Shortly after the smoke rising from the Sistine Chapel turned from black to white and Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was deemed the world’s new Roman Catholic leader, hundreds of people took to the Web to register domain names with the new pope’s title.
Web hosting and domain registration site GoDaddy told CNET that it racked up more than 100 domain registrations within the first 10 minutes of the announcement. By the first hour, 479 new domains were registered. And, as of this writing, 647 domain names have been registered at GoDaddy.
“The election of Pope Francis is causing hundreds of new domain name registrations,” a GoDaddy spokesperson told CNET. “Technology and religion came together this afternoon following the announcement of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis I.”
The newly registered domain names contained keywords such as Pope, Francis, Bergoglio, and Habemus Papam, which is the Latin translation for “We have a pope.” Interestingly, a forward-thinking GoDaddy customer already registered the domain name PopeFrancis.com in April 2010.
…
Most likely those registering domains with keywords relating to the pope, don’t have much to do with the Catholic Church. Known as cybersquatting, anyone can register a name, sit on it, and sell it to whoever will pay top dollar. According to the BBC, PopeBenedictXVI.com was sold for more than $5,000 in 2005. (source)
No doubt this has nothing to do with the faithful, especially since GoDaddy is not exactly the domain name registrar that faithful Catholics would want to use. Maybe there should be a faithful Catholic domain registrar GoPapa.
What if they ran a Conclave like a Science Fiction Convention? Really they are all dressed up with funny hats anyway. Instead of voting for a Hugo they vote for the pope. Plus the whole ballot burning and the stoves and chimney have a decidedly steampunk flavor. The papabile could set up tables to provide and autograph any books or pastoral letters they have written. Maybe the Cardinals could dress up as their favorite saints. A kind of Cardinal Occupy Sistine play (Cosplay).
Well maybe not.
Really what I would like to see is a ClaveCon where the faithful can get together and wait for white smoke. Again you could have the fun aspects of a Science Fiction convention in dressing up and instead of Klingon’s and Anime characters there is certainly a treasury of Catholic history to pull from. Maybe even dress as your favorite Cardinal that you want to be pope. People trying to break into the Cardinal’s pro-conclave meeting shouldn’t have all the fun. Some large screen displaying the chimney of the Sistine Chapel along with perhaps EWTN’s coverage would be nice. Or maybe a screen with a stream of MSM coverage to laugh at waiting for a “crows ear” moment. Of course praying for the Cardinal-electors and the new pope would be an integral part of ClaveCon.
It would be fun to be surrounded by a group of faithful Catholics when it became time to shout “Habemus Papum!”. What fun when the proto-deacon of the College of Cardinals first says the first name of the new pope and you try to guess the last name based on it. Maybe a pope name pool with minor prizes with the entry fee being of course paid using PayPal (punningly appropriate).
Fun idea, but logistically not possible. We don’t exactly get much ramp up time or ability to plan ahead regarding papal elections and getting a convention center. Still the perfect religious order to arrange this would be Conventual Franciscan Friars.
I am currently reading the The Vatican Diaries: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church
Considering the first chapter that dealt with the death of Blessed John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI it has been perfect interregnum reading. Pretty timely since it came out on February 21st of this year. What I found quite interesting was the discussion of some of the behind the scenes look at the Conclave and the election. For example the two stoves used and the chemical packs that were used to try to make white smoke actually look like white smoke. Also interesting was that besides the white smoke the other indication was the ringing of the bell “Campanone” at St. Peter’s Basilica”. There is a rather interesting story behind the bellringer of this bell when Pope Benedict XVI was elected.
Reading all this and the difficulties they have had with indicating that a pope was selected it is easy to see this system as maddening in an age of instant communication. Really couldn’t they email or tweet out as soon as “Habemus Papam” is confirmed? As I was thinking about this I realized I was falling into the trap of instant gratification of wanting everything right here, right now. Really is it going to kill us if this is delayed somewhat and people are having to determine just exactly what shade the smoke from the chimney at the Sistine Chapel is? I have find myself being rather impatient with the Cardinal electors for not coming up with a date for the Conclave yet and I am sure I will be even more impatient when the Conclave does meet and the voting commences. Still it is all going to happen eventually and getting caught up in the 24/7 news cycle is really rather silly. Still no doubt I will be caught up in this silliness.
Still I kind of like the old fashioned way the election of a new pope is announced. There is a connectedness regarding the Church to both her past and present. The both/and of moving forward and not leaving what went before behind.
Now also thinking about the mixture of technology in the last Conclave using chemical packs I thought it would be rather funny for them to explore the mixture of old and new further. Perhaps a chimney with a Rube Goldberg type machine of funny complexity. White smoke that goes through a gas chromatograph device that triggers a steel ball that rolls down a track hitting a plastic hand that then depresses “send” an a twitter app of some mobile device. It would have to be out of range of the cell-phone blocking that will be deployed at the Conclave. Give me white smoke, bells, and a text message.
Come and listen to a story about a man renamed Peter
A poor fisherman, barely kept his family fed,
Then one day Andrew brought Simon to see him,
And Jesus invites them to be fishers of men
Messiah he is, Son of God, Second person of the Trinity
Well the first thing you know ole Peter’s got a chair,
Kinfolk said “Peter move away from there”
Said “Rome is the place you ought to be”
So they loaded up the ship and moved to Babylon.
Seven Hills, that is. Swimmin pools, Caesar.
Well now its time to say goodbye to B Sixteen
And invoke the conclave for Cardinals kindly droppin in.
The Sistine Chapel will be the locality
To see which man will head the Holy See
Pababile that is. burn the ballots, white smoke
Y’all pray now, y’hear?
* Cardinal pictured are just some at the top of the New Advent Buzz Meter.
Finally the media is getting to meatier stories regarding Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.
Benedict XVI, no-longer-pope, is resuming pleasures once crowded out of his stressful life: Reading, strolling in the gardens and playing the piano, according to the Vatican.
So, can the pontiff emeritus finally have a cat again? Maybe.
No pets were allowed in the papal residence in Vatican City. But there are kitties all over the enormous garden at the papal retreat, Castel Gandolfo. That’s where Benedict is now ensconced for a few weeks until he can move to a residence being readied for him within Vatican City.
In the archives at Catholic University, there’s a 1958 comic book calledThe Cat from Castelgandolfo in which a fictitious kitty hung out with Pope Pius XI. And undated Web images show some plump felines languishing on the garden walls.
The pope’s brother, Rev. Georg Ratzinger, in his 2011 book, My Brother, the Pope, describes Joseph-who-became-Benedict as someone “very tenderhearted; he loves animals and flowers.” Back in 1968, when Rev. Joseph Ratzinger was a theology professor in the Bavarian town of Tubingen, a neighbor’s cat visited him daily.
“It even accompanied him to his lectures and to Mass. It was a black cat, a very intelligent pussycat,” the older brother writes.
In 2005, Georg Ratzinger’s housekeeper in Germany told MSNBC that the pope’s personal cat, Chico, was under the care of the person who tends the pope’s private residence there and another neighborhood cat visited Chico often.
So, if Georg wants to bring Chico along for a visit, there are two hotels in Castel Gandolfo that advertise they are “pet friendly.”
Once Benedict returns to live at the Mater Ecclesiae (Mother of the Church) refurbished apartment inside the Vatican City State, there are countless cats already afoot that could cozy up to a known soft touch. (source)
Really we need a Kitty Conclave to help him to ge an appropriate cat.
Could Contessina, a cat that roams the gardens at Vatican City, be pontiff emeritus Benedict XVI’s first post-papacy cat? He couldn’t have one when he lived in the papal residence. / Filippo Monteforte, AFP/Getty Images
The pope being a cat person is not put of by their standoffish ways and the fact cats are friendly only when they want something. Really every pope should be a cat person since it will prepare them in working with the Curia. The cat above is really not really wearing liturgically appropriate fut. The emeritus pope needs a cat wearing appropriate fur. Perhaps all white with brown paws.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict has decided what he will wear once he is no longer pope: a simple white cassock and brown shoes given to him in León, Mexico.
“The city of Leon is known for beautiful shoes and very comfortable shoes. And when the Pope was asked what he wanted to wear, he said, ‘I want the shoes from León in Mexico,’” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told journalists Feb. 26.
“It will no longer be the red shoes that you have seen him wear. He has chosen to keep brown shoes that were given to him on his recent trip,” he said.
As for his apparel, the pope emeritus will wear a simple white cassock without the mozzetta (the short cape that covers his shoulders). (source)
I especially like that Benedict will be wearing brown shoes. In the Navy officers and chiefs involved in aviation were allowed to wear brown shoes. So my being a Chief with the Aviation Electionic Technician rating I got to wear brown shoes instead of black. So finally I have exactly one thing in common with him (besides being male and Catholic).
Feeling especially rather “Lenty” today I needed a good laugh.
The local Sisters of Charity’s Office of Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation has produced a Lenten “Care for Creation” calendar that has been circulated by a few like-minded parishes. Each day includes a recommended activity, and some of them are laugh-out-loud funny. Take a look at the recommendation for last Friday, Feb. 22:
Try a “water fast” by flushing your toilet half as often. Be mindful that many people around the world have access only to the amount of water each day that U.S. citizens use in one toilet flush.
The Office of Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation (OPJIC, ‘natch) was founded by would-be priestess Louise Akers, who came to minor fame when Archbishop Pilarczyk barred her from teaching for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati when it was revealed she was a member of the Women’s Ordination Conference. But rest assured OPJIC has retained its founder’s spirit. The website includes a quote from notorious women’s ordination advocate Theresa Kane and an announcement that equally notorious dissident Joan Chittister will be the featured speaker at a symposium hosted by Xavier University. (source)
I guess this is the new version of “Eat all the food on your plate, there are starving people in the world.” Like that suggestion is actually does nothing for real problems and access to water is a serious problem in some parts of the world. Just as long as an action makes you feel good about yourself actual connection to doing good isn’t important. As an exercise in solidarity this one is pretty silly,
Now if you really wanted to flush half as often, get rid of your government mandated comode and buy a classic one where only one flush is actually required.
Pat Archbold has a a very funny piece up a the National Catholic Register titled What if the Church was a Car Company?.
Just to whet your appetite before you read the whole thing:
- Communion of Saints: The ultimate drivers support group. Like totally On*Star on steroids.
- Concupiscence: The tendency of all people to drive off the road while fiddling with the radio.
Although there is one definition I would tweak:
- Confession: The repair department. For the measly price of a few ‘Our Fathers’, ‘Haily Marys’, and repentance you can have your car returned to factory condition.
I would say to to get your car returned to factory condition would be the sacrament of Baptism. Confession does not always remit the temporal punishment which God requires as satisfaction for our sins. Baptism takes away all the punishment, both eternal and temporal.
Now here are some of my own definitions to add to the list:
- Dissidents Just like the car’s exhaust where a lot of hot fumes go through it and it works best when muffled. Instead of a catalytic converter a Catholic conversion is much better.
- Women’s Ordination Conference A group that pretty much hates every car in the companies lineup, yet for some reason wants to run the company.
- Conscience This is just like the dashboard warning lights. When these light up you should never ignore them or else they could lead to the dreaded “Check Engine” light. Repair ye, before your engine is dead that your malfunctions can be wiped away.
- Spiritual Direction You think your car is running pretty good, but you want it perfectly tuned up. The mechanic gets under the hood and helps you to find areas such as valves that need to be adjusted and other things that throw off your timing. The mechanic helps you to see the problems you missed that need repair.
- Gather Hymnal Like a Chevrolet Corvair and unsafe at any time signature.
Plus of course there is my picture of Mary’s Fiat:
For those who need a little cheering up today, I present LarryD’s awesome interview with Patrick Madrid’s mustache even if it is all hair say.
Also rather funny is the Ironic Catholic’s Cyber Catholics Planning On Giving Up Facebook For Lent Thrown Into Existential Crisis
More funny stuff from Eye of the Tiber with Pope Michael Doesn’t Know What All The Commotion Is About