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What would you say to the Pope?
By Sister Julie | April 19, 2008
More results from my survey on The Pope’s Visit (see my previous post “The Pope’s Visit Survey — some stats“) …
In the survey, I asked the following:
“Say you ran into the Pope on the street … what is the one thing you would love to know from him, respectfully?”
Here are the results. They are unedited and in no particular order except that I broadly categorized between Church/Theology and Personal. Interestingly these responses reflect many of the thoughts and feelings that many have expressed via the media, websites, blogs, twitter, etc. since the Pope has been here. Anything you’d like to add in response to this survey question?
Church/Theology
- Why the Catholic church has so many rules. Why he has not taken stronger action against the priests who allowed known sexual abusers to go from one parish to another
- do you really think that someday, everyone will be catholic?
- why can’t the church approve women priests and married clergy? and don’t tell me it’s because Jesus said so!
- The restriction on women in the clergy gives Catholicism the appearance of backward-thinking or traditionalism at the expense of flexibility. Aside from expanding the role of nuns, what steps would be feasible at this time or in the near future for introducing a greater female presence in ordained ministry?
- What happens to unborn babies, do they really not go to real heaven? Do they really just go to a happy place?
- I heard today that the Pope blamed a larger culture of secularism for part of the pedophile scandal in the Church. As an agnostic I was outraged by that comment, so I would love to know why on earth he would blame the criminal behaviour of certain priests on secularism, when that is certainly not the case.
- What is the church going to do about dwindling numbers? Does the church care?
- What are your deepest wishes for the Church?
- How is living in the vatican? Why does the vatican have so many secrets; what does it have to hide from us?
- Help me to fully understand why some orders of priests cannot be married. How does the practice of married priests in any way go against Tradition of the early Chruch or the practice of the Bible?
- If he could do over one thing from his time at the CDF, what would he do over and why?
- In view of the shortage of priests to serve in the parishes, is there any research/thought/prospect of solving that problem through married priests?
- Does he really believe himself to be infallibale?
- Whether he will continue the tradition of not ordaining women to priesthood and whether he will continue to open pre-Vatican II traditions to the faithful who wish to see a return of these rituals.
- Why does he treat women as second-class Catholics, when St. Paul said that there is neither male nor female in the kingdom of God but all are equal in Christ? (The inequality of women is why I left Roman Catholicism and am now Quaker.
- How he can defend the treatment of women by the Church?
- What would you see as the greatest hope and possibility for relegating world hunger to history books?
- How can we bring the worlds major religions closer together and work together for common causes, esp. peace and social/economic justice?
- After apologizing for running into him, I would ask him to recommend a good anthology (including his own writings) on the “Anonymous Christian Doctrine.”
- 1) Why doesn’t the catholic church support ordination for women? Do you beleive that Jesus’s teachings support this notion? Do you think blindly following tradition is a good thing? 2) Why have we not been actively addressing the horrendous (billions of dollars in sex abuse settlements) problem in our church systems. Do you truly believe that over 3 billion dollars in hush money equals an “individual traitor” problem or a systematic problem? 3) Did you always aspire to be the Pope? 4) Do you think there is a fundamental diconnect between church leadership and lay members? Is there a plan to address this issue?
- I would love to ask him, respectfully, when and how he got hooked on Prada shoes.
- Why does the Catholic Church excommunicate people? Doesn’t God grant forgiveness if you’re truly repentant?
- I would like him to explain, in a way I can understand, why the Catholic Church is held superior to other churches. My mother (who is Baptist) certainly doesn’t agree!
- What is your fondest wish for the future of the Church?
Personal
- Does it make you uncomfortable to have people kiss your ring?
- How do you do it?
- I think I’d be too awed to respond.
- I would ask the Pope if I could have a ride in the Popemobile.
- What are the challenges to being a Pope?
- what do you do for fun?
- I would like to know how he stays focused and hopeful when the stress of the call seesm overwhelming?
- What is your favorite musical piece (he loves piano!)
- How does he pray?
- If he would say a prayer for me.
- How he prevent himself from succumbing to the comfort of riches and luxuries.
- Does he feel that he’s overshodowed by the memeory of JPII?
- With all the poverty in today’s world, how can he wear such fancy shoes and allow such fanfare and money to go into his visit?
- What does your private prayer life look like? What non-religious book are you reading now?
- How do you like being the German Shepherd?
- Holy Father, how do you, personally, pray?
- Why is he going backward, at least in his style of dress? The huge pallium, the fur cap he wore on St. Nicholas Day, the huge mitres and jewel encrusted vestments all look like they came out of the Middle Ages. Wasn’t it Paul IV that said the money from all these rich trappings would be better spent on the poor? And while I’m talking about fashion, what’s with wearing the red shoes with the white robes?
Last question. I heard that the Pope asked for chocolate fudge cake for his birthday. What kind of ice cream did he want served with that? ;p - Why didn’t you bring your cat to the Vatican?
- What is his favorite hobby, and why?
- I would ask about his prayer life, I think.
- I would thank him for thinking about the environment.
- When you get to heaven, what is the first thing you will say to God?
- I would love to know how often he has doubted his faith.
- How do you play soccer in that uniform?
Topics: catholic life, media |
April 21st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I would like to say that although this Pope does not have near the charisma of John Paul and he is rather flamboyant with the trappings, his writings are magnificent, profound and truly inspirational. I read from them daily and each day come away with something new and filled with wonder. The daily meditations of Benedict put out by Magnifcat have been my favorite spiritual reading for some time now. He simply cannot have the insight he does without being close to the source in my opinion. He obviously is not perfect but neither was Peter.