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The Pope gave a press conference on the way back to Rome from Rio de Janeiro. He said some amazing things, among which was a rejection of the condemnation of gay people.

The interesting thing is that what he is saying is nothing different from what the Church has been saying for decades. So it's not what he said, it's how he said it. There was no mention of "intrinsically disordered", nothing about "love the sinner, hate the sin". In fact, he didn't mention sex at any time.

There's a lot of talk about the gay lobby, but I've never seen it on the Vatican ID card.

When I meet a gay person, I have to distinguish between their being gay and being part of a lobby. If they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them? They shouldn't be marginalized. The tendency [to homosexuality] is not the problem ... they're our brothers.

Picking this apart, it seems that Francis is moving away from blanket condemnations and accusations of sinfulness specific to being gay. What he is saying is that gay people, like all people, should not be judged or marginalised.

What does it bode for the future? First, I expect that gay men will no longer be discriminated against in admissions to seminaries. Benedict was mortally afraid of homosexuality in the clergy. Francis doesn't seem to be afraid of it at all. This is good. It seems that well-adjusted, pastoral, prayerful people don't have anything to fear about the formation process.

Second, I do not expect the Church to relax its prohibition of gay marriage, at least not right away. I would expect that Francis might commission some study of what it means to be gay and a member of the Church.

Third, I expect that Francis will crack down hard on pedophilia and betrayal of the pastoral bond through seduction by priests and religious. However, relationships between adults who are not in a pastoral relationship don't seem to bother him much.

Francis also commented on divorced and remarried Catholics.

This theme always comes up ... I believe this is a time of mercy, a change of epoch. It's a kairos moment for mercy ... In terms of Communion for those who have divorced and remarried, it has to be seen within the larger pastoral context of marriage. When the council of eight cardinals meets Oct. 1-3, one of the things they'll consider is how to move forward with the pastoral care of marriage. Also, just 15 days ago or so, I met the secretary of the Synod of Bishops, and maybe it will also focus on the pastoral care of marriage. It's complicated.

This is indeed pointing toward a ground-breaking change of some sort. Popes don't say things like this unless they are preparing to do something about them. Whether this means the full admission of divorced/remarried Catholics to communion is problematic. The Orthodox do it, and most Protestants do as well.

So hopeful words from the Pope. Let's see whether the Curia will frustrate them or not.

This is something to think about when negative people are doing their best to rain on your parade. So remember this story the next time someone who knows nothing and cares less makes your life miserable.

A man was at his barber's getting his hair cut for a trip to Rome with his friend. He mentioned the trip to the barber, who responded "Rome? Why would anyone want to go there? It's crowded and dirty and full of Italians. You're crazy to go to Rome. So, how are you getting there?"

"We're taking Continental," was the reply. "We got a great rate!"

"Continental?" exclaimed the barber. "That's a terrible airline. Their planes are old, their flight attendants are ugly, and they're always late. So, where are you staying in Rome?"

"We'll be at this exclusive little place over on Rome's Tiber River called Teste."

"Don't go any further. I know that place. Everybody thinks it's gonna be something special and exclusive, but it's really a dump, the worst hotel in the city! The rooms are small, the service is surly and they're overpriced. Whatcha doing when you get there?"

"We're going to go to see the Vatican and we hope to see the Pope."

"That's rich," laughed the barber." You and a million other people trying to see him. He'll look the size of an ant. Boy, good luck on this lousy trip of yours. You're going to need it."

A month later, the man again came in for a haircut. The barber asked him about his trip to Rome.

"It was wonderful," explained the man, "not only were we on time in one of Continental's brand new planes, but it was overbooked and they bumped us up to first class. The food and wine were wonderful, and I had a handsome 28-year-old steward who waited on me hand and foot. And the hotel was great. They'd just finished a $5 million remodeling job and now it's a jewel, the finest hotel in the city. They, too, were overbooked, so they apologized and gave us their owner's suite at no extra charge!"

"Well," muttered the barber, "That's all well and good, but I know you didn't get to see the Pope."

"Actually, we were quite lucky, because as we toured the Vatican, a Swiss Guard tapped me on the shoulder and explained that the Pope likes to meet some of the visitors and if I'd be so kind as to step into his private room and wait, His Holiness would personally greet me. Sure enough, five minutes later, the Pope walked through the door and shook my hand! I knelt down and he spoke a few words to me."

"Oh, really! What'd he say?"

"He said, 'Where'd you get the shitty haircut?'"

I can't claim authorship; I saw this in an email list to which I belong and the only thing I did is change the sex of the person who took the trip.

If you go here, you can find a wealth of gift items from the Eternal City and environs, including this, to open your Polish pilsner, perhaps:

This clip is 5 MB but it's worth every single byte.

I think that we will now see Benedict as John Paul II-Light: All the authoritarianism, none of the charm.

It is now obvious that the Cardinals (or, at least, the 2/3rds majority who voted for Ratzinger) see the main problem in the Church not to be justice for those who languish in poverty in the Roman Catholic bastions of South America and in the mixed cultures of Africa and Asia. They see the main problem of the Church to be the abandonment of Christianity in the cultures and governments of Europe and North America. They are looking for someone who can re-evangelise Europe. Curiously, Ratzinger's latest book (unfortunately, I do not know the title) is a study of just this problem. I would study this book to see what direction Benedict's papacy will take. That is, I would study it if I gave a Ratzinger's ass.

The Church's difficulty is that it looks at the situation as: We have the keys of the kingdom and the well of eternal life. All we have to do is sit around and guard it, and they will come. Society and the Roman Catholic Church are _not_ inhabiting a "Field of Dreams". Spiritual values no longer emanate purely from a religious ethos. Humanists, atheists, Buddhists, and people of all types of creed and none also espouse spiritual values of a most valuable and insightful nature. The challenge that the Church faces today is to make itself acceptable to those who have abandoned it. Ratzinger is probably not the man to do this.

But then...my memory goes back to America of 1968. When Richard Nixon was elected, we were all horrified and convinced that it was the end of American civilisation as we had known it. And yet, Nixon was surprisingly effective in casting aside the Cold War rhetoric of his youth and opening the United States to the People's Republic of China and to the world at large. Sometimes people's perspectives change when their job description changes. I do not think that Ratzinger is going to moderate his attacks on those who in his view are heterodox. He is not going to go to charm school. He is also not going to be as energetic in his first days and months as John Paul II was in his first days and months. He will probably not see his 5th anniversary as Pope and almost certainly won't see his 10th.

Things to look out for:

-- What kind of cardinals will he appoint in his first Consistory (which will probably happen before autumn is well-advanced and may happen as soon as June)?
-- Who will he appoint as his successor at the Holy Office?
-- What will his first encyclical be about and at whom will it be aimed?
-- How will he handle relations with other Churches and with other faiths than the Christian faith, especially the Jews, who must privately be wondering whether you can take the boy out of the Hitler Youth but can you take the Hitler Youth out of the boy. He was put in a re-education camp for a while after the surrender of Germany, and he served in the army for two years before deserting just a month before the end of the war in Europe. "His Heil-iness", they must be thinking. Imagine the double-s at the end of the word replaced by the SS symbolic s-shaped thunderbolts. It'll look good on protest signs.

Nostradamus predicted that there would be two popes after John Paul II. I put no faith in such predictions; however, it's possible that Ratzinger can make this prediction come true by what he is, thinks, and does.

White smoke and bells mean a new Pope.

If it's Ratzinger we're all down the spout.