It’s Over
I just got back from Alchemy, the once a month English language poetry reading at the Napa Bar in Malostrana, which, if you are an English speaker living in Prague and interested in literary pursuits and some off beat music, is an event worth participating in. They’ve been going on for years, more than a decade now, actually, but lately they’ve been really good and they seem to be getting better every month.
It’s what keeps me writing poetry, knowing that once a month, for 7 minutes (nobody actually drags you offstage with a hook, but the time limit is observed with reasonable strictness) I will have an attentive, appreciative audience, and that is not an easy thing to find.
I read 7 poems tonight, most of which were very short, like this one:
Whoever they elect as Pope
is going to find it hard to cope
because the Catholic Church has really an
awful lot of pedophilia
Which is true.
It doesn’t really matter who they select, that unlucky individual will be the figurehead for the unraveling of the scandal, which I suspect has only just begun. The charges are out in the open and no pope is going to be able to wave his arms in the air, say something in Latin, and make them all go away.
They are not going to be able to purge the pedophiles from the priesthood, or they would suddenly find themselves with a serious shortage of priests.
They are not likely to find many new converts to the church, because the world has been explored and there are few heathen tribes left who can be converted by force, and the actual beliefs of the church are not going to convince anybody who (mentally, as well as physically) resides in the 21st century.
So, whoever it is can hope, at best, to preside with some dignity over a slowly dying institution. At worst…well, it could be a whole lot worse.
Actually, I expect it will be a slow death. There are an awful lot of Catholics in the world and they will cling to it for life. Some people want to have a religion and, for all its faults, its not the absolutely worst one out there. That would be Westboro Baptist.
It will take several generations, but someday we will have a world without countries, and with no religion, too. Imagine that.
www.gurukalehuru.com 
A nice idea, but maybe we will just get a world with some new religion (as people are said have an area earmarked for religion in their brains) or just more atheist materialist capitalism. Which is better or worse is up to you – or them.
Which of these words is not like the other? Of the 3 Tom mentioned, atheism is the odd one out. Materialism and Capitalism are religions practiced by both believers and non-believers alike.
– Melvis
I totally agree that atheism should not be thought of as a religion, but I fear that Tom may have sort of a point that as the old religions die, people will try to find new ones to fill the gap rather than just learn how to deal without all of that superstitious nonsense like intelligent adults, because people are sort of weird that way.