Popes

                               Yoda

I've had a resonance with Popes since early childhood when JP11 visited the uk, My parents were very excited about going to seem him in Coventry and we got up very early on a cold day to travel to Coventry, unfortunately I was taken ill and had to be taken in a red cross ambulance to the red cross first aid tent ( always a Templar) so my mum missed seeing the pope

I didn't think much about popes until around the age of twenty three when I was reading alot of Robert Anton Wilson and heard about the Discordian view of Popes (see below for a summary)

Thoughts of Popes returned briefly when I read Dan Browns the Da Vinci Code

Pope Benedicts visit to the UK prompted the meaning of the the Pope to be salient in my conciousness again

I'm very much a product of my catholic upbringing so have an interesting relationship to "Popes", What archetype does Benedict resonate for you ? The Good Shepherd ? the Rotweiller ?

And what of his resignation ?

The new Pope Francis is a Latino. Will he be a progressive force for change ?

The Discordian perspective

According to the Principia Discordia, a pope is “every single man, woman, and child on this Earth.”[12]
Included in the Principia Discordia is an official Pope card that may be reproduced and distributed freely to anyone and everyone.[12] Papacy, however, is not granted through possession of this card; it merely informs people that they are “a genuine and authorized Pope” of Discordia.
While the powers of a Pope are not enumerated in the Principia, we are given some idea from a note under the card which states, “A POPE is someone who is not under the authority of the authorities.” Some Discordians have also taken it upon themselves to further elaborate upon the powers of a Pope. On the back of some Pope cards, the following message can be found:
The rights of a Pope include but are not necessarily limited to:
To invoke infallibility at any time, including retroactively.
To completely rework the Erisian church.
To baptise, bury, and marry (with the permission of the deceased in the latter two cases).
To excommunicate, de-ex-communicate, re-ex-communicate, and de-re-ex-communicate (no backsies!) both his-/her-/it-/them-/your-/our-/His-/Her-/It-/Them-/Your-/Our-self/selves and others (if any).
To perform all rites and functions deemed inappropriate for a Pope of Discordia.
The third right (requiring permission from the deceased in cases of burying or marriage, but not baptism) may be a reference to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practice of baptism for the dead, or it may just be a witty conflation of marriage and death.
This understanding of the notion of Pope has far reaching consequences in Discordianism. For example, the introduction to Principia Discordia says, “Only a Pope may canonize a Saint. … So you can ordain yourself — and anyone or anything else — a Saint.” The last enumerated right of a Pope may be an allusion to the Necessary and Proper Clause.
A female version, with the word Mome substituted for Pope, has also been promulgated.