Silly thoughts on Former Popes

[Mickey's_Girl]

Hee hee. Pardon me while I indulge my curiosity about my new Catholicness (got confirmed at Easter, hurrah!).

I got on the Vatican website [url="http://www.vatican.va"]The Vatican[/url] and was surfing around. I particularly wanted to find out about John Paul I, since he was only around for a month and I was curious if he left behind any speeches, etc. Not very much (several of the links didn't have anything, poor man) but most of what was there was in Italian. Oh well. I've heard he "had a nice smile"--anyone else know anything about him? How freaky would it be to have a pope last for only a month? Yikes!

I've also been reading stuff by and about John XXIII. I just love the man, but can I say, he SO looks like a mafia guy? I mean, for real. Esp. the picture on the Vatican site:

[url="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_xxiii/index.htm"]John XXIII[/url]

Of course, in real life, he was a sweetie, besides being a cool pope. But it's weird--I'll read a few pages in his journals and then look at a picture, and I'm always startled.

Gosh, I have way too much fun being Catholic.

MG

[homeschoolmom]

I remember when JPII became pope and I remember thinking, "AGAIN?? Didn't they just do this??"

[Mickey's_Girl]

LOL! Yeah. Exactly. Fortunately for us, JPII lasted a good long time. (LOVE LOVE LOVE :wub:)

(Makes me wonder--I do believe that the Holy Spirit directs the choosing of the Pope--but what could have been the reason for choosing JPI? Surely God knew he'd die suddenly? I wonder if anyone has any theories on that.)

I don't mean that at all sacrilegiously. I truly wonder.

MG

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='Mickey's_Girl' date='Apr 3 2005, 10:34 PM'] LOL! Yeah. Exactly. Fortunately for us, JPII lasted a good long time. (LOVE LOVE LOVE :wub:)

(Makes me wonder--I do believe that the Holy Spirit directs the choosing of the Pope--but what could have been the reason for choosing JPI? Surely God knew he'd die suddenly? I wonder if anyone has any theories on that.)

I don't mean that at all sacrilegiously. I truly wonder.

MG [/quote]
a buffer between two great popes? A caretaker pope, perhaps?


Honestly, I heard he was knocked off... :ph34r:

[Mickey's_Girl]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' date='Apr 3 2005, 10:38 PM'] a buffer between two great popes? A caretaker pope, perhaps?


Honestly, I heard he was knocked off... :ph34r: [/quote]
:ph34r: Yikes! I heard that too, but it was from a liberal cradle-catholic friend who's an interesting guy but a little too enamored of pope-related conspiracies. !! So he's kind of suspect as a source.

(this guy did empathize with my papal news obsession in the last few days, though...it was nice to have someone else listening to every teeny little brief, however unchanged from the one before)

MG

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='Mickey's_Girl' date='Apr 3 2005, 11:34 PM'] LOL! Yeah. Exactly. Fortunately for us, JPII lasted a good long time. (LOVE LOVE LOVE :wub:)

(Makes me wonder--I do believe that the Holy Spirit directs the choosing of the Pope--but what could have been the reason for choosing JPI? Surely God knew he'd die suddenly? I wonder if anyone has any theories on that.)

I don't mean that at all sacrilegiously. I truly wonder.

MG [/quote]
We will know when we get to Heaven...but I would say that perhaps God was sending the message that what JP the Great would do was just THAT important...

[homeschoolmom]

Maybe JPII wasn't quite ready yet and rather than hold the chair vacant another 33 days, the Holy Spirit saw fit to fill it-- then empty it.

[Mickey's_Girl]

Hmm...that is logical, I think (as far as we can imagine God's "logic", ha ha!).

Or--perhaps it was so that when the vote for JPII came, people would be all flustered (due to having done it just a month before) and he could get sneaked in like the dark horse he was(talk about conspiracy theories!).

(As I understand it, JPII was quite an unexpected choice.)

MG

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='Mickey's_Girl' date='Apr 3 2005, 11:30 PM'] (As I understand it, JPII was quite an unexpected choice.)
[/quote]
yes, he was.

[let_go_let_God]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' date='Apr 3 2005, 10:30 PM'] I remember when JPII became pope and I remember thinking, "AGAIN?? Didn't they just do this??" [/quote]
*chuckles*

The man was pope for 33 days and yet, he did leave a mark. I think that it's cool HSM that you were able to see this. I mean JPII is the only papa I've been blessed to have.

God bless-
LGLG

[Aloysius]

there is that whole thing about how he was about to really admonish the Jesuits et cetera... so that's scary. I hope the Jesuits in Rome weren't so far gone that they'd assassinate a pope, but with Jesuits in Latin America fighting in revolutions I'm not sure I'd put it past the Jesuits of back then.

Then JPII sent the leader of the Jesuits a copy of that speech and said "I make this my own". Liberation Theology trembled at the sound of them words.

Anyway, it's all unsubstantiated... who knows. maybe he just had a heart attack.

[Pio Nono]

JMJ
4/4 - Annunciation of the Lord (Second Day of the Novendiales)

[b][i]HOLD ON!!![/i][/b]

Let's clear something up [i]right away[/i] - investigation after investigation after investigation, by the Vatican and by outsiders, has proven [i]definitively[/i] that the reason John Paul I died was because...

- his health was notoriously frail
- he was known to be absent-minded, especially about his health
- his health records had not made it from Venice to Rome before his death (Italian hospitals are notoriously slow in this regard)

Because of these three reasons did the Holy Father die. He was [i]not[/i] whacked, so we need to drop all talk of that right away.

[God Conquers]

He definately died a natural death.

However, one interesting thing is that he thought he wasn't the right choice for Pope, and said that he would probably not last very long...

The Lord has reason for everything.

[Ash Wednesday]

I love Papa Giovanni XXIII.

I plan on reading more about papal history now. I find it to be really fascinating! Pope Alexander VI, the notoriously bad pope, died according to legend because he drank a poisoned cup that was intended for his host. :ph34r:

Pope Leo X had a pet elephant named Hanno. :haha:

Martin Luther wasn't too impressed by that, either. :haha:

[Mickey's_Girl]

[quote]Pope Leo X had a pet elephant named Hanno. [/quote]

HOW COOL IS THAT?!?

Wow. A pope with a pet elephant. NEAT! (Where in the Vatican would one keep such a thing?!)

MG

[Thy Geekdom Come]

When Michaelangelo painted the Second Coming in the Sistine Chapel, there was a cardinal who would constantly whine and complain about the nude figures. Michaelangelo got even. See the man in the far right, wrapped in Satan's tail? That's the cardinal.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/PrRaphael/Cardinal.jpg[/img]

The cardinal went to the pope and demanded that he do something to change it. The pope replied, "I am the pope, but not even I can remove a man from hell."

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='Mickey's_Girl' date='Apr 4 2005, 04:36 PM']
HOW COOL IS THAT?!?

Wow. A pope with a pet elephant. NEAT! (Where in the Vatican would one keep such a thing?!)

MG [/quote]
Pope Leo X reigned from 1513-1521...the papal states were in existence...he would have had plenty of space for an elephant.

[geetarplayer]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' date='Apr 4 2005, 12:30 AM'] I remember when JPII became pope and I remember thinking, "AGAIN?? Didn't they just do this??" [/quote]
My history teacher (a 7th grader at the time) used those words exactly at school when they announced JPII as the new pope. That was the only time in his twelve years of Catholic school that he was struck by a nun.

-Mark

[wopsim]

[quote name='Mickey's_Girl' date='Apr 3 2005, 08:34 PM'] LOL! Yeah. Exactly. Fortunately for us, JPII lasted a good long time. (LOVE LOVE LOVE :wub:)

(Makes me wonder--I do believe that the Holy Spirit directs the choosing of the Pope--but what could have been the reason for choosing JPI? Surely God knew he'd die suddenly? I wonder if anyone has any theories on that.)

I don't mean that at all sacrilegiously. I truly wonder.

MG [/quote]
maybe because JP2 WE LOVE YOU would be able to rhyme!