st Century? What about a "Papal Big Brother"? You could vote one cardinal out each day until only one is left. Or "Pope Idol" - you'd be sure of getting a good singer. Or how about "I'm a Cardinal, Get Me Out of Here?" in which you take all the cardinals into the jungle to complete a series of bush-tucker tasks. They can be airlifted back to the Vatican City at any time by saying "I'm a Cardinal Get Me Out of Here" and the last one left in camp gets to be Pope. I'm just suggesting - isn't the Church interested in getting in touch with the young people?
Interesting dead-pope related facts gleaned from the ever-excellent National Post yesterday:
1. Population of the country we call 'The Vatican City' - 900 souls, living in 109 acres
2. How do you tell if the pope's dead? The Vatican's Chamberlain (the camerlengo) goes to his bed along with 4 other cardinals and shouts his real Christian name into his ear three times while hitting his head three times with a small silver hammer. If there's no response to the shouting/skull-tapping, then he's tatie-bread.
3. What happens then? Well, the Vatican's Chamberlain is officially in charge until the new Pope is found, and all of the Vatican cardinals except him and three assistants are immediately sacked. The Chamberlain then immediately smashes the Pope's Fisherman's Ring and destroys the Pope's seal. The Ring has been around for the last 800 years or so, and will be reforged for the new Pope.
4. The Vatican post office will issue a special stamp carrying an image of two crossed keys but no papal headgear which can only be used until a new Pope is elected.
5. The Pope will be buried in three coffins, one inside the other - the inner one is cypress, the middle one is lead, with his names and dates on it, and the outer one is unmarked elm wood.
6. In the past there have been up to three Popes at any one time. In the Great Western Schism (1378-1417) there was one actual Pope and two anti-popes for a while.
So the Pope will be buried in 4-6 days after death and then 15-20 days after his death all the cardinals get together and elect a new one, issuing white smoke from a stove in the Sistine Chapel when they've decided. These are the runners and riders tipped by the National Post at the moment:
I haven't listed any of their names because it's all Greek to me. But this is the first time this whole how-do-you-do has taken place since 1978 - isn't it time the Catholic Church got with the 21st Century? What about a "Papal Big Brother"? You could vote one cardinal out each day until only one is left. Or "Pope Idol" - you'd be sure of getting a good singer. Or how about "I'm a Cardinal, Get Me Out of Here?" in which you take all the cardinals into the jungle to complete a series of bush-tucker tasks. They can be airlifted back to the Vatican City at any time by saying "I'm a Cardinal Get Me Out of Here" and the last one left in camp gets to be Pope. I'm just suggesting - isn't the Church interested in getting in touch with the young people?
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