The Designated Cardinal
As many of you may know, the Pope is still not feeling all that well. As such, JP has "designated cardinals to take his place during this week's busy Holy Week ceremonies."
Call me a purist, but I prefer church without the Designated Cardinal. It allows the Pope to come high and tight with his homilies with no fear of retribution. Also, with the Designated Cardinal in there, the Church tends to just sit back and wait for the mass salvation of the end of days, rather then focusing on the missionary game and trying to save souls one at a time. Also, what happens when we have to go up against one of the Orthodox Churches in the playoffs? Are there going to be designated Cardinals in Cathedrals west of the Adriatic, but the Pope/Patriarch has to bat east of it?
There are also going to be ramifications of this decision for years to come. Imagine if the Pope ends up on the ballot for cannonization: do we need to take into account the fact that for part of his career he wasn't preaching during Holy Week? And what about the Designated Cardinals? What if one of them goes on the have an Edgar Martinez-esque run of success as a Designated Cardinal? I mean, he was never a full Pope, but he preached for average and power during Holy Week, and its not like he was the one who made the rule, he just played by it, so shouldn't he be considered for cannonization too?
All in all, I have to say I am against the use of the Designated Cardinal.
posted by BertramWooster at 1:58 PM
1 Comments:
Thank you Rob Neyer.
While no one can seriously argue the increased offense production that the DC has brought to the game, I have to take issue with the direct correlation you see between fan support and offense in the mass.
First off, you have to consider that the drop in popularity of the Church coincided greatly with the work stoppage in late 1960s. By the time they sorted everything out and agreed on Vatican II, a whole generation of fans had been lost for good. This had nothing to do with offense in the game, it was more that people were fed up that rich Cardinals and Popes couldn't get it together enough to keep preaching despite their differences; they only cared about there silly ecclesiastical rules and not the fans.
Also, there is the issue that in the largest media market, the US, the Church faced new competition from an organized fundamentalist movement that played really well on TV. Let's face facts, the Catholic mass does not translate well into the medium, unlike the super-energized evangelical services, with there hip music and seamless services (Lord knows the break between the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist just gives people another chance to change the channel). In the 80s we did not even have any marketable stars like Falwell or Baker to draw people in to the mass. It has only been in the last 3 or 4 years that the Church has really caught up to TV, and even that has more to do with reality shows like "Inside the Confessional" than the TV-friendliness of the Mass.
None of this has anything to do with offense in the game, but rather the realities of trying to keep the Church up-to-date with an ever changing fan base with the attention span of a gnat.
Also, you failed to address my concerns about Papal and Cardinal Canonization, arguably the most important and exclusive hall of fame in any major sport or religion (granted the Pro Bowling hall of fame is more exclusive, but I don't count bowling as a "major" sport and it is not technically a religion). I already spoke about my issues with the Pope's stats, but let's also look at another issue. What about the Cardinal who’s career is extended 3-5 years by the DC. We all know that Albano Luciano ended up with 524 Holy Orders, but he gave 133 of them while serving exclusively as a DC and because he's over 500, he's pretty much a lock for at the very least beatification. But what about someone like Cardinal Jose Salazar Lopez, who played for Guadalajara. He had 446 Holy Orders when he retired, but he got all of them playing in the field and batting. Isn't he really just as qualified for canonization?
I sorry, I still don't like the DC and probably never will, but I guess I better get used to it.
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