thoughts on the Pope

We had some friends over for dinner last night, and my friend Seth asked about my thoughts on the Pope. While I was growing up I was raised catholic. I haven't been to church in years and now consider myself a very lapsed catholic. However, I still feel incredible bonds to the religion. Being a lapsed Catholic, I am not a particularly religious person these days, but I did (and still do) find the ritualistic nature of mass very comforting and the traditions of the church fascinating. Mass itself is very theatrical! The priests in costumes, the fantastic sets (altar), the incredible props, ie the incense burners and beautiful chalis for wine ( I particularly like the very fancy gold thing that they put the eucharist host in, especially around Easter time. I can't remember the name of it, sorry). No wonder I was drawn to the theatre as my original career.

I remember when Pope John Paul II was elected. I knew nothing of the steps and traditions involved that go toward electing pope. The only thing I knew was black smoke meant there was no pope yet and white smoke meant there was. The parish I attended in Detroit, St. Christopher was a polish one. I gotta tell you the place freaked when Karol Wojtyla was named pope. (The first non-Italian pope in almost 500 years!) They celebrated and paraded through the halls, they even cancelled school! So Pope John Paul II has always given me that warm fuzzy snow day type feeling. Sometime in the mid 80's a friend of our family went to Rome and brought back a papal blessing for my family. (So I figure I got that going for me). I was honestly sad when he died. I huddled around the TV watching and waiting to hear news of his death while my husband looked on befuddled. I have to say that I even prayed, not the down-on-my-knees-type- prayer, but a prayer none the less. I thought his wishes to die in his apartment in the Vatican stood in stark contrast to the circus that surrounded the Terri Shaivo mess only a few days earlier.