Politics and Religion

The world has a new Pope. I should say the Catholic Church has a new Pope but that's not how he is viewed. He is viewed pretty much as the spokesman of Christianity in spite of the reality. The reality is that he is the spokesman for only one Christian sect; Roman Catholic. The first official Christian sect, to be sure, but only one.  And there are no viable competitors for the status/position of Pope.  Most sects of any religion have no single authority. I cannot think of any that do, anyway.

He (the Pope) is supposed to represent Christ on Earth. But relatively few actually recognize his authority as such.

I look upon the Holy Roman Empire as a replacement for the old Roman Empire. I suspect that is why Latin is the official language of the sect. But this is not important.

I look at this ritual of choosing a Pope in much the same way as I view ascensions to the throne in monarchies. There isn't much difference except for the lack of possible outright violence. And most monarchies today are settled as to who will succeed to the throne. The days of wars for the right to rule are over. We still have rebellions and civil wars, of course, but not for claims to rule between families of kings and queens.

And the Catholic Church seems to mimic the political hierarchy of of the Roman Empire which went from a republic to a sort of monarchy with the emergence of Julius Caesar.

Monarchs rule by force, though, and Popes rule by faith. The faith of their adherents.

And, as soon as a new Pope is named, factions within (and without) try to change the church. You hear calls for modernization grow louder. I do not understand this. Let me rephrase... I do understand this but I don't agree with it. Of course, no one is listening to me and there is no reason that they should.

My mother was raised Catholic. She left the Church when she chose to marry my father. The story goes like this:

My father, being a Methodist (a Protestant), would only be allowed to marry my mother in the Church if he either converted to Catholicism or agreed to raise their children as Catholics. My parents went to the priest at my mother's church for pre-nuptial counseling. This subject came up. My father refused to convert. The priest then told them that the marriage could happen if he agreed to raise any children they had in the Church. Again he refused. When the priest then said they could not marry, he walked out of the meeting.

The priest turned to my mother and suggested it was for the best. My mother said she didn't care, that she intended to marry my father regardless. The priest said she would be excommunicated if she did. According to her, she then stood up, told the priest to go ahead and walked out, never coming back. She finishes the story by telling me she did not want to belong to a church which thought it could tell her who to love.

My mother never held a grudge against the Church for this but never regretted her decision to disobey the priest, to leave the Church. And I hold no animosity toward the Church or religion in general. But I think her story has a moral that those who want the Church to change, to modernize, should consider.

If you do not like the way the Church is, do not seek to change it... leave it. If enough do that, it will change or wither away if the changes are needed.