Friday, April 01, 2005

Challenging Times ahead for Church

Listeninig to the TV guys, salivating over the coverage of JP2's demise, is enough to make me want to move to the Isle of Sky and be a hermit. But that would be bad since I don't like the concept of being a hermit.

9am: Pope John Paul II is near death. His vital signs are fading.

10am: His organs are shutting down.

11am: The janitor is coming in to take out the trash and has turned the "Open" sign to the off position.

12pm: Pope is really really really not doing to well.

Breaking News: Thousands of TV Pundits make pilgrimage to Rome to take up position overlooking Saint Peter's Basillica. Make ready to comment on Popes death.

Breaking News: The parents and husband of Terry Shaivo, band together to fight the loss of media coverage due to the Popes final hours, file law suit against Catholic Church claiming the termination of media coverage of their problems is a violation of their right to bicker at each other on television.

Breaking wind: National Right to Life group really pissed that they were behind the curve on Pope's Death. Claim they couldn't get the appropriate goon squad to camp outside the Vatican to protest the Popes wishes not to have extreme life saving measures applied.

But seriously folks. Can the Catholic (Universal) Church survive in these challenging times? Well it survived the burning of Rome by the Visigoths, the collapse of the Roman Empire, six hundred years of the dark ages, multiple schisms as well as some really bad Popes and anti-popes. Somehow it has still remained strong and vital.

If the church was only a construct of man, for man, it would have collapsed long ago. It has a devine spark at it's core that allows it to continue. To say the Church is of man for man is to argue that 264 men have really been geniuses to keep the institution alive for 2000 years. Clearly the men who have held the office have not all been geniuses. So the church will continue on into the future adapting to the situation.

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