Happy Cheese Weasel Day!

Who brings the cheese on April 3rd?
   The Cheese Weasel
He's not a silly bunny or a reindeer or a bird,
   He's the Cheese Weasel
He's got a cute black tail
   And tiny buck teeth
He doesn't bring fish, and he
   Doesn't bring beef
So you'd better be good if you wanna get some cheese
From the Cheese Weasel.

(no subject)

I'm not surprised that Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's name comes up on a list of possible contenders to be the next Pope, although I find the prospect disturbing. If I was part of Opus Dei ("It's not secret, it's private!"), I'm sure I'd be thrilled to see him elevated. If he is the direction the Church decides it wants to go from here though , that will pretty much put an end to any lingering thoughts I might've had of changing my lapsed status.

If you don't recognize the name at first, Ratzinger is -- or technically "was" at this point, with the death of John Paul II -- prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly known as the Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition), whom you might most recently have heard of thanks to his pronouncement that pro-choice politicians and those who vote for them because of it should be denied Communion. Or that Turkey shouldn't join the EU because it "always represented another continent throughout history, in permanent contrast with Europe" and should instead try to join with Islamic states. ("Although a secular state, Turkey is still rooted in Islam. As such she could spearhead a cultural continent with its Arab neighbours and thus become the main actor of a culture with its own identity but with whom others can share common humanist values."   I have to assume he does know where Nicaea is.) Or perhaps his theory that the widespread reporting of sexual abuse involving priests is a "planned campaign" against the Church. Or even the reported commentary about feminism "which views men as enemies to be overcome". You should read the entire Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the collaboration of men and women in the Church and in the World from which that uproar sprang though, as it's not as completely horrific as one might imagine based on the media summaries. In amongst the other statements that make me go "ew" it contains things like "It means also that women should be present in the world of work and in the organization of society, and that women should have access to positions of responsibility which allow them to inspire the policies of nations and to promote innovative solutions to economic and social problems." Not in the Chuch, of course, but you are unlikely to be appointed to the position he's in by being someone interested in modernization.

While at the moment I don't identify particularly as Roman Catholic, I'm very interested in seeing who becomes the next pope. Maybe it's because I have some lingering fondness for the Church in spite of everything I find objectionable about its current state, and I hold out a probably vain hope that someday it will become the sort of organization it could be.

And I could totally get behind nminusone's idea of Survivor: The Vatican. I would so watch that.