By Walt Zlotow
The death of Pope Francis presents a golden opportunity for the Catholic Church to leap all the way from before the Middle Ages to the 21st Century. They could so do by considering electing a woman Pope.
That is not as preposterous as it sounds. Unbeknownst to most Catholics, the College of Cardinals Conclave, set to begin between 15 and 20 days from Francis’ April 21st death, can elect “any baptized man” to become Pope. That has happened 6 times in the 266 Papal selections (tho none since 1378).
It would take just 1 tiny rules change… replace the word ‘man’ with ‘person’ in the eligibility list. Voila, all those intelligent, compassionate, modern Catholic women become eligible to be Pope No. 267.
A woman Pope might just save the dying Catholic Church, at least in Europe and America where Catholics are abandoning an out of touch Catholicism. Much stems from the Church still resistant to popular lay Catholic beliefs supporting birth control, gay marriage, women priests and married priests, whether formalized or not.
If by some earthly miracle women will be into the mix when the voting starts, one more change would be cool. A new pellet should be added to the burning of the ballots, one that would display pink not white signaling election of the first woman Pope.
Walt Zlotow
Glen Ellyn IL
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It’s well past time for that to occur but hundreds of years of being male dominated means: Good luck with that idea.
In the bizzaro fictional world of ossified Catholic doctrine, God is a guy and thus his earthly representative must also conform to that credo; a dick & a pair of nuts an essential prerequisite for consideration of entry into the big house in Rome and spending the rest of your life dressed up in ridiculous costumery and undergoing daily performative mumbo jumbo ritualism, chants accompanied by gongs & incense, kissing of rings, waving to the flocks, and dealing with the incessant scheming and back-stabbing by the rejected aspirants. Religious theatre writ large, and serving very little purpose apart from its continuity across the centuries.
Really, Pink smoke? Why Pink? If you want to do away with sexism get rid of the stupid colour binary for a start. Women are people, men are people. Why do we need to attribute a colour to either?
Amusing,Canguro,personally I’m waiting for the real Jesus to return and chase all these pretenders out of the cathedrals, synagogues and mosques.
Then turn all of our demagogues into swine…oh, too late for that.
It’ll take a while. Cardinals select the new Pope from their own ranks, but at the present time women cannot become cardinals in the Catholic Church.
Any change, it appears, needs to be from the ground up.
Watch for Pink smoke !
A female Pope? That will NEVER happen! The Catholic Church – like most male-dominated Christian and Muslim religions – are a bastion for self-important, rusted-on alpha male, medieval misogynists who see women as either nothing more than nuns and/or “handmaidens” to the demands of men or child-bearing vessels used to keep populating their religions and filling church pews with MORE easily controlled and manipulated members of their testosterone-driven CULTS!
Educated, modern women are SICK of being treated like “hand maidens”, fed up with being forced into subservient roles for NO OTHER REASON than we were born with ovaries and a vagina! Enough! This relentless sexism, remorseless and medieval level of rusted-on misogyny is NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE in this modern world where, according to Christ Himself, EVERYONE (of any colour, race and sex) are supposedly born EQUAL! Sadly, if you are a White, Anglo Saxon Male it seems that you have bought into that misogynistic fairy tale, appalling level of entitlement and the racist lie that you just happen to be MORE EQUAL (read superior) than anyone else! Well, women are NOT HAVING IT! Grow up and STOP pretending that just because you have testicles makes you superior – it does NOT and never did!
The fact is that history has PROVEN that the overwhelming majority of the violent crimes, the most appalling incidences of depravity, inhumanity, wars, murder and deplorable levels of rape, brutality and child molestation are ALL committed by males who have this unjustifiable and ENORMOUS sense of superiority and inherent level of entitlement. Down through the centuries women have been the most IMPORTANT influencers in life: they are the carers, the nurturers, the ones to educate and guide our children through life, the ones who unconditionally love, support, provide comfort and give sound advice to future generations – and there can be NO DOUBT that that is the single most important “job” in the world! This is WHY women don’t have to put up with the snivelling condescension of non-achieving misogynistic men who mistakenly believe that just because they have a penis somehow makes them superior, more intelligent and better suited to rule the world and everyone in it! It DOES NOT and NEVER DID! You only have to look at the mess the male-dominated world and Trump’s misogynistic America is in right now, to see just how THAT idea has spectacularly failed down throughout the ages!
A female Pope? Sounds like a frigging great idea but, of course, it will NEVER happen as long as we have rusted-on misogynists running every brand of male-dominated religion in the world! No wonder there are so many intelligent, well-educated women turning their backs and walking away from medieval religions that are so firmly controlled by alpha male domination. Educated women are empowered and no longer choose to be subjugated and treated like second-class citizens or breeding cows – this was NOT Christ’s ideas on how to treat women no matter WHAT the male church hierarchy believe! When WOMEN RULE, the world will be a far, far better place – you only have to look at illustrious female leaders like Mother Theresa and Angela Merkel to see the benefits and advantages provided to the world through compassionate, intelligent and foresightful female leadership!
Is there male and female utterly stupid ultrafantasy unproveable superstitious honesty?
I don’t understand why there’s any argument at all,God has always been whatever sex she chooses(but give Trump’s Whore House a wide berth).
Voting records also indicate that since the Revolt in the Garden of Eden,she has always voted GREEN.