Holy Father, I'm amazed at all you can do given the time you have. Wednesday audiences, photo-ops, blogging, leading the church, as well as keeping up with the re-runs on late night cable. I truly wish I had your stamina. I can't even keep up with new shows.
But you're right about the relativistic nature of renaming items to make them more appealing. Kind of like how some mothers buy embroidered, fancy velcro-ed wraps with silly names to cover cloth diapers. Even if you dress up the item, it's still gonna get crap on it ('scuse my French). That's the purpose it serves, and all the embroidery in the world won't keep your baby from staining it up.
Thank you for giving me something to muse about today.
"If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog? Five? No, calling a tail a leg don’t make it a leg."
Abraham Lincoln
(My favorite exposer of relativism, only second to you, Holy Father.)
MrsDarwin,
Thank you for writing. I wasn’t aware of the practice that you mentioned. In fact, I didn’t even know people used cloth diapers anymore and I find it quite surprising. In hindsight, I suppose that it would make sense that cloth diapers would be used in places likely Berkley, CA and Ashland, OR where there are high concentrations of braless Birkenstock wearers who would really get into that sort of thing because it would make them feel like they were serving a higher cause or something.
Please, there is no reason to apologize about your ‘French’, it wouldn’t be very papal of me to use that word, but it is what it is.
God bless you.
Papa
Julie D.
Thank you for sharing that quote; it is very good and quite appropriate.
God bless you.
Papa
Papa,
You're more hip than me.
This is at least the second time you mentioned Birkenstocks in this blog.
The first time you mentioned the brand (when you were speaking of our favorite Chancery office and the people who work there), I thought they were khaki capris.
Then I saw them on QVC on Labor Day.
Father, your insights into history, linguistics and popular culture are truly staggering.
Of course, there is always a way to subvert these historical secularizers and relativists in their little game. Since they haven't actually moved the focal point of history, and have chosen such easily abused initials, we can simply mistake BCE for "Before the Christian Era" and CE for "The Christian Era"
Of course, there are always those even siller people who want to have a dating system going from the end of the last ice age, putting us at something like 250000. But come now, when exactly did the last ice age end? Did a wooly mammoth stick his head out of the glacier one morning and say, "Hey, it's warm out here"?
Chris,
I apologize for not being clearer. I shouldn't have assumed that everyone understood the correlation between Birkenstocks and Relativists of the hippy variety.
God bless you.
Papa
DarwinCatholic,
I sure got a chuckle out of your wooly mammoth comment. Thank you.
You make an excellent point about BCE and CE. Instead of mentally throwing raspberries at the television every time A&E or the History Channel use those terms, I will just consider them in the manner you present.
God bless you.
Papa
Holy Father,
Dare I make a comment regarding the diapers? My wife and I have elected to use the cloth diaper system, simply because it is more economical. I would hardly consider her to be a "braless Birkenstock wearer." Simply put, just because an idea is popular with the granola-eating hippie crowd doesn't not mean it is without merit. Many ideas these type of people do favor are indeed rather silly to downright immoral, but some of them are good (such as eating healthy).
I suppose the criticism has more to do with their motives, rather than the choice to use cloth diapers over disposable. To compare my wife and I with these folks in Berkley etc..., I guess you could describe it as frugality vs. neo-paganism (environmentalism as religion).
Cheers!
Mr. Felderhoff,
The Lord's grace be with you for being such a good steward of His blessings. I by no means intended on offending you, your wife, or even the relativist-braless-Birkenstock-wearers who tend to act according to misplaced values and appearances. In fact, my brother George informs me that my mother used cloth diapers on me too, but since they didn’t have Velcro® back then, I didn’t sport embroidered wraps. I was genuinely surprised to hear that there is still a market for cloth diapers in today’s ‘disposable’ society.
God bless you and your family.
Papa
Papa,
I never liked Sienfeld much, not that there is anything wrong with your watching it. (tee hee)
great post. I do hate BCE and CE, "What is so Common about the birth of Christ?" is how my autistic son put it when he had to relearn the new system. Wise young man, don't you think?
Dear Papa,
My professor in Hebrew Scripture writes "Godself" instead of "Himself" because, he explains, God has no gender. This is worse than BCE and CE, no?
I think he saw me wince when he said that.
Hi, Holy Father,
I had no idea you knew American television programs so well. Do you get reruns in Italian in Vatican City?
--Ann
Maggie,
Indeed there is nothing common about the birth of Christ. Your son is wise beyond his years. You must be well-pleased.
God bless you.
Papa
Salvacion,
Yes, I think that it is much worse to play games with the nature of the Divine. I am curious; do you happen to attend a Jesuit university? At any rate, you may want to ask your professor if Jesus Christ is God (let us pray that he answers in the affirmative). You should know where to go from there, and don’t forget to point out that it is that very same genderless God who has chosen to represent HIMself to us in the masculine form. Who are we to deny HIM, the Author of All, the dignity of HIS own distinction?
Thanks for writing and God bless you.
Papa
Ann,
Unfortunately, now that I am the Holy Roman Pontiff, I don’t have time to indulge myself in humorous aspect of American absurdity, which Seinfeld so aptly represents. However, there are satellites in geostationary orbit from which I can fix my pontifical satellite dish on in order to catch the occasional Bugs Bunny cartoon, which the relativists have seen fit to supplant with unedifying cartoon about ugly babies or ‘superheroes’ with enormous eyes and a selection of silly ‘powers.’
God bless you.
Papa
Hi Papa,
I just wanted to add to your list of pathetic cartoons with that weirdo "sponge" and his friends.
Scooby-Doo, where are you?!
big hug,
Scarlette
Is this truly a direct line to the musings of the Roman Catholic Pontiff? Do you answer comments yourself or do you delegate trusted friends to the task?
I just read your "This is not a real blog" statement. I feel like an idiot for even considering that it might be! Do you post all the comments and questions for fictitious people as well?(other than myself, of course!)
Scarlette,
Thank you for writing. Sponge Bob and company should definitely be added to the list, and you can rest assured that they won’t be accepted into seminary either.
God bless you.
Papa
Anthonyfrancis,
Welcome to Musum Pontificalis. I sincerely hope you enjoy the musings of a Holy Roman Pontiff. I will have you know that no curial friends or USCCB bureaucrats, for that matter, have any hand in this humble forum. I assure you that the incoming comments are not from me, but from upstanding members of the St. Blog’s parish.
Please come again and be sure to browse the archives and comments.
God bless you.
Papa
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