baby, what's in that satchel?

so this may be a little belated, but the pope is dead and by now most of you should know this...unless you live in a cave in which case you may possibly be forgiven for being an ignoramus. and i'm sure all of you must have read copious amounts of tributes and specials in the newspapers about his life &c &c. this is not one of them.

my girlie reckons it's really not something to wail and moan about, but it is the end of an era. sure he was really conservative, with his stances on women not becoming priests and maintaining that priests should be celibate. but i feel it really is admirable that he tried to preach to the masses and that he had such strong convictions. and that he helped topple the soviet regime in poland and made peace with the Jews. and he appreciated
breakdancing, and he had his own bullet-proof popemobile (after a failed assassination attempt). so really, he was quite stylish. we both agree that he was a good guy, and he was friends with bono. so bonus points for both of them!!

in a way though, i'm quite relieved he died. he'd been sick for such a very long time, and it looked like he was in a lot of pain. not only that but i can't begin to imagine how frustrated he must have been at not being able to speak, or wave, or being so frail...at least he didn't suffer for too long. and he was still in control of his mental faculties when he passed on...not like in a completely debilitated state like some old people get. so that's a good thing right?

it's a shame though, my sister and gang won't be able to see him at world youth day in cologne later this year. ya ya i know there'll be a new pope, but it won't really be the same. this one was quite lovely. i wonder if the new pope will be as into youth catholicism as the previous one was. there was a list papal candidates and one of them was this african guy (scroll down to francis arinze). i reckon he could be jesus's homeboy. sure he's 72, but seeing how the average age of all the potentials is like semi-decrepit-to-fairly-near-death-state, he's close enough to qualify. the other ones sound a bit pompous.
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um .. i don't quite know how to end this off, but i think a python-esque quote could be appropriate. so...

"pie iesu domine, dona eis requiem"

foo'.