Monday, September 13, 2010

Selling the Pope

You may have heard that the pope will be visiting Britain.  Due to his “head of state” or almost royal status, the British government is laying out millions, perhaps tens of millions, which citizens are now protesting as way too expensive, especially given that 77% of them have no interest in this visit (at best) or are planning to protest (at worst).

Meanwhile the Vatican is trying to explain that charging money for tickets to see the pope say mass is not really “charging” but insisting on “a donation”.   Meanwhile abuse victims are taking full advantage of a new opportunity to get on the publicity bandwagon.

Now, if this were a blog devoted to high flown analysis, I would have put a bunch of links in the first two paragraphs.  But since so many have already written about all the complaints taking place, I’ve turned my attention to possible future solutions to papal visits and how to pay for them.  And I think I’ve come up with a plan which even The Onion might find attractive.

I call it Papal Lay-Away. 

Now you could have called it “Lay Away A Pope” but given the recent sexual scandals in the church, some might get the wrong idea, so I pulled the plug on that one.

Here’s how it works:  It’s like a subscription system.  People who want to see the pope buy a “lay-away” ticket. Over time, could be even years and years, the faithful who yearn to see the pope pay into this system. Next there could be two ways of handling it. Either the pope visits where’s he wanted  (if enough people buy tickets there) or else there is a lottery system, where all deposits are pooled to pay for the pope visiting one country. In another 10 years another lottery. If you’re lucky, or your prayers are answered, you might just get to see the pope! If not this pope, then the next one. Or the next one after that. You could even have a system where people pass on their ticket as a kind of inheritance if they die before they’ve seen a pope!

One final thought. You could give a subscription as a gift. It might even become like the proverbial fruitcake that is given over and over…

Per advice, I’m trying to keep a positive attitude. As you can see.

12 comments:

Amike said...

I love the papal layaway plan. I would rather like to lay away this one and wait for the next one...someone John 23d-ish, perhaps.

I was surprised at the degree to which the right-wing sees Benedict as a messiah (small m). I ran across this:

Britain Can Benefit from Benedict
By George Weigel
Posted: Tuesday, August 31, 2010

at http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.4249/pub_detail.asp

the very much misnamed Ethics and Public Policy Center.

I guess as long as one doesn't espouse same sex marriage he/she is as ethical as necessary.

Anonymous said...

I see the Pope's confusion.

The Vatican is a city state of which the Pope is Head. But Heads of state don't charge admission when they speak.

What a bummer for Benedict.

So he's making THIS trip as the head of a church .... although calling the mandatory price of admission a "donation" is decidedly dodgy, especially before the "service" is rendered.

Now if he would just "confess" (to whom I don't know) that he thinks of himself as a rock star -- and we can understand why he conflates his identity with same; after all, wasn't it St. Peter who said "upon this rock..." ? -- then he could charge admission on the up and up.

But he's trying to have it both ways -- he just doesn't want to pay taxes on his take. So it's back to the Il Papa thing, with the bogus donations that are tax exempt.

What's Latin for: I am the rock; I am entitled; I am exempt?

PS -- why when I registered under a Pseud that I registered with Google does my real name show up if I post under Google account?

TheraP said...

Anonymous:

That is so good: Bummer for Benedict! The Rock Star to be....

You should turn that into a post!

As for your question... I don't know the answer... and I'm not even sure I completely understand the question. (Is it me??)

TheraP said...

Amike... I love the "lay away for the NEXT pope" plan!!! ;)

MSNY said...

Maybe the faithful in far-flung places can pay a little less to get a chance to see some minor league action too. What better way to see some of the up-and-coming (no pun intended) Vatican 'future-stars.'

TheraP said...

MSNY... what a great addition to this! Why have only a pope on lay-away? When you lay-away a Cardinal? Or a Bishop? Especially in the far-flung places. Maybe one ticket alone will do!

~flowerchild~ said...

To Anonnymouse :)above:
Go to your Blogger Dashboard page and click on "Edit Profile". You may find your solution there.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxr-fbtV1-8

anna am said...

i love this post, therap. glad to see it here too.

rmrd said...

One of the papal party had to drop out because "gout" after he referred to the UK as a "Third World" country.

The Vatican noted that nothing bad was meant by the remark.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/09/15/popes-adviser-calls-britain-third-world-country-drops-out-of/

Cardinal Walter Kasper told the magazine Focus that "when you land at Heathrow you think at times you have landed in a Third World country." The Vatican said the cardinal had not intended "any kind of slight" and said he was referring to the U.K.'s multicultural society, according to the BBC.


And I thought Republicans were tone-deaf on issues of race.

TheraP said...

Yeah.. I wrote about that above...

TheraP said...

Umm... in a new post.