The real Pope

[E Street Fan]

I haven't read the book, but as soon as I read the article, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" popped into my head immediately. There really is something wrong with Kansas, methinks.

No kidding. I'm glad I escaped a long time ago, especially when my sister tells me about the state of Brownbackistan-Kochville. All I remember about the Kochs was a paternity suit (and I'm not sure that's the correct Kochs).

ETA: I like some of the comments at the end of the article. "Pope Nut I"-- :lol: :lol: :lol:

[thoughtful]

No, no, no -- Robert Blake is the Pope:

wellaware1.com/artwork/large/pope.jpg

:shock:

[Anise]

I'm sure his life is a lot like this: The Proper Care and Feeding of an American Messiah

[lilith]

Isn't the whole idea of the pope that he has the majesty, history, and authority of the Roman Catholic Church behind him? How can someone be the pope without the concave of bishops (is that the term? I'm no catholic) electing him? Six random folk in your parent's storefront just doesn't have the same dignitas.

[Mice]

He and his several followers also are in the process of taking classic Catholic books — some of which are borrowed from the Benedictine College library in Atchison — and scanning them into computers, so they can be republished in an “on-demand†printing arrangement with a publisher.

Can you do that? Scan in an existing book from a library and republish it?

[Cran]

Isn't the whole idea of the pope that he has the majesty, history, and authority of the Roman Catholic Church behind him? How can someone be the pope without the concave of bishops (is that the term? I'm no catholic) electing him? Six random folk in your parent's storefront just doesn't have the same dignitas.

Currently, the collegium of Cardinals elects the Pope while in conclave, but historically, this has not always been the case, there have been different forms of election, even going so far as electing the pope by proclamation of the populace of Rome. So it is not STRICTLY necessary to have the Cardinals to chose the Pope, albeit this is the form prescribed for the current times.

As those guys probably believe the current Pope and practically all Catholic clergy either to be in great doctrinal error/schism (and therefore not Catholic) or not validly ordained (if the bishop who ordained you didn't have the power to properly ordain because in their views, he was not "really" Catholic), they will regard any clergy ordained thus as non-clergy and not able to elect the Pope, so they do it themselves, because, of course!, they only teach the pure truth and are validly ordained in their minds.

In this made-up situation of a lack of "real clergy", they got together those whom they believe to be true to the faith and properly ordained, which would be technically a good thing - if they had actually the power to decide about such things as being in great doctrinal error or schism in the first place, which they don't. Trying to be more Catholic than the Pope, ironically, makes you non-Catholic.

[miffy]

Does the pope get his holy water out of the toilet?

[mirele]

Can you do that? Scan in an existing book from a library and republish it?

If they're out of copyright (generally, anything in the USA prior to 1923 is out of copyright), then yeah. That's what Google has done.

As for this guy, he's the last town on the Catholic highway before you get to Protestantland. First, you pass through SSPXtown, where people still think the Pope is the Pope, but they want to do everything as it was before Vatican II AND still believe the Jews are cursed by God because they killed Jesus. Then you go through Sedeville, where you believe the throne of St. Peter is vacant but you're waiting for someone to come along or something to happen that would set everything aright (or the Apocalypse). Then finally you get where this guy is, New Pope Village, where you think you're the guy who is supposed to lead the Catholic church back to truth and righteousness. Problem is, it totally ignores the Catholic concept of the magisterium (i.e., the collective teaching authority of the church) and is quite Protestant. That's why it's the last stop on the way to Protestantism. It could also be the first stop.

[moodygirl86]

ROWAN ATKINSON IS POPE!

I think he looks more like Tony Robinson.

[pomology]

Well, I can see by the picture of your awesome dog you are the REAL DEAL and noone should ever doubt your totally legit voting system. Pope Buzzard it is. :clap:

This.