Go see the what?
In these situations, the Church has been known to not take “no” for an answer.
I think the time has come for Pope Paco. Those other names are so blah.
I’m skeptical. The College is packed with cardinals appointed by Mr. Wojtyla (whose “reform” period ended long before he did) and Mr. Ratzinger (whose reactionary retrenchment to pretty much everything that had been done in the 50 years prior to his election boggled the mind). I think we’re going to see not only a similarly rigid new Pope, but possibly the first Opus Dei Pope.
Diocesan priests meaning what? I don’t think I’ve ever heard that term. Our parish priests at my family’s parish are Franciscans (TOR), who definitely have a vow of poverty.
As opposed to the Franciscans, a religious order. Priests with “OFM” after their names are not diocesan, and are under the ultimate assignment authority not of the local bishop, but of the Minister-general of the OFM, Fr. José Rodríguez Carballo, OFM.
ETA: Sorry, I didn’t catch the “TOR” until I re-read the post. That’s “Third Order Regular.”
I know. Our parish priests have been TOR since well before I was born. It’s entirely possible that we were an unusual parish in the diocese, but I’ve had 13 years of Catholic education and have never heard the phrase “diocesan priest”.
Heh heh heh.
At the center of the basilica is the papal altar, with a canopy - baldaccino - by one of the great Renaissance sculptors. At the base of each of the four posts is a cubical footing. On each of the outer faces of these footings is a peculiar design that could be a flower, could be representations of drapings, could be anything… but each one (all eight look different) looks exactly like a somewhat agape vulva.
It is surprisingly hard to find good detail photos of this part of the altar; I’ve just searched for ten minutes without success. I’d have to go to my own photo archive to find some high-res shots of the bases.
To whom? Who has enough wealth to feed a whole continent, let alone who’s willing to spend that much on artwork? And what would such a person do after buying the art? About the only thing to do with such a precious work would be to give it to a museum (either outright, or as a permanent loan, which amounts to the same thing), in which case it’s basically just a donation of that much wealth to the museum. And if these hypothetical buyers are charitably inclined, why aren’t they already feeding continents?
Perhaps the Mafia has a finger in this pie.:eek:
I think already you know the answer to every one of these questions. Do I really have to work through the answers, or do you just want to skip to the end, where you say it’s okay for the Vatican to hold billions and billions of dollars worth of art treasures while the world - their world - starves, dies of preventable diseases, etc.?
The same thing we do every night, Pinky—try to take over the world!
Question about the artwork displayed at the Vatican: Is all of it actually owned by the Vatican or is a portion of it owned by individuals and on “permanent loan” to the Vatican for display?
Wouldn’t he have to go to a TLOR mountain to do that? This ain’t your grandmother’s ring we’re talking about.
No, of course I don’t know the answers to these questions.
Owned by the Vatican.
When you’re a 2,000 year old institution, and you commission art work for the going rate (a few month’s wages) and then hold onto it for 400 years and the artist is famous… then it becomes invaluable. Literally invaluable. A true auction of the Vatican’s art-treasure would break banks world-wide leaving many items unsold unless they start selling it on the cheap after the deep pockets have been tapped out.
And even if the Vatican raises trillions of dollars and spends it all on feeding the poor, the proceeds would be spent in a few years leaving the Vatican back to its regular bank account levels but its galleries emptied.
And there’d be all this artistic junk crammed into other museums and someone would complain loudly that it should be sold to feed the poor.
To be Pope, you must first be a baptized Catholic man. That is all. They’ll ordain you up the ranks when the time comes if you’re drafted.
Although, it doesn’t hurt to already be a Catholic Cardinal Archbishop.
A friend of mine who is into “End Times” prophecy has maintained that the current Pope will be the next-to-last one. Anyone else heard this? If this notion is popular among end-timers, they must be salivating right about now.
Under discussion right now in this nearby thread:
The Church considers the prophecy in question to be a hoax. But it does say that the next pope will be called Peter of Rome and be the last pope. I imagine that whoever the electee is will choose a name other than Peter.