Why I love the Pope

Pope Benedict XVI is a Pope for the modern era. In a world where atheists, homosexuals, and (God forbid!) homosexual atheists parade their sins in full view of all decent members of society his guidance shines as a paragon of moral teaching.

Long gone are the glorious days of the Crusades, of course, in a time before so-called "political correctness" saw us giving "rights" to blasphemers and infidels. But while the Pope no longer wages religious wars, his instruction of the faithful remains unquestionable.

Take the recent example of Bishop Richard Williamson, who made certain remarks regarding concentration camps that were perhaps a little out-of-touch. Unfortunately when the Pope lifted Williamson's excommunication he didn't realise Williamson held such views - after all lifting an excommunication is such a minor thing the Vatican would only have done the most cursory of research. Besides, Williamson had only declared his holocaust-denial on Swedish TV - and I don't suppose they get Swedish TV in the Vatican! As soon as the Pope was informed, his action was decisive and immediate - he had his staff issue a frankly poetic statement saying the excommunication had "nothing to do with the personal opinions of a person". Then he was told that wasn't good enough, by Israel's envoy to the Vatican. And The Chief Rabbinate of Israel. And France's Europe Minister. And the German Chancellor. So he exercised his power as God's representative on Earth and demanded Williamson publicly recant his views. Which Williamson still hasn't done.

Another demonstration of the Pope's ironclad morality and certitude of purpose came shortly thereafter when he deftly linked saving the environment with not-being-anything-but-heterosexual in the beautiful phrase "human ecology". In his end-of-year speech to senior Vatican staff the Pope denounced gender theory as likely to cause the destruction of the human race, and declared lifelong wedlock between a man and a woman "the sacrament of creation". Fairly typical stuff - but here again the liberals spring into action, harping on about rights and oppression and all the rest of it. A lesser Pope would've responded with "**** you, I'm the Pope, I've got the hotline to God" and moved on - but not Benedict! No, he realises that would be inappropriate for today's world and has his staff declare the liberals to have misunderstood - "He was speaking more generally about gender theories which overlook the fundamental difference in creation between men and women" apparently.

What people forget about moral guardians like Pope Benedict XVI is that they hold back the floodwater of corruption. They stand, seemingly alone, reinforcing the dam against the tide. Every hundred years or so they move the dam back a bit to make it slightly easier but the new position is just as valid and holy as the last.

Another admirable aspect of Benedict is his refusal to conform to the modern obsession with vanity. In these days where every public figure has fashion advisors and makeup artists to have them present a flawless image, Benedict's purity again shines through by always looking like the Emperor out of Star Wars. Or an evil old Nazi.

God bless him!

have we reached the future yet?

I watched "2001: A Space Odyssey" tonight, for the first time in years. I think it's a great piece of cinema, but also it's a wonderful insight into the optimism of the 60s - it seems laughable now that at the beginning of the space race people genuinely believed we'd have both space travel and artificial intelligence "sorted" inside forty years.

We don't really have that promise-of-technology excitement any more, and that's a shame. While the expectations of the 60s were somewhat unrealistic, science and technology do enrich our lives - but I think perhaps we take them for granted. The film made me think about the cool stuff 60s sci-fi promised, like robots and hovercars, and wonder that if the year 2001 didn't bring superintelligent computers or artificial gravity, what did it bring? Put another way, what technology does exist today that makes me think "that's the future - right there"?

So far I've only thought of two examples. The first is Google Earth, which I sat and played with for hours when it launched. I learned more about the geography of our planet in that one night than I ever did at school. It made the world seem.. not small exactly but.. somehow closer together. I just wish it were realtime! The second is the iPhone - simply because it is the first real demonstration of mobile internet. The Internet is the sum of all human knowledge (leaving porn and nazi forums to one side for a moment) and having it available at all times, in all places, I think will make a great difference to society. Remember - there was a time back in the dark ages where you had to go home or use a phone box to make a phone call, and I think our static use of the Internet will soon be remembered the same way.

I'm sure there must be many more. Any suggestions?