for christ’s sake
Posted by jaqi on April 1, 2009
I’ve been out tonight watching Geoffrey Robertson (bless him to his inspirational boots) give an excellent lecture on the need for an Australian Bill of Rights – more on this as I read the book. But at supper with my father and sister afterwards – the conversation lurching characteristically from dietary matters to clergy abuse to marijuana, the stolen generation, and the link between sugar and vision impairment, and back around to the immediate menu – Clare happened to mention this:
Washing machine more liberating than Pill, says pope
which brought forth such a guffaw from me that I nearly sprayed my nachos. Clare and I agreed that he was right, up to a point – but only with regard to women who are not allowed to use the Pill.
But really, shouldn’t there be some sort of law preventing dimwit reactionary religious leaders from, er, pontificating about the emancipation of women? I know, darling Geoffrey wouldn’t approve – robust democracy, free speech etc etc. Well, perhaps just a little charter then…
joanna said
drat I got an invite to that lecture, but was home sick instead ..
Glad it was good,
JR said
Why do I get the impression the Pope’s never been serially pregnant? Do you think it could be arranged?
What a galoot.
Clare said
But don’t you see, James? Think how much easier serial pregnancy is when you have a washing machine! :-)
jaqi said
I’m not sure popes having children could be a good thing without radical restructuring of what one might call very generally The Entire Catholic Mind… I forget which of the Borgia papal (ahem) dynasty made it fashionable – so I looked it up; so easy these days. Rodrigo Borgia was pope for 11 years during the Renaissance; his uncle Alonso had also been pope. Rodrigo had 4 children with his long-term mistress and at least 2 others, although that was a poor showing beside the exploits of his son Cesare who, despite being made Bishop of Pamplona at 15 and a cardinal at 18 when his father became pope, resigned the cardinalate after a few years, married and had one legitimate daughter and at least 11 illegitimate children. He was by all accounts a nasty bit of business – greedy, cruel and treacherous, commander of the papal armies and the main model for Machiavelli’s The Prince, but I guess all that doesn’t really count in our discussion since he wasn’t pope. But he’s a great reason why popes shouldn’t have children.
And of course there’s Pope Joan – unfortunately probably just a legend, but a great story replete with all sorts of interpretive riches. Around 850 CE a woman disguised as a man works her way up the hierarchy by brilliance and application and eventually becomes pope. She rules for between 2 and 3 years but, having originally come to Rome under the protection of her lover (who obviously wasn’t taking the appropriate precautions to ensure their grand plans didn’t come horribly undone), she falls pregnant and due to ignorance of the finer details thereof gives birth in the middle of a grand papal procession and is promptly torn limb from limb by the crowd. Which would never happen if the current pope got pregnant. People are just soft these days.
JR said
If there were a risk of being torn limb from limb by well-meaning but angry mobs maybe all these evil fuckers we see in power in the various churches might be a little more careful and compassionate with their bulls…
Ever the optimist.
jaqi said
If you’re a sucker for Time-Wasting Internet Tangents (henceforth to be known as twits) this conversation continues in a slightly different direction on Clare’s blog – all tangled up with stuff about Marcus Einfeld who, incidentally, Geoffrey Robertson couldn’t help taking a rather funny dig at. If we do launch the campaign I suggest in my comment it’ll probably be on her website but I’ll be sure to create prominent links to it.
Clare said
There’s some weird cross-blogging going on here, with Jac and me commenting on each other’s blogs simultaneously, and then commenting on each other’s comments on our own blogs.
But I resent [adopting a tone of high dudgeon] my blog entry being referred to as either a time-wasting tangent OR a twit :-)
Eugene said
Popes should not exist. Here endeth the discussion.
Clare said
Oh come, Eugene – we wouldn’t want to dabble in genocide (there’d be a degree of ethnic cleansing in eliminating all popes, I’m sure). Let’s settle for allowing them to exist, so long as no-one pays any attention to them :-)
Eugene said
I’m with you on that one, Clare. :)
jaqi said
Since there’s only one pope at a time I should think it’s only assassination rather than genocide. And on reflection, I’m rather surprised it doesn’t happen more often…
Clare said
It’s hard to make a mortal wound in a body where the non-existent heart is surrounded by a lot of hot air :-)