According to one news report, an estimated 100,000 Catholics have “descended on St Peter’s Square in the Vatican for the funeral of the former pope Benedict XVI.”
Does anyone else agree that this is an insane number of people? And all because some old guy who wore funny clothes and frequently spoke in Latin finally gave in to advanced age and ill health?
Religion does funny things to people.
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If not insane then certainly deluded… especially considering the guy was the head of an international pedophilia ring and actively helped to thwart police investigations, aided known criminals to avoid prosecution, participated in covering up and suppressing evidence, funding the legal threatening of victims, and helped these child molesters and serial rapists escape national jurisdictions. On purpose. With intent. What a fucking saint.
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Exactly
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Excellent point Tildeb and well said. 👏🏻
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I’m not complaining. The good thing is that this happened at the Vatican, and not around here.
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Considering there are 1.2 billion Catholics world wide, 100,000 represents a mere 0.008% of them. Hardly an insane number when you consider 10,000 Kiwis attended a memorial service for a guy who wore funny clothes (black shorts, a tight fitting, short sleeved black shirt, long black socks and spiked boots), was often seen with an oval ball in his hand and frequently knocked people over by running into them when they got in his way, and finally gave in to ill health. There are only 5 million kiwis so that represents 0.2% of all Kiwis – proportionally, about 25 times more Kiwis Catholics who congregated for the former pope’s funeral.
Sports does funny things to people.
Whether it’s 100,000 people or 10,000 I don’t understand why it is necessary to “blame” religion in the first instance or sports in the second. In both instances people held the person in high regard. It’s not necessary for me to agree with, nor respect the deceased to be empathetic to those who feel a genuine loss.
And just in case: I’m not chastising. I am genuinely puzzled by your post, as to me the 100,000 seems rather insignificant considering his former role as the leader of the world’s largest church.
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PS I hadn’t taken into account the facts that tildeb in his comment above brought to my attention. I stand corrected.
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Well, well.
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Putting tildeb’s comment aside, the fact that SO MANY people put SO MUCH energy to attend a funeral for a religious icon is just mind-boggling to me. The hold that the Catholic Church has on people is waaaay over-the-top!
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Look at what happened with Lizzy! Many people loved her. Many people loved Pele. And many many many people loved the Pope. Followers love their leaders, whether they deserve it or not.
Should Trump die tomorrow, he would have a hundred million crying over him. (And a similar number actively cheering!)
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Perhaps it’s the way we see things differently. You’re looking at the absolute number, while I always look at the relative number – in this case the total number of the “faithful” compared to how many “faithful” attended the funeral. In this case a mere pittance when compared to those who attended the memorial service of a local sports star. I based that 25 times the attendance rate on the entire population of NZ being Rugby fans, but if I based it on actual Rugby fans then the attendance rate would be approaching 100 times the rate for the former pope.
Puting tildeb’s comment aside, I don’t see 100,000 as a big number relative to the number of Catholics. But if I take account of his comment, trusting that he has accurately stated the former pope’s complicity, then it’s about 100,000 too many mourners in my opinion.
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Using the term coined by late blogger Bar Cop – these slugs and all the others are “religiously insane”. And they are just that.
Here is One Fly’s catholic story. https://oakcreekforum.blogspot.com/2008/09/little-one-flys-religion-story.html
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That’s Bart Cop. Damn t&y do not work.
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Imagine hoisting a (n imaginary) shot of tequila ~ to Bart!
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ya mon
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I knew who you meant! Bart was the 1st one I knew of besides me who thought they don’t really believe in God, or they’d be scared to do and allow what they have done and allowed.
Ten Bears, I think I recall that tequila was Chinaco.
It’d be fun to hear what he’s saying about the current US House!
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Yes. Yes it was. However, in my last little bout I had some hair pulled out by a man who really wasn’t a friend (some thirty odd years ago) so for me it’s an imaginary Chinaco … to Bart!
It’s the thought that counts …
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If I were an as likely to have thawed out of the thawing tundra a virus that hasn’t seen a human since before we were human, as to have jumped from raw bat to undercooked dog to stressed human, or “escape” a bioweapons facility in Cincinatti, St. Petersburg, or Tel Aviv … I’d call it a target rich environment. Fast back of the envelope math: twenty-five hundred will get sick and die, and that many will just get really sick, with probably another ten thousand just sick.
I used to lament the damned rapture would hurry up and clear the trash so we could get on with cleaning up the mess they made … I’ll take numbers like that!
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Funny! The religious look to the rapture as their (misguided) destiny, while the rest of are more inclined to see it as a way to get rid of the holier-than-thou. I like that.
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Yeah, but think of the souvenirs available that you could add your collection of tchochkies!
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Ex- Hitler Youth, covered up sexual abuse, threatened victims, etc. What a prime example of a ‘Man of Faith’. Anyone who believes in such people is just in a cult.
Best wishes, Pete.
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The Pope, The King of England, The President of the USA, God. They are all figure heads.
I don’t know what it is with the human race. We seem to be obsessed with having a figurehead that we can adore and worship. It does not matter whether that figurehead does anything good, is the most evil individual, or simply does nothing at all. What’s important is that we have this figurehead and when they die, they will be replaced with another figurehead that is no better than the one we just got rid of.
It’s probably a left over mindset from evolution when humans depended on that one ultimate leader to show them the way to survival and prosperity. We are still caught up in that magical thinking although in our modern society, such ultimate leaders, which served a purpose in the past, serve no useful purpose anymore, but we just can’t see a way to live without them.
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Spot on!
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Sadly, 100,000 is not even the tip of the iceberg.
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Way WAY over the top Nan, as you state above (below?). And Tildeb’s comment further demonstrates the sheer apathy—or so called faith? 😄—followers as well as the cloth in the ‘Universal church’ show when it comes to rampant, illegal behavior exploiting young boys (and girls?) and the BLIND trust parishioners/parents put into Bene-a-dick’s employees! “Delusional” is a very UNDERstated word to describe what Bene-a-dick allowed to continue and still become unaccountable for.
On that note, I am very proud to say that way more than 100,000 people/Brazilians attended Pele’s, or Edson Arantes do Nascimento, funeral services, especially at his childhood home/Club in Santos. And the mourners will keep coming for a long time. Pele did SO MUCH MORE for humanity than any Pope, especially this one! Pele definitely should receive sainthood, assuming that’s a big deal. 😉
Descanse em paz, Pelé.
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There was a similar outpouring in Brazil when Senna passed.
Ratzinger … Pffft.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
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Absolutely Ark. Great point(s). 👍🏻
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People love celebrities, for whatever their reason. People often want a chance to see a celebrity, even a dead one.
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I was never a Ratzinger guy. I also never stopped calling him by his real name.
As a former RC, let me say they do weird shit sometimes. But still…100K is one big ass funeral.
Does anyone know who got the porta pot contract?
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Funerals, like sporting events are nice things to attend especially, as an observer. And also a place to meet new people especially if the dead is no relation of yours and so you are not very invested in mourning.
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Mourning seems to have gone out of fashion here. Instead it’s a celebration of the deceased life, and usually quite joyful. No wearing of black or need for formal attire – weekend casual is quite typical. For some reason I’m not able to explain, I find myself attending funerals (or ,as the are frequently called her “celebrations of life”) more frequently as the years go by. At this rate I’m going to run out of friends, family and acquaintances rather rapidly
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Barry, we don’t want you running out of friends. Wouldn’t be healthy for us all.
In my village, funeral rights can be accompanied with such drama it becomes almost a work of art
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What’s most perplexing is that back in the 1970s and 1980s the funerals i attended were mostly for old people. These days they are mostly for people my age. I suspect there’s a secret plot to rid the world of us Baby Boomers.
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I’m a bit concerned about the phrase “descended on St Peter’s Square”. To me, it makes the people sound like a swarm of locusts or some similar Biblical plague.
As to 100,000 people coming to the funeral of church leader … How many people line to view state funerals. The Pope Emeritus was the religious leader of about 1.3 billion Roman Catholics. That’s the religious equivalent of a really big country. Only the leaders of China and India have more “followers”. Besides, 100,000 is only about 0.008% of 1.3 billion.
Attending the funeral of someone you admired is no stranger to me than gathering in a stadium to watch modern gladiators. How many people pack themselves into Times Square every year to celebrate the beginning of a new year? Maybe some of them are paying homage to the ancient Greek god Janus.
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The phrase you mentioned was not mine … it was from the news article.
You’re correct. Other well-known folks who die often garner big crowds at their funerals … which, in a way, was the point of my post. I personally think such homage is a waste of time. I know many people feel strongly about “paying respects” to the deceased. I just don’t happen to be one of them.
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I knew that the wording was not yours. I was criticizing the writer and (presumed) editor of the piece you were quoting.
I knew what you were saying but didn’t get that you were generalizing to paying homage to the dead in general. The phrase “who wore funny clothes and frequently spoke in Latin” lead me to believe you were focusing on the former Pope rather than using him as an example of a general concept.
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In this post, definitely I was focusing on the former pope. In my response to you, I just added my overall feelings related to such events. 😁 In any case, I appreciate your comments.
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Pfff. Rome is a big tourist attraction. My sister attended the previous papal election at that square. She did not know it was going on. She just happened to be in Rome (as she often does). As she and her hubbie were wondering why there were so many people there, the smoke started to rise from the chimney and their friends – who were there just as tourists as well – explained what was going on. How do you discount the thousands of curious tourists who have showed up just to see what is going on?
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Good point. But of course, the point of my post was about the number of people who felt the need to turn out for a dead guy’s funeral. Sure, there may have been tourists among the crowd, but I would betcha’ the majority of the crowd were bead-counting, idol-worshiping, Sunday -sacrament takers.
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You are propably right, yet Rome is a big city full of tourists and the organizers have a reason to embellish the figure of attendees. It is likely, that the Vatican declared 100 000 (a nice round number) attended the funeral just because anything less would have sounded bad, as it might have reminded people, why the desceased was not a popular pope and what damage he caused to the reputation of the Catholic church. Who would contest their claim? The Roman carabinieri? Not likely. Who else could even have some estimation of the number of people there. Most Italians are Catholics, but less than 100 000 is not even a very big political rally in a city of that size. So, I remain unimpressed by the number.
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