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Popes and Bombs - but not in that order
Apr. 19th, 2005 08:10 pmNorman, Oklahoma was the place I was at ten years ago today. I was with Matt on one of my first trips as a district officers for the fraternity. At the time, I was pretty old to be in a frat, but I was enjoying it, and loving being there, treated like a superstar by the guys at the University of Oklahoma. The night before we had gone out with their pledges, and seen what used to be one of their hazing rituals that was no longer done. It was a food thing...totally disgusting...that probably would have kept me from becoming a member if I had joined then. It was a time of change for a lot of chapters, giving up a lot of old habits.
Sometime that morning, there was a loud bang. No one knew what it was from for a while, but eventually it was announced that the Murrah Federal Building had been blown up a few miles away in Oklahoma City. We caravanned up I-35 to get as close as we could to the site, but really couldn't do much. Working our way through downtown by foot, we got as close as we could, having to go around the building, around one. By then most of the people that could be rushed out had been, the news organizations were setting up camp, and the real rescue crews were pushing people out to start digging through the rubble for survivors.
The most we actually did was gawk, and eventually take up a collection for the effort. One of the more interesting aspects of the whole thing is that coming in from the south, the building looked whole. Only by going around it did you see that it had been carved out.
Speaking of Matt - Matt the born-again Christian who used to be Catholic, it's been quite some time since I've seen him. I forgot his birthday the other day. i guess I'll have to send him and email tonight.
Which is a perfect segue to today's events...otherwise known as the season ender to Catholicism's Next Top Pontiff.
(Come on, think about the wardrobe! the prizes! the fame! It is like winning a reality show you have to be around for a long, long time for.)
I'm not surprised that they chose Cardinal Ratzinger to be the new pope. He's older, and tows the conservative message that the Vatican has been publishing for the last decade or so. Heck, he's been the one writing most of the language coming out of the Vatican for the last few years. if John Paul was the human face of the church, the german cardinal has been it's stern voice the last few years. He's the conservative, safe choice that the conclave was looking for to replace a very popular pontiff.
It's interesting that people were writing off Ratzinger as too old and too conservative to be pope, but when now it seems clear that the church isn't ready to have a pope come in that may make a really big change, or stick around a long time, especially after such a long serving, well-known pope as JPII.
I definitely agree with Andrew Sullivan (who is Catholic -or at least was) that the church will lose a lot of ground in the western world with the choice of Benedict XVI, and the Vatican's edicts for the next papacy will probably amount to "the old way, or no way". Certainly a view we see mirrored in the theocratic views of many theocrats in our country.
Well, for tonight, I have some questions from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jaybear I need to answer. I need to make some questions of my own, and some correspondence, plus watch the Amazing Race!
Sometime that morning, there was a loud bang. No one knew what it was from for a while, but eventually it was announced that the Murrah Federal Building had been blown up a few miles away in Oklahoma City. We caravanned up I-35 to get as close as we could to the site, but really couldn't do much. Working our way through downtown by foot, we got as close as we could, having to go around the building, around one. By then most of the people that could be rushed out had been, the news organizations were setting up camp, and the real rescue crews were pushing people out to start digging through the rubble for survivors.
The most we actually did was gawk, and eventually take up a collection for the effort. One of the more interesting aspects of the whole thing is that coming in from the south, the building looked whole. Only by going around it did you see that it had been carved out.
Speaking of Matt - Matt the born-again Christian who used to be Catholic, it's been quite some time since I've seen him. I forgot his birthday the other day. i guess I'll have to send him and email tonight.
Which is a perfect segue to today's events...otherwise known as the season ender to Catholicism's Next Top Pontiff.
(Come on, think about the wardrobe! the prizes! the fame! It is like winning a reality show you have to be around for a long, long time for.)
I'm not surprised that they chose Cardinal Ratzinger to be the new pope. He's older, and tows the conservative message that the Vatican has been publishing for the last decade or so. Heck, he's been the one writing most of the language coming out of the Vatican for the last few years. if John Paul was the human face of the church, the german cardinal has been it's stern voice the last few years. He's the conservative, safe choice that the conclave was looking for to replace a very popular pontiff.
It's interesting that people were writing off Ratzinger as too old and too conservative to be pope, but when now it seems clear that the church isn't ready to have a pope come in that may make a really big change, or stick around a long time, especially after such a long serving, well-known pope as JPII.
I definitely agree with Andrew Sullivan (who is Catholic -or at least was) that the church will lose a lot of ground in the western world with the choice of Benedict XVI, and the Vatican's edicts for the next papacy will probably amount to "the old way, or no way". Certainly a view we see mirrored in the theocratic views of many theocrats in our country.
Well, for tonight, I have some questions from
jaybear I need to answer. I need to make some questions of my own, and some correspondence, plus watch the Amazing Race!
