Pope Benedict XVI (if that really is his name)

I understand that an institution as old as the Catholic Church doesn't want to compromise itself just to appear trendy or whatever, but with Cardinal Ratzinger they might be taking a step backwards.

I'm not sure he should have gotten this far - he was a member of Hitler Youth which doesn't bode well in a role that should require empathy along with power. But I accept there may not have been a choice in his school or community at the time, and he never joined the Nazi Party. But now, instead of taking the opportunity to embrace positive change to improve the Catholic Church, it seems Cardinal Ratzinger holds even more conservative views from JPII. So we'll continue having 3rd world Catholic countries - which are more devout than their media savvy westerner counterparts - suffer from poverty and disease because their church won't allow them any birth/STD control. AIDS & more babies for at least another generation in Africa.

One things for sure, he doesn't look like a soft touch for Bono. He's German, so if we want some good to come out of this, we need to lobby the Hoff. After all he's almost as behind the times as the church, I saw a picture of him in Von Dutch jeans there last week. only about a year late Dave that's all. Anyway, we all know that Germans love David Hasslehoff. The rabid self-promotion he engages in would make this worldwide platform very desirable. This is the man that claims a bit dubiously to have played a part in the fall of the Berlin Wall. So I think I need to come up with some sort of petition to appeal to him to get involved with Amnesty and Drop the Debt style charities, then at least something good would come out of it. And of course, the iconic image it might produce: Benedict XVIth sporting a chest wig beside a gurning Hoff?

The church has deservedly gotten a bad rap in the last 15 years or so, with the outcry over the discovery of past and ongoing paedophilia. Instead of excommunication and criminal trials, priests were shuffled around between parishes over the years in a proverbial 'head in the sand' move. This has undermined the Catholic communities ability to trust their leaders, and it's left the perpetrators as the face of the church in the public eye, rather than the scores of priests out there doing good work.
Forgetting about the faith aspect for a minute, the role of the priest as social worker in the community is an important one. And none of these priests - carers that offer counsel, that look out for the old or the lonely or the sick in a community - can marry. Do priests not get lonely? Humans can't be expected to cuddle up to the Holy Spirit after a hard day's work. I know at least one very popular and dedicated young priest who after several years in his parish had to give up the cloth because he loved his best friend. They're happy together now. Why couldn't they be happy together, and he could still be doing the work he felt he was called to do? Grr.

The progression and even the continued existence of the Catholic Church are both hugely threatened by the Vatican's attitude to marraige and to women's role in the church. Yesterday's Italian favourite for Pope had felt that women could be become deacons, which could open the door to further in time. Ratzinger response Women's role in the clergy according to some paper I read yesterday was a flat out - and grammatically suspect answer: "No".

I wouldn't necessarily have said that I was a completely lost sheep of the Catholic Church before, but what ever teeny chance they may have had of ever getting me back is smaller than ever now.

To conclude, I think i'll email this to DCU and see will they upgrade my BA to an MA now.

PS. do they pick their own names? In an independent study conducted by me, i would be Pope Joan Jett the 75th, and Mark "would be POPE PIMP A*S MOFO the 69th"