## 16 The Pope and I

## 16 The Pope and I

That's more than a week since the Pope died. As I write this, the papal conclave hasn't started yet. And it seems so important in my country, which proclaims secularism, that there were many many special editions on TV, newspapers, etc... And for me? I'm baptized, so potentially Catholic, feels like an atheist and sometimes agnostic. So, as we can sometimes say in some social networks, it's complicated.

The Pope is the head or a kind of president of the smallest country in the world with one of the biggest populations... the biggest diaspora in fact, ah ah. So I understand how important he is in the world and why many presidents were present at his funeral. But I was a little shocked and a little sad because it was not the worst pope I have known in my life. I only remember Jean Paul II and Benoit XVI, as we say in France. Very conservative popes. I didn't do catechism, but I read a large part of the Bible (as well as some excerpts from other religious books...), especially the New Testament. And as for many of the writings, I'm very amused by all the people who try to tell me what those people had in mind when they wrote it. Theologians and everything around holy texts get on my nerves. I hate what is around religions, the way they tell people to do this or that. I don't know any religion that doesn't have violence or corruption in it... just because some people take power from it.

But apart from power, religion has also done some good things with good rules to follow... Just remember that many have forgotten thou shalt not kill or help thy neighbor. That's what I liked about this Pope, who had strong ideas about immigrants, the poor, and of course the way of life of the Catholic Church. But the Vatican is like a state, difficult to manage and difficult to change. At my small level I can only see how difficult it is to change something in a big company. But I try... And if he was not so revolutionary about abortion and the main social issues, he made some ways to change minds. Unfortunately, it's not enough and there could be a backlash from countries in West Africa, for example, and who knows from the US? I'm not a big fan of the conclave process (yes, I saw the movie too...) and I'm not betting on it.

As I said, I'm not a big fan of religion as it's constructed. And I'm not a big fan of politicians in France, from the right and the far right, who use secularism and religion at the same time. The media is the same, and if you are against religion, you have to do the same with all religions, not just Islam, Judaism or Christianity. That's why I don't like this kind of false secularism defended by today's Charlie Hebdo (the old one was different) and news papers from what we can call the "extreme center". It's difficult to explain, but this is a path towards Trump and other insidious fascism (pleonasm). In France we have the famous law of 1905, but many have forgotten what it says and what our deputies said in 1905. Today's state of mind is more like 1939-1940, if you understand what I mean. But I hope that the next Pope won't be like the Pope during the Second World War.

2Dɛ
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