The announcements even look like newspaper columns. All stuff we will get for at least a week, then there will be the funeral, from people paid to deliver the news. I'm of the opinion that most of us here get all the news we want from the professionals, and OLO is our space to speak, and express our opinions.

I think that Pope Benedict was the best Pope in my lifetime. He was replaced by the worst one - so far; the way the West, and Christianity seems to be heading, it is impossible to know what the next one will be like, or if he will even be a proper Catholic.

There. That’s an opinion

ttbn,

Congratulations!

I knew you could do it!

Well done!

The Pope dies and goes to heaven, where he is greeted by St. Peter. “Welcome your holiness,” St. Peter says with a smile, “let me show you around.”

St. Peter shows the Pope the streets of gold, choirs of angels, and so many wonderful things. At last, they came to a verdant meadow with a quaint little cottage overlooking a lake. “And this is where you will be living,” St. Peter tells the Pope.

The Pope toures the small but well appointed cottage. “Odd,” he thought, “I truly expected a mansion in glory of my saintliness. But, then again, what more do I really need? I’m in paradise after all.”

The Pope thanks St. Peter for the tour, and assured him he would be very comfortable in the little cottage, as the two walk back outside.

As the Pope takes in the view, he spies a huge, glorious mansion across the lake. “Oh,” he exclaimed, gesturing with his arm, “that must be where God lives!”

“No,” St. Peter replies, “a lawyer lives there.”
The Pope was livid. “A bloody lawyer!?! A stinkn' bloody lawyer!?! I was Christ’s emissary on earth, his holiness, and the head of His church, and I’m in this pathetic dump, but you put a lawyer over there?”

“Well, you see,” St. Peter replies, “we get a lot of Popes in Heaven, but that’s our first lawyer.”

Dear Paul,

Maybe that lawyer was one of the High Court Judges that
let Pell off? (smile).

I hope that they'll screen the funeral here in Australia
like they did for the Queen. The pomp and ceremony should
be equally impressive.

I think Pope Benedict XVI recognised that he didn't have the CEO skillset for the job as Pope, so he resigned to what he Was good at - a very senior Catholic theologian ie. theorist. See the academic theorist strength of Benedict's pre-Papal career http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XVI#Academic_career:_1951%E2%80%931977

He also recognised his (albeit reluctant) past in the Hitler Youth and Nazi Armed Forces might forever tarnish his appointment as Pope. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XVI#Wartime_and_ordination

I reckon Pope's are best seen as CEOs of the Catholic Church global operation in which spiritualism plays a cementing role.

Hence Benedict's replacement, Pope Francis, appointed 2013, is much more suited as a charismatic CEO of the Catholic Church http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis

Amen Mavs