Pope resigning

Good not god!!!!!!!! No n

Girl power in the Vatican.

Pope Joan

Goose there is only smoke after there has been a ballot and they are burning the ballot papers. If there has been no agreement something is added to the papers for the smoke to be black. Once there is an agreement that is indicated by the white smoke.

Don't know why it was started but probably something to do with the fact that they are locked in with no access to the outside world until they have made a choice - it was a way of letting people know what was happening (just my guess - I could be wrong - I often am!)

j08 [groan] emoticon - but good one.

Barrow thank you muchly for your patience and explanation

Yes,Barrow they are not allowed to speak to anyone except the other Cardinals. They are allowed to walk in the gardens etc, but if there are any Vatican staff around they are not allowed to speak to the Cardinals or vice versa.

Straw is added to the ballot papers to make the smoke black.

And of course if the papers are burned there is no record of who voted for who (whom?)

Galen (quote) "that would be god?"

I know it was i-pad finger, but - !

Yes. Do away with the middle man. #probablycomecheaper

Oh well, another will come along soon, and he will also have all his edicts ignored by most Catholics, if he continues the conservative line. Those who follow the official line will continue to suffer multiple pregnancies or enforced celibacy, and go to churches run by aging priests who can't get a young replacement, 'cos the young won't go into the priesthood.

BUT - if a modern-minded one is elected, and he manages to change a few things, like letting priests marry, and saying all contraception is OK, and letting women take a bigger part in the mass - well who knows, he might improve things for believers.

I left it all behind a long time ago, but it is interesting to watch from the sidelines.

I predict another conservative pope though. This pope and the last, both conservatives in their own ways, have had chance to stack the college of cardinals with their own kind.

It's not a political process. Oh no!

I think that is exactly right joan - you don't get made a cardinal because you have liberal and progressive views.

The Onion version: Resigning pope no longer has strength to lead church backward

I was hoping he was getting out before he was charged over the child abuse scandal. Looks as if he gets away with that one.

Lots of modernising Catholics were heartened by Vatican 2 and the joke went around that at the time of the next Vatican Council, cardinals would be allowed to bring their wives. At the one after the Pope would be allowed to bring her husband.

Joan women are Eucharistic ministers have been for years can't take bigger part in mass than that
Did nt care for this pope after reading long time ago he hushed up child abides and protected perpetrator !

I don't know if this is really the case but I have heard that the Pope will be more liable to prosecution if he resigns. Apparently, as a "sovereign head of state" he has immunity from prosecution at the moment. There is also the question of whether the new Pope will allow his extradition from the Vatican.

Why would he be charged over the child sex abuse thing?

Because he was involved (by being head of the Catholic Church) in keeping it hidden and protecting the perpetrators from prosecution.

Jingle, if you look up the thread on the child abuse scandal you will see how he was involved before he became pope. (Not of actual abuse himself, but of failing to ensure the safety of vulnerable children).

Bags - I was tempted to put the Onion article in the Just Jokes thread - it is very funny indeed!

Why is the Vatican still a phoney-baloney 'state'? It's a relic of the Mussolini era...

Well, the pope was in the Hitler Youth movement.......

The UN gives Vatican City special status but does not recognise it as a state.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/5314338/Dont-mention-the-Popes-Hitler-Youth-past-says-the-Vatican.html

I don't believe there is anything he could be prosecuted for. He's just old, weak and very tired. That's why he's standing down. No hidden reasons.