You know what I am realizing from all this Pope hooha? I know a lot more ex-Catholics than I do active ones. Or anyway, everybody I've run into who has anything to say about this choice of Pope has said something negative, followed in 80% of cases with "well, but I'm not Catholic, so it's not my problem" or "well, I'm not Catholic any more so it's not my problem."

Which, you know, I live in a state with a 50% Catholic population, if you believe the self-report statistics. Where are they all hiding??

Clearly. But, hey -- was that quote originally in English?

I had that thought too, Jesse. The word "autoerotic," in particular, I wonder about as a possible clumsy translation.

Not that bad translation saves the guy, though.

Which, you know, I live in a state with a 50% Catholic population, if you believe the self-report statistics. Where are they all hiding??

All the ones I'm related to live in Western Masschusetts, if that helps.

Is it just sort of handwaved away? My doctor didn't try to get me to say I had irregular periods, or anything else that would make them serve a purpose beyond contraception. I would think that lying about why the pill is being prrescribed would be worse than just prescribing it, but I suspect I'm missing something.

I don't want to bring up personal stuff, so I'm going to be rather annoying and speak cryptically. Yesterday's livejournal post and the reason for the visit? All the justification they need. Your doc doesn't need to tell you explicitly that s/he's prescribing BC pills for medical reasons and not contraception.

JPII said that there should be no sex besides the sex meant to procreate (even in marriage) so if you're infertile, fuggeddaboudit!

I'm going to split a few hairs here; forgive me, Sue. JPII said there should be no sex, except for sex in marriage, but it does not have to be for the express purpose of procreation. The couple only has to be OPEN to the fact that they may have created a tickybox, even if they were just getting their rocks off.

The prohibition against artificial means of fertilization comes from the notion that God has a plan for everyone, which may include not having children. Procreation should only come about from the expression of love a couple shares. Trying to circumvent God's will with IVF or artificial insemenation is a no-no.

Benedict in my mind will always refer to Dirk Benedict. Face Man. Not the pope.

papabile

Leaving aside all the politics, I adore this word. Every time I see it, I think "lunchables! only, it's popeables!"

My co-worker has a theory that Ratzinger was chosen because (She thinks she read somewhere that) Germans were leaving the church in droves.

I think a few million German ex-Catholics (at most) are a lot less important than the many millions in other parts of the world who would have been happier with another choice.

But in Germany, being Germany, if you leave a church you don't simply stop attending, you have to go and get a piece of paper saying that you've left, otherwise you have to pay church tax. So they have better statistics on actual membership than anywhere else.

I think at the moment it hasn't really sunk in here yet that there is a German pope. The tabloids were doing their best to persuade us there was no way Ratzinger had a chance.

papabile

Leaving aside all the politics, I adore this word. Every time I see it, I think "lunchables! only, it's popeables!"

Now with Limburger cheese!

I'm still seeing papal as paypal, so I can't even get as far as papabile.

So far, I'm finding that Ratzinger didn't choose that word "enemy" -- the reporter did. What Ratzinger reportedly said (well, it was an interview with a French paper, but this is offered as a quote, so I'm reading it as a translation of such) was

In the 1950s someone said that the undoing of the Catholic church in the 20th century wouldn't come from Marxism but from Buddhism. They were right."