The Pope has passed away

[Prudence]

Last night I was contemplating how big a role the Catholic church plays in modern life. Even today, many religions or belief-systems define themselves in relation to Rome. Anglicans? Not Catholic. Protestants? Not Catholic. It's success at maintaining a cohesive whole through the centuries makes it the default for Christianity. (Maybe not as much in the US, but certainly worldwide.) I don't want to minimize the contributions of other major faith groups, but by virtue of having a single global head, the Catholic Church becomes a sort of morality spokesperson.

And so then I was thinking -- there are gobs of things I wish the Catholic Church did differently. But at the same time I wonder -- part of their success has likely been consistency. And given their influence on so many other groups, I wonder what would happen if a Pope did suddenly make the changes some call for. Could actually be rather catastrophic.

I was expressing this much more eloquently in my head in the shower this morning. Sorry.