Just curious...
Say you were Pope for a day and could do change anything about the Catholic Church, What would you do?
Say you were Pope for a day and could do change anything about the Catholic Church, What would you do?
I didn't have anything in mind per say. The question came up today in conversation as ... "If you could be anyone for a day - who would you be and what would you do?".... someone answered they would be the Pope and shared their reason why - which I don't feel obligated to share here. I just took the question at - If you could be the Pope for a day - what would you do?Well one thing we know for sure, GOD would not allow anyone to add to the Deposit of Faith... if that is what you had in mind...
In one day???I would reconcile with the Eastern orthodox church.
6. Institute black as the mandatory liturgical color to be worn by clergy for funerals, All Soul's Day, and Good Friday in the ordinary form.
21. Cap the total number of annulments allowed per year in the United States at half the current rate and order the curia to issue new guidelines to bring in down to that figure. If the figure is reached prior to the end of the calendar year, mandate that all pending annulment requests in the United States be held until the following year.
23. Mandate that confirmations only be performed by bishops in the Latin Rite.
25. Institute a rule which stipulates that extraordinary minister of holy communion are not permitted at masses of less than 500 parishioners, unless there is only one clergy person present, in which case a single extraordinary minister would be permitted to offer the chalice in places where the chalice is usually offered. In masses where over 500 people are present, the rules would remain the same as they presently are.
26. Mandate that henceforth any bishop who is found to have knowingly permitted an admitted child molester after the current date to continue in ministry with children be stripped of all episcopal duties.
27. Mandate that henceforth any priest who is convicted of child abuse in civil court, or admits to such abuse, be immediately be given the choice of being defrocked or serving in a cloistered monastery without access to children.
1. Bring back the Papal tiara.
2. Reinstitute the Feast of St. Valentinus on February 14th in the ordinary form calendar.
3. Declare the right of any priest to celebrate the extraordinary form at any masses he desires, providing that they are regularly scheduled, so long as there is at least one ordinary form mass available beginning at sometime between 9am and 11:15am each Sunday. Religious orders would be exempt to the extent that their mass regulations in this regard would be allowed to be determined by the orders themselves.
4. Create an Anglican rite that operated along the lines of the Eastern Catholic rites.
5. Issue a directive that parishes ordinarily should use incense at masses on all first class feasts and solemnities. Dioceses and parishes that needed to be exempted for valid reason (such as financial hardship) could apply to the Congregation of Divine Worship for exemptions on a case by case basis.
6. Institute black as the mandatory liturgical color to be worn by clergy for funerals, All Soul's Day, and Good Friday in the ordinary form.
7. Restore the January 1st feast to "The Circumcision of Jesus" in the ordinary form (Alright, technically the name I am changing it to wasn't the original name, but it was the original concept, which was radically changed in the Vatican II era).
8. Re institute the liturgical season of Septuagesima in the ordinary form.
9. Mandate that each parish make a midnight Christmas mass available that actually starts at midnight.
10. Create special rubrics for the Christmas mass in the ordinary form so that it includes the Last Gospel.
11. Declare the Epiphany a universal holy day of obligation in the Latin Rite and mandate that it not be transferred to Sunday under any circumstances.
12. Declare the Ascension a universal holy day of obligation in the Latin Rite and mandate that it not be transferred to Sunday under any circumstances.
13. Eliminate the formal requirement for an act of penance on Fridays outside of Lent.
14. Write a brief encyclical (Hey, I've only got a day) stressing the obligation of government to the poor.
15. Authorize blue as a liturgical color in the Latin Rite for the Feast of the Assumption, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and the Annunciation (But not for other Marian feasts).
16. Mandate that the bishops start wearing vestments that actually look purple when they are supposed to be purple. Many pick a shade of red that makes me think they are Cardinals unless I see them side by side with an actual Cardinal and observe the difference.
17. Reinstitute the sub-deaconate and the minor liturgical orders.
18. Declare the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church the Patriarch of Kiev.
19. Alter the conclave guidelines to stipulate that all eastern rite patriarchs are to automatically be given the full rights, duties, and honors of Cardinals as a consequences of their esteemed offices, in terms of participating in conclaves.
20. Figure out a way to reduce the number of Patriarchs of Alexandria in communion with Rome to one (it is ridiculous that there are two)
21. Cap the total number of annulments allowed per year in the United States at half the current rate and order the curia to issue new guidelines to bring in down to that figure. If the figure is reached prior to the end of the calendar year, mandate that all pending annulment requests in the United States be held until the following year.
22. Change the Psalm Sunday readings in the ordinary form so that they do not replicate the Good Friday readings.
23. Mandate that confirmations only be performed by bishops in the Latin Rite.
24. Make it is allowable (but not mandatory) for a pastor in any nation to re institute altar rails at his own discretion for any masses he so chooses in the ordinary form of the Latin Rite.
25. Institute a rule which stipulates that extraordinary minister of holy communion are not permitted at masses of less than 500 parishioners, unless there is only one clergy person present, in which case a single extraordinary minister would be permitted to offer the chalice in places where the chalice is usually offered. In masses where over 500 people are present, the rules would remain the same as they presently are.
26. Mandate that henceforth any bishop who is found to have knowingly permitted an admitted child molester after the current date to continue in ministry with children be stripped of all episcopal duties.
27. Mandate that henceforth any priest who is convicted of child abuse in civil court, or admits to such abuse, be immediately be given the choice of being defrocked or serving in a cloistered monastery without access to children.
28. Mandate that in cases where priests are not available to serve as pastors, deacons be given precedence over lay pastoral assistances in such cases where deacons are available.
29. Issue a directive encouraging dioceses to attempt to ordain more deacons.
Honestly...I'd probably just wander around the Vatical and enjoy my access all areas pass. I'd imagine there's some pretty cool stuff there behind closed doors.
I would definately give some of the Swiss Guards the day off and kick back with them in some seedy bar over some beers and smokes and listen to them vent about their jobs, maybe shoot a game of pool or two.
Maybe I'd log in and post something infallible right here in OBOB...most off my post so far have been so logical as to be unarguable - but still, infallibility would add just be too cool for me not to use. I'd probably make David Hasselhoff's birthday a Holy
Day of Obligation or something. I wonder if the Pope has a computer. If not I could get on that one that Jack Chick says the Vatican uses to keep track of the names of every protestant...I wonder if that one' hooked up to the web?
I've never been to an all Latin Mass - only parts have been done in Latin. Do you have Latin Mass???Ban the Latin Mass and move on into the 21st century.