Merkavah - Drive the Lord's SUV!

Let's make this clear right off the bat: I didn't want Ratzinger to win. I heard from someone once that they thought they had a bad premonition about Arinze. Let's just say I had the same about Ratzinger.

Besides, she's a German and a conservative, so it's no surprise she would like Ratzinger.

For the rest of us though... it seems that he's the embodiment of evil. It's not like we weren't all thinking it. He looks like Palpatine.

I'll even forget that he was a member of the Hitler Youth, and as a conservative, regards homosexuality as a problem. I'll forget that. Like they say, he's-ah da frikkin' pope now, no longer the Cardinal, and damned sure he's not the little boy from Germany anymore. Growing up in Germany during the war gives him no other choice for the former, and for the latter... well... he's a Catholic conservative. Even JP2 regarded homosexuality as a problem. I'll even forget that he regards all other branches of Christianity as wayward heretics. Catholics do that. I had hoped the more liberal Arinze would've won, but it was a slim hope. A black pope? A black pope versus the Cardinal who headed up what used to be the office of the Inquisition...

Hmm... let's see.

Not even my Catholic friends like the new pope.

We'll see where things go. I'm not going to make any prejudgements, maybe he'll do the whole turnaround-rebirth thing and be a great pope, rather than crushing people with his Inquisitorial boot. For now, it's just fun to laugh at him. He'll strengthen the Catholic church with his hard-lining stance, that's for sure...

But that's like saying that he'll strengthen the dying Galactic Senate.

Even Wikipedia got in on the humour... though it's technically a open wiki site, so anything really could be done with Wikipedia. But it was funny, and quite subtle, nonetheless. My friend didn't notice it after I sent him the link until I told him where to look.

I'll post a screencap.

Click for larger image.

Heh. Cheers. He's a lucky bastard the council didn't wait an extra day, or his papacy would've began on Hitler's birthday.

(Later note: Let's face it. JP2 didn't win through with the younger audiences on issues so much as sheer force of personality. Ratzinger doesn't have it. People are already insulting him. Will it actually spur the revival the Catholics are hoping, or just make them a bunch of fringe outliners who people only believe in thanks to tradition?)

(Another addendum: As I suspected, Wikipedia has responded. There now reads a message: Attention: This article is in a state of constant fluctuation.
Due to the high frequency of edits at this time, the content of this article may change rapidly, and may currently contain inaccuracies, POV, and vandalism.)