Pope Chuck, P.I.

Do you think about our new Pope? Who could it be? What country could he come from? Can you imagine Chuck Lorre as new Pope (despite the fact he’s Jewish)? Do you even care who’s gonna be the next Pope?
The Catholic Church was often discussed in the past years, not every time it was about good things. I am Catholic, and I am a believer but there are some things I simply don’t get. Why not equal rights for everyone? Why should a woman not have a chance to be Pope? I am sure she can do that, too. A few years ago, when only men were doing politics, some of them might have smiled, or laughed when a lady dared to say something, dared to have an opinion. But these women proved that they can also do that, and now men and women work together. And it works.

Within the next weeks the Cardinals will decide who will be the next Pope, after Benedict XVI retired. Saturday Night Live already showed him how he could spend his retirement. Christoph Waltz did a good job representing him. I simply love this, and if you haven't seen it, you can watch it here.

Even Chuck Lorre wrote in his vanity card  #409 about the Pope. Who might be the next? And how does “Pope Cuck” sound like? Could this be possible? This man has proved that he can do a lot, so why not Pope? At least he could write, like he suggested on his VC, a new sitcom called "Pope Chuck, P.I." (Kiss the ring, or get punched by it!). I laughed so much, when I read this. This man would definitely bring fun to the church, and help it to finally arrive in the 21^st century. Because sometimes it still seems that the church is stuck in the medieval times. There are people like Homer Simpsons who go to church every week (I know that he is Protestant, but anyway he's a good example, and by the way I don't think that there are that big differences between Catholics, Protestants and Jewish people), but he doesn't like it much because he doesn’t wanna hear what happened 2,000 years ago. That’s history. It should be more modern, tell us why the stories back then are still important in our everyday life. Some points of view just have to be changed or updated, because the times have changed, too.

Don't get me wrong, I don't wanna complain, I just wanna say that some things should be reconsidered. Like in some cases there can’t be a strict yes or no. There was a discussion about abortion and that the Church is totally against it. I support this, no doubt, every life is worth to live and I probably wouldn't, couldn't do that to my unborn child if I’d be pregnant. But what if a girl was raped? What if she was the victim and doesn’t want to be reminded of what happened to her? Can you just say ‘no’? Or don't allow her to take the morning-after pill, right after it happened? (Like in Germany, when a woman went to two Catholic hospitals but both sent her away without treatment, because they couldn't give her the pill)
Isn’t it the Church that says, everyone has his free will? Sure that the kid can’t do anything for what happened, he or she already lives before he/she is born and is a wanted child of the Lord. But what is about the free will of the mother? Okay, this might be an extreme case, but sometimes such cases are needed to show that there cannot always be a strict yes or no.
And why can cardinals and priests not marry? Why can’t women become priests? Why can’t gay people marry? Isn’t there this one sentence in the Bible that every person is equal?

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

St. Peter's Dome -
picture by David Ohmer

No, it really doesn’t matter who will be the next Pope. It’s not on me to decide. I can understand Benedict XVI that he feels too weak to do this job anymore. He did a good job, and hey, he’s the first Pope tweeting. What a progress! I do believe the Pope will be heard and is still very important – and so the whole world is interested, like back in 2005, who will be the next one. So we wait till the white smoke will come from the chimney. The next Pope won’t be Christoph Waltz, and Chuck Lorre mentioned many reasons why even he can’t do that (and by the way: that man is busy enough, and we can’t let him do everything!). But whoever is gonna be our next Pope, he’ll remind us that the most important things in life are timeless and priceless, and love always wins over hate. We are all one in Christ Jesus. May God bless you.

You can read Chuck Lorre’s vanity card about “Pope Chuck”, and all the others he wrote, on his website.