Another Dead Pope

The old pope just died. That would be Pope Benedict XVI. He was the pope that quit his job. Resigned. He was the first pope to leave office alive in 600 years. He must have done something really bad to have been forced out of office after less than eight years. 

Joseph Ratzinger was a German right wing conservative nutjob who played politics his entire career in the Catholic Church and manipulated himself into getting elected pope in 2005 although he claimed to not want to be Pope. He really probably just liked being the power behind the throne which he did for many years.

His time in office was full of controversies and especially his protection of pedophile priest. He was also against the use of condoms by Catholics and was anti-gay. I guess that was only for non-priest. As a teenager he was a member of the Hitler Youth.

It was a weird way to start of the new year.

This was actually an unusual experience in the Church to have a dead pope's funeral planned but without the election of a new pope. There has been Pope Francis from Argentina for almost ten years now since Benedict gave up the office. 

I've seen a few dead popes now in my life and I remember them all. First was Pius XII who died in 1958 when I was in 2nd grade at St. Francis School. It was a big deal and we were getting indoctrinated into the church and the popes. Then there was Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council. That was a really big deal but he died in less than five years. I saw another big papal funeral and another election conclave. Of course back then the popes were always Italian. The next one was too. Pope Paul VI lasted fifteen years until 1978 but of course by that time I was long gone from the catholic church. They elected another Italian Pope John Paul I who only lasted 33 days. I wonder what really happened to that guy.

Next up was the first non-Italian since the early 1500's. Pope John Paul II was from Poland and was relatively progressive compared to the previous popes. He was in office for 26 1/2  years, 1978-2005. His replacement was the German Ratzinger who died yesterday. 

Pope Frances, his replacement, was the first pope from outside Europe since the 730s, first pope from the Americas, first from the Southern Hemisphere. First Jesuit Pope too. Not that I really care anything about popes.