Pope John Paul II

[ISUKappa]

I am not Catholic either, but I have always been fascinated by the church's traditions and extravagant (in the good way) services. I have been watching the various TV coverage and, more often than not, find myself in tears.

BTW, I always classify myself as Lutheran, and take it a step further and designate LCMS Lutheran.

[navane]

Originally posted by kddani
well let this thread go to remind people that Catholics consider it a great insult when people say or imply that they are not Christians.

I'd rather this thread go as a place for people to make warm observations about the Pope's funeral service.

Again, I never intended to insult anyone, it was an accident. Shoot, when I was in Poland, my family asked me about my religious practices - they didn't even know what I meant when I tried to tell them that I'm a "Christian". The whole concept of protestantism was foreign to them (and yes, I even used the word "protestant" at one point). I guess it just goes to show you that words sometimes fail us - what means one thing to one, can mean something else to another (or nothing at all!).

Finally, in case it wasn't clear before, I am not in that camp of people who say that Catholics are not Christians. It was simply a misunderstanding.

.....Kelly

[lifesaver]

Relax, Its not an attack upon catholics.

Navane was obviously trying to be catholic (little c) in her post, but it seems people are looking to get offended.

Where I grew up I heard that Catholics werent Christians. I also heard that presbyterians and everyone else who wasnt a baptist wasnt a christian. In my hometown there were two groups that were the self described 'christians'; the baptists and the pentocostials. They were the professional christians in my hometown and made a profession of making everyone else feel like crap if you werent a part of their 'sect'. The kids carried bibles to class. If ya wanna talk about being offended, you should have gone to my high school, where the baptists (who ran the town) had MANDATORY assemblies at my high school where the keynote speaker was the revival keynote and we (the entire student body) were all made to go and publically told we were gonna burn in hell if we didnt repent and accept jesus as our savior. Yeah the looser principal, (Daniel Coward, who i think is now the principal at Amarillo High School- feel free to look it up and harass him, cause I have NO PROBLEM with it....) not only sanctioned this, but sent the non christian kids to detention for not going - cause hes a big ole fundamentalist baptist too. So if the five (outta 1500) buddist kids and 2 jewish kids didnt wanna go get lectured on jesus for 3 hours then they got detention and 45 minuts less lunch than the rest of us. Yeah, thats the religious intolerance I had to endure, so no one needs to lecture on here about being offended. Cause in my small ass town, if you raised hell, you'd get arrested for whatever, like for not loving jesus enough and shit. Again, cause the baptists ran the town. (Yeah, the downside of living in Texas. It had civil suit written all over it, but that was back in the day before people thought of that shit. Hell, I woulld entered into a suit. There was also a gay kid who got the shit beat outta him so hard he had to drink outta a straw for the rest of our three years in HS. Nothing happened. Today, the school woullda paid about 13.2 million dollars for knowing he was gay and not protecting him.)

Fuck, I am just lucky I escaped there and can read.

Theres hella bigger issues to get all worked up about and this isnt one. its a regional thing and let is leave it be. Someones readiness to be offended got someone else upset and hurt.

It wasnt intentional.. Lets all understnd we dont all live in greater PA or MT wherever and MOVE ON.

[mmcat]

a lovely ceremony...
many of my students are thinking about the whole religious situation after the pope's death.

[AOIIsilver]

Also remember that when someone states that they are "Christian," they may be referring to the Christian Church, as in the formal name of a religious denomination.

Be blessed and be happy.
Silver

I am not catholic and i grew up presbyterian..... however, my dad is catholic and we have been in so many deep discussions this past week ,and even right before the death of the pope. I have found everything i have wittnessed in the catholic church from what i have seen on TV and read this past week completely fasicinating. From the traditions and rituals to the beautiful soul stirring music for the masses and the funeral as well as when he was laying in state.

The funeral was profoundly touching and moving. this is the first funeral for a pope i have wittnessed as i was just a kid when the other two died in 78. I just recal my cartoons being interrupted alot. To watch as a grown up and wittness the ritual and symbolic traditions is very moving.

He was surely a well respected pope who had respect from many non catholics around the world.

It will be odd in a sense to see a new pope take the position.

[Taualumna]

Originally posted by ariesrising
How does a new Pope choose what his....Pope name...will be? He won't be John Paul 3 will he? (Unless he wants to? I don't get how it's done)

As I understand it, he can choose his own name.

[lifesaver]

He chooses it on his own, but often influenced by two factors:

1) A saint he feels is his particular guide/influence

2) A pope who he feels was a strong infulence.

[AGDee]

Some people in the church have said that the next one should take John Paul III as his papal name as a way to honor John Paul II. I was thinking differently. It seems to me that in taking a different papal name, it would be saying "I know I cannot fill his shoes because of his greatness". Time will tell what he chooses to do.

Dee

THis all so interesting .... Next week will be very interesting to witness