Resignations in High Places - Holy Spirit To Lose (Temporarily) Job

The Mater Ecclesiae convent in the Vatican

Gardens, Ratzinger's putative retirement home. Photo:
Alessandra Tarantino, AP 

Yesterday I read an interesting piece in Spain's El País newspaper called  ¿Qué hacemos ahora con el Papa? or What do we do with the Pope now? This article examines the administrative and protocol problems facing the Roman sect with regard to a resigned, as opposed to a dead, Pope. At least he's got his care home sorted. As the photo shows, work is under way to make a pensioner's flat for him on the top floor of the  building nearest to the camera.
Some of the questions are avoided or left unanswered by the Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi,  because of the novelty of the situation. The answer to one question is I feel, unintentionally, amusing.

This is a part of the el País article and my translation of it:

...El día 28, a las cinco de la tarde, se montará en un helicóptero que lo llevará a la residencia de Castel Gandolfo. Tres horas después, según su propia voluntad, dejará de ser Papa.

...La siguiente cuestión es si Joseph Ratzinger, una vez que deje el Anillo del Pescador para que sea destruido, conservará en cambio la infalibilidad, esa cualidad que según un dogma de la Iglesia tienen los Papas para no cometer errores en cuestiones de fe o moral. Eso sí se lo sabeLombardi. La infalibilidad dejará de funcionar automáticamente el día 28 a las ocho de la tarde. El Espíritu Santo dejará de guiar el pulso de Ratzinger para pasar a prestar sus servicios con el nuevo Papa...

...on the 28th at five o'clock in the afternoon, he [Ratzinger] will get into a helicopter that will take him to his Castel Gandolfo Residence. Three hours later, according to his own wishes, he will cease to be Pope.

...The next question is whether Joseph Ratzinger, after handing over the Papal Ring which will then be destroyed, will retain his infallibility, that quality which, according to the Church's dogma, Popes possess so that they cannot make mistakes in matters of faith or moral questions. Lombardi does know the answer to that question. [Ratzinger's] Infallibility will automatically cease at eight o'clock on the 28th. The Holy Spirit will cease to guide Ratzinger's hand and move on to serve the new Pope.

What??? If, for a moment, we subscribe to the idea that there is, contrary to all logic, an all-powerful god and a holy spirit, would such a being really be at the beck and call of an octogenarian ex-Nazi, a crowd of corrupt power brokers and an organisation that actively protected (protects?) paedophiles?

I think not.

If god were to exist, I think that such a divinity would move according to its own rules and values. It is quite ridiculous, nay arrogant, to assume that it would fall in line with a human timetable. If it took Mussolini to make Italian trains run on time, what would it take to make a member of the trinity do the same?

Christ in Limbo by a follower of Hieronymous Bosch

As well as sex, money, power and guilt, the Roman sect is also obsessed with bureaucracy, as the above example illustrates. Another great example of this love of rubber-stamping was the document, "The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die without being baptised, published April 22 2007 by the International Theological Commission which opined that the souls of children may not necessarily be condemned to Limbo:  

"Our conclusion is that the many factors that we have considered above give serious theological and liturgical grounds for hope that unbaptized infants who die will be saved and enjoy the beatific vision. We emphasize that these are reasons for prayerful hope, rather than grounds for sure knowledge. There is much that simply has not been revealed to us. We live by faith and hope in the God of mercy and love who has been revealed to us in Christ, and the Spirit moves us to pray in constant thankfulness and joy.

What has been revealed to us is that the ordinary way of salvation is by the sacrament of baptism. None of the above considerations should be taken as qualifying the necessity of baptism or justifying delay in administering the sacrament. Rather, as we want to reaffirm in conclusion, they provide strong grounds for hope that God will save infants when we have not been able to do for them what we would have wished to do, namely, to baptize them into the faith and life of the Church. "

Did god, his son and the heavenly steering committee have a say in this?  How would they cope with this sudden influx of souls? By employing more celestial passport stampers and immigration officials? By widening the Pearly Gates? By building many more mansions? Let's hope for the sake of these spiritual travellers that the queues are smaller than those to be found at earthly airports. But then again, as some have been waiting for a couple of thousand years, hey, what's a few more hours? I hope they stock up on duty free. 

A personal example: None of my children are baptised, yet a (Catholic) member of our extended family once commented that if they were to die as babies, their innocent little spirits would not get to heaven, but languish in the Limbo of Infants. What utter rot! Surely, if such a place as heaven were to exist, it would not have been them who were denied entry but me. 

The Umpire Strikes Back?

Holy spirits that sign on the celestial dole to claim jobseeker's allowance until a new pope is elected; babies denied entry into heaven because they don't have the right bit of paper - or until Limbo signs up to a heavenly Schengen agreement. Come on, please! How can such beliefs be taken seriously?

One of the end-of-the world predictions that has been knocking around for quite a while is that the present chief medicine man will be the last. Well, I suppose then that while the misguided finger their crosses, we should keep our fingers crossed and hope that this is one prophecy that does indeed come true.