What Happens If The Pope Dies

[rsmith6621]

Pope Hospitalized With Breathing Problems

ROME - Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II was rushed to the hospital Tuesday night with breathing difficulties and an inflamed throat while battling the flu during an icy spell that has swept Italy, the Vatican (news - web sites) said.

Anxiety has been running high over the 84-year-old pope's Parkinson's disease (news - web sites) and other ailments, but Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told The Associated Press that the decision to hospitalize him was "mainly a precaution

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050202/ap_on_re_eu/pope_flu

So What happens........

[Dookus]

1. they bury him

and elect a new one.

[karlrschneider]

4. There's some sort of smokestack involved...it's pretty weird

...

[Dookus]

7. true...

I gave the short version.

[Petrushka]

33. Smoke from the burning of ballots . . .

. . . in the election of Popes. For more information, see:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12270a.htm

[HEyHEY]

2. A new Pope comes to a Vatican near you

[radfringe]

39. bush takes over

replaces the wine with kool-aid

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Dookus]

5. hrmm....

I don't think anybody's ever made a credible accusation that the current pope is a pedophile. And alas, the Catholic Church is of great importance in the world. It would be a mistake to pretend otherwise.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Dookus]

13. You won't ever see me

defending the church's actions regarding the pedophilia scandals, but it's ridiculous to call the Pope a pedophile.

[7th_Sephiroth]

15. why is it ridiculus?

popes just another guy

[Dookus]

16. because he's either a pedophile or he's not

and there's no evidence, much less even an ACCUSATION, that he's a pedophile. Over-the-top attacks like that make meaningful criticism useless.

[7th_Sephiroth]

21. i'm not claiming he did the deed himself

but saying he had the Knowledge and instead of informing the local polices, he bought them new houses, moved them, and paid them money, KNOWING what they did, and thus like the driver of the car of a man who leans out the window and shoots someone, he is as guilty as the actual pedophiles

[Dookus]

23. you said

"another pedophile", implying he is one.

If you've read ANY of my posts on this board, you'd know I have no love for this pope, his church or religion in general. But saying things like that makes ALL criticism suspect as coming from a radical, hateful fringe who has no problem stretching the truth to fit an agenda.

[7th_Sephiroth]

24. i said it at first as scocial commentary

because i read the paper everyday and every day there is another pedophile priest being caught

[Dookus]

27. I'm not disagreeing

that it's a great scandal. But do you see my point that referring to the Pope as "another pedophile" sort of shuts down people from listening to any other point you might make?

[raggedcompany]

45. re: by proxy

he had explicit knowledge of hundreads of pedophiles and did nothing but hide them

Exactly. May he burn in hell for that alone.

[purduejake]

25. Great importance?

What does it do for me? What's it do for you? If the Catholic Church did not exist, life would go on... and it would probably be better for a lot of people.

(I know it is good for some and I have nothing against Catholics themselves, but personally I think the church causes a lot of problems and meddles in politics too much... enough to destroy freedom and equality.)

[Dookus]

29. Yes, it is of great importance

it's the largest religious denomination in the world, with great influence over the affairs of a billion people and many nations. It shouldn't be ignored. It should be fought.

[purduejake]

32. I can agree with that :)

[karlrschneider]

6. They worship graven images just like American fundies do,

a la Roy Moore's 10 commamdment hunk of rock...

[tishaLA]

8. DU will have threads with many deleted posts

as people insult each other and their various sets of beliefs.

[HEyHEY]

10. Whatever stupid!

;-)

[devilgrrl]

12. tee hee hee hee hee....

that got me giggling. :-)

[karlrschneider]

14. A significant number of people think "beliefs" based on no evidence

are baseless. It's not an insult to make the observation that a belief in undetectable deities isn't really reasonable. That's all...

[purduejake]

26. Plus, I think I we are free to talk about what the church...

has done to us and our families.

[TankLV]

9. He becomes worm food - just like everyone else.

At least the man's heart is/was in the right place, even if his later life was full of bullshit issues.

Can't say the same of ANY repuke - especially raygun.

[cindyw]

17. I believe that a group of 15 cardinals vote in a new pope.

Honestly, the new one will probable be more conservative than this one. Pope John Paul II was relatively progressive. The more conservative stuff coming out of the Vatican now, I think, is a reflection of his illness and others influencing his decisions.

[Dookus]

19. It's a lot more than 15

It's all cardinals under the age of 80. Last I saw said there were 137 of them.

[cindyw]

42. Okay.

[Meldread]

18. Well....

I don't hold any particular love for the Pope. He's been horrible on gay rights issues, and the covering up for all the pedophiles was just a big no-no. He's done some good things during his life; it's just unfortunate that it may be eclipsed by the bad.

Still I don't think he can complain much. He's lived to a ripe old age which is more than a lot of people.

[thebigidea]

20. Robbie Coletrane will feel a moment of sadness

[d_b]

22. All popes go to heaven.

[donheld]

31. Bullshit

[d_b]

41. :-p

[Clark2008]

28. He goes to Heaven, we hope. n/t

[purduejake]

30. If there is a God, he has a special place for bigots.

And it would not be heaven, especially when they go out of their way to make sure hate against particular groups of people continues.

[Swamp Rat]

34. I wonder what music they will play for the Requiem Mass?

Will they commission a new composition or go with something mainstream like Verdi or something a little older like Monteverdi or Palestrina. Personally, I wish they'd play something even earlier by Josquin or DuFay. :)

[Lexingtonian]

35. the conclave is stacked

The conclave to elect a successor consists of a mix of archbishops- bishops who get a vote due to the diocese they have being an 'archdiocese'- and other high tier church folk (mostly bishops) appointed to it internally. These are the 'cardinals'.

John Paul II has lived long enough, and was elected by an aged enough conclave himself, for his Vatican to pick about 80 of the ~120 cardinals. JP II has also surrounded himself with a very ideological and deeply Church tradition rooted set of courtiers and helpers (Navarro-Valls in particular) inside the Vatican- people who seem to think the reforms of the II. Vatican Council (1964) were something of a mistake. The net effect is that the conclave and internal Vatican establishment are by design and selection essentially rigid in matters RCC doctrine. JP II's political line of No Changes will endure in one form or another for another decade or so at least.

The RCC is in serious decline in Europe, growing in Africa, dominant in Latin America, and still competitive but probably in slight decline already in parts of Asia and North America. The Pope has been in constant trouble with the U.S. RCC over issues of gender roles/feminism, in Latin America he misunderstood Liberation Theology to be Communism rather than Christian socialism, he put high hopes in Poland's Christian activism in the Solidarinosc times only to see it turn as areligious as the societies around it. His latest real fight is with Zapatero and the intensive effort of the Spanish Left to modernize the society: legalizing gay marriage, abortion, and divorce, etc. after such a long rule of the Right.

Under John Paul II the RCC has become centered in the Third World and is only losing authority and following in the First World. You have to admit that he has been consistent and sees the RCC from the point of view of roughly post-Constantinian times: He's not going to be the one to alter the central plan of making the RCC the vehicle by which Christianity takes over the world, which is by outpopulating the competition and conversion of those who are not until no one remains to convert.

I don't see the RCC surviving the present transition to the Modern Age with this plan and their traditional theistic theology intact. The RCC plan seems to be to rely on its Third World members and try to wait out Modernity, like monks waiting out a war in a fortressed monastery, believing/hoping that it too shall pass. The risk in this disengagement and resistance is great. I don't know whether their Lord and Master, the carpenter's son from Nazareth, would even agree with them on this course of action.

[flordehinojos]

36. "The Shoes of the Fisherman" with Anthony Quinn is a pretty good

insight into what happens if the Pope dies. Back then every Catholic I knew loved the movie.

[neweurope]

37. When the pope dies we have a problem, and I mean we.

Old-fashioned Mary-worshiping John Paul was bad enough but at least he DID speak up - at least sometimes - for tolerance, loving of neighbors and he DID speak up strongly against the US-war.

When he dies RATZINGER becomes the interim pope until a new one is elected which sometimes takes a while. Ratzinger is a fossil and a fundamentalist of the worst sort. I find it frightening to see that fundamentalists are getting more weight all around the world - on the Muslim and Christian side. It does not bode well.


--------------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Skittles]

38. they just get another one

nt

[whistle]

40. Do you mean if the Pope dies before or after Bush's speech...

...on the State of The Union?

[spanone]

43. You get a new pope.

[Ronnie]

44. "If"?

????

[Jose Diablo]

46. Generally speaking

after death, the blood will pool (from gravity) into the lower portions of the body forming discolored bruises. The bacteria and fungus will eat the various nutrients and slowly the flesh will 'melt' away from the bones. After a much longer period, even the bones, teeth and finger/toe nails will dissolve until all that is left is turned to dust and powder.

As for the soul, if it exists, who can say?

[CityZen-X]

47. We Will Have......

six more weeks of winter!

[Nailzberg]

48. Papal dead pool is up to $650 bucks

I've got the first week of March blocked out.



on edit: Before someone flips out on me, I'm kidding.

(Not about the pool, mind you. I just didn't get in on it when it started last year. And there are no good spaces left for JP.)

[BiggJawn]

49. The Cardinals elect a new Pope.

And life goes on, and the "One True Church" endures...

I'm old enough to remember what happened the last time a Pope died. The Earth did not stand still, there was no eclipse. And they elected this young guy who took his predecessor's name.

[RUDUing2]

50. the council of cardnals convene and elect a new pope.

if your question is serious here is a link that explains it completely

http://www.americamagazine.org/papaltransition.cfm