The question that seems to be on everyone's mind is what's going on with the Pope.
Why isn't his body showing signs of decomposition? He's been dead for almost a week now, and most bodies at this stage would be putrefying. But not the Pope. Has he been embalmed?
The Vatican says no. But the experts seem to think that some kind of embalming, if only partial, must have occurred. Could it be that his body is being
kept chilled? If so, the cooling apparatus is pretty well concealed. Or is his body 'incorruptible', meaning that it will never decompose as is said to be the case with the bodies of saints? I'm going to go with the experts and speculate that some kind of embalming must have been done, despite what the Vatican says.
Update: And while I'm on the subject of the Pope, if you feel like you have what it takes to be the next Pope, why not
apply for the job. Only Roman Catholics need apply, so I'm out of luck.
Comments
In the same way the Aga Khan never actually drank alcohol - it turned to water as it passed his lips.
(I always wondered why he didn't just drink water)
In the same vein, chickens grow on trees, Toffee apples are the standard currency in Java
And the President is the most intelligent man that ever lived.
That first article states that's it's been pretty cool at the Vatican. However, could they have concealed a refrigeration unit inside the catafalque?
Sharruma, you're right on the mark with that last line! :lol:
Spaghetti, on the other hand...
😕
To be fair, you don't actually HAVE to be a cardinal. But it's pretty much become tradition that a pope will be elected from the cardinals, and it would be a huge shock if the electing body of cardinals had a majority voting in someone who wasn't cardinal. But it COULD happen.
OK, now here comes the joke! So, the Pope's refrigerated, huh? You know what that makes him? A Pope-sicle!
Damn, I'm a bluejay.
And I guess Woody Woodpecker is out of the running, as well as Tweety-Bird.
Popesicle PDF
They also advertise Popecorn and Popepouri.
"It smells like jesus in the bathroom, and the pope in the kitchen, thanks to my new popepouri and candles!"
Too bad it's fake. I'd like to try the Popecorn. Better than that Poopcorn I tried...
re: who can become pope. Laypersons can become pope, but they do have to become a priest in the days beforehand. I can't remember the last time it happened, in the mid 1500's I think.
You will notice, of course, that this means the Pope doesn't have to be male.
Could a non-Catholic be elected Pope? It's pretty hard to imagine this happening (remember that it's the Cardinals who elect the new Pope), but I don't know of any church canon against it.
The problem, so far as I can tell, is that God doesn't seem to say the same thing to all the people who hear God speaking to them.
There's also a bit of a "caller ID" problem whenever you get a message purportedly from God.
I'd like to elect mine, he's been suffering from repeated terrible beatings for YEARS, it's time he had something good happen to him.
:cheese:
He told me it doesn't matter that I"m not catholic
He also told me it's ok that I don't believe in him
He also told me that his real name is Colin
For some reason declaring this from the great Colin would be proof enough.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2116395/fr/ifr/nav/ais/
Didn't realize the article was already linked to. Sorry.
:roll:
And why did they have to encase him inside of three different coffins-- what, were they afraid he might escape?
BTW, thanks Alex for a providing this space where we might all gather to pay our disrespects.
"What was she taking, formaldehyde?" I asked. However, nobody seemed to remember exactly what the medicine was.
In the middle ages, having an incorrupt cadaver was regarded as a sign of holiness. The legends around a number of saints claim that their bodies never decayed. Several years ago, I visited the Church of Saint Elizabeth in Marburg, Germany, which is said to be the oldest Gothic cathedral in Germany. The body of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary was originally placed under the altar of the church. A few centuries later, Church authorities decided to move her remains to a cemetery nearby. When they opened the crypt, her body was supposedly in a state of perfect preservation, with no sign of decomposition. (She was still dead, though). Subsequently, they apparently lost track of exactly where they had buried her, so I guess nobody can check on how that body is doing these days.
http://members.aol.com/ccmail/incorruptbodies.html
I notice, though, that there seems to be a good deal of fudging going on. In some cases only parts of the bodies (such as a heart or brain) resist decay. In others, it's explained that the body used to be incorrupt, but it isn't now. In the case of Saint Clare of Assisi, it's noted that when she was disinterred, her clothing and flesh had turned to dust, but "her skeleton was incorrupt" (??). Some of the "incorrupt" bodies on display at various shrines, when you read the fine print, turn out to be wax figures of the saints with bones deposited inside.
So if you define "incorruptible" loosely enough, pretty much any body of which any part is still somewhat extant would fit the standard.
http://www.geocities.com/jim_morrison_1977/
This is the same cemetary where Al Capone is buried and is supposed to appear. My Mum and I got locked in the cemetary there once after hours, but that's another story.
To clarify why I used to visit the grave: One of my hobbies is grave rubbings.... boy, I'm starting to sound like one weird chick on here, aren't I?
There are some new ones here now that I've moved that I'm dying to do, I was just waiting till it warned up. Unfortunately now that I've got the little one I don't do it during mosquito season because of West Nile Virus so my season is kind of short these days....
Let's just say they aren't taking any chances.
That would be Pope Joan.
One way or the other a definite hoax.
Peter
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/4/6/163022.shtml
Culture!
>>>In the middle ages, having an incorrupt cadaver was regarded as a sign of holiness.<<<
Yeah, but in the middle ages, being infested with lice was also regarded as a sign of holiness, to put things in perspective. (Really for real, look it up.)
He's only been dead a week. It's far too soon to judge if ol' JP is incorruptible or not. People are jumping the gun on this for the same reason they used to think there were such things as vampires--
Because most people without extensive medical and forensic backgrounds really have no clear idea how a body REALLY composes. Especially one that's been interred or otherwise sealed up.
Just because a body looks fresh on the outside doesn't mean it isn't putrid and full of gases on the inside, after all.
Vampire Pope! In Color!
Sort of a hip 70's vampire pope who solves mysteries and fights crime.
Gotta be the greatest hoax of all time (well since the first Jesus anyway) 😉
You don't exactly apply. The College of Cardinals meets and votes by secret ballot. They lobby, conspire, horse-trade, etc. among themselves until somebody gets a majority of the ballots. A great deal of secrecy is supposed to attend the whole thing.
"What if you just turn up and say you're Jesus Christ, and do a few miracles..."
Even if you convinced the Cardinals that you really were Jesus, I think you still wouldn't qualify for the job. The Pope isn't supposed to be Jesus himself, he's just the most senior priest of Jesus here on earth.
It's an early-medieval version of an encephalogram, I guess.
Of course, why be a Pope when you can be an Antipope instead? It's all the rage amongst splinter Catholic groups nowadays...