Skipping Ash Wednesday and you’re the Pope?

Dude, what kind of pontificating is that?

I like how this story and others have pointed out it’s the first one he’s missed in 26 years of poping. To me, quoting a 26-year streak begs the question was there a time when there was no streak. Did he miss a few when he was just Cardinal Something Polish? Or maybe when he was just a priest or a kid?

I know Mardi Gras craziness probably keeps some people from making it to church to get their foreheads dirtied, but I had kind of thought a pope would have a solid attendance record.

It doesn’t matter to my spiritual growth or anything, but I’m kind hoping the old Vatican goes for a more reformest pope the next time around. It would seem hard to imagine the College of Cardinals (right up there with the Electoral College for dubious distinction) coming up with someone more conservative than JP II. Not unless they dig up an old pope from the dark ages and pray for resurrection.

With the way the world is going with politics and fundamentalism and scary religious fervor all over the place, it might help to have a non-reactionary, time-warp pope for a change.

By the way, I was just scanning this article. Average cardinal age is 71, but there’s rules about letting the over-80 crowd vote. Man, them old geezers in their 60s and 70s are pretty hardass, forgetting they wanted always be so spry and might be 80 themselves one day.

Also in that article — What the hell? There were a couple of “secret” cardinals and how does that work? (Phone rings: “Dude, yeah, it’s me the Pope. You’re in, but you can’t tell anyone. We’ll send you the red hat, but you can’t wear it to mass. OK, OK, you can wear it on Halloween.”)