The new Pope, and the rare event of the old one retiring rather than dying, has sparked countless articles, reports, and discussions. All of which have forced me to admit that I really, really, don't care. I try to care. The Pope leads the guesstimated 1.18 billion Catholics (out of about 2 billion Christians). That seems like something anyone and everyone should care about. The Pope sets the agenda, at least in some degree, for Catholic politicians the world over. They, in turn, often foster the Catholic view on even unbelievers by setting government policies, guiding spending on things like medical and scientific research, and enacting laws. (Think of the current SCOTUS, its six(!) Catholics, and the tilt of their politics.) And then there are the legions of Catholics who simply let the Pope and the church do their thinking for them. The Pope claims it, they accept it as the word of a god, and that puts them beyond any rational debate or discussion even when the claim is demonstrably false for hundreds of years. (Think Bruno, Galileo and Darwin.) I should care about the Pope.
But I don't.
It isn't likely that this Pope is going to be that much different than the one before him, and the one before that, and the one before that. All old men, all seeped in the bubble of religious dogma, and all suffering the illusion that they are privileged to a special revelation from a god. On a planet rapidly running out of resources and options, this Pope will be as opposed to real sex education and birth control as those before him. Since his first action wasn't to move Cardinal Law and the Ex-Pope out of the Vatican and within the reach of being held accountable for decades of protecting and facilitating child rapists, there isn't much doubt this Pope still holds the Church as being more important than the welfare of actual people. The absurd policy of celibacy will go on, as will the outright evil of the Church's discrimination against women and gay people. He will talk about caring for the poor while living in a palace - just like those before him. He will rail against the evil of riches while courting the rich for favors. He will tacitly support the oppressors so long as doing so curries favor for the church. He will, in short, carry on the politics of wielding power over others.
He draws his power and his position from perhaps the oldest example of regressive, backward-looking, institutionalised evil in all of human history. Meet the new Pope, same as the old Pope. And, to stick with the theme of the song, we will certainly be fooled again.
And again.
It isn't that I think this Pope is somehow worse than other Popes, or even worse than other political leaders. He may well be better than some. (Which, when you think about it, isn't actually saying much.) But at this point in human evolution nearly all political institutions are on the wrong side of history. Protecting the power structures that are strangling progress and threatening the planet is interpreted as leading us into the future. The Pope wants to do away with birth control and responsible population growth. But he is not the only political leader wedded to past policies that are toxic. All of America's political leaders are wedded to crony capitalism and exponential growth, which is as unsustainable as unrestrained breeding. They are also completely ensnared in the politics of war, as are the political leaders of multiple nations. Power corrupts, so it is no surprise that all power structures are corrupted.
What comes next is any one's guess. But there is no hope that the new Pope will be leading his flock that direction. Meaning there is no reason to care about this new one.
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