The Pope's Postmodern Death

[e_dog]

His breathing is shallow
but his mind is lucid
and his soul is deep.

The Holy See
whose life support
is T.V.

Behold! the failing organs
of the papacy!
arrayed in news headlines
like the jars of a pharaoh.

Behold! the chilling monster
of death embodied in the mix
of biomedical discourse
and charismatic authority.

He has given a thousand bishops
courage to face the end
and a million weeping women
a reason to weep.

Think of the flocks
that owe their existence
to the opposition to contraception!
As first taught in India,
a holy man must love
all living creatures,
including the organisms
of sexually transmitted diseases.

Think of Jesus on the way
to crucifixion.
The exposure of suffering flesh
needed a holy spirit
in lieu of a telecommunications
network.
There is an age of resurrection;
an age of reproduction;
and an age of repetition.

(To paraphrase McLuhan,)
The media is the messiah.

Set your TiVo now
to record next week's episode
of Extreme Makeover
Catholic Church edition.



[reposted from Culture forum]

[Lightning Rod]

i love

'the media is the messiah'

that made the piece for me

[ZyzxzxzyZ]

It is not blasphemous to, say, argue that the body of El Papa be used to feed starving animals ( or children): what is blasphemous is the Catholic corpse fetish (protestants also prone to it as well), where a piece of immaculately dressed hamburger is thought to have some magic power. Mandatory cremation is a decent idea: if not cremation, then transport the stiffs to the Alpo factory (McPontiff's?).

Or perhaps Ed Abbey style: philosopher become tasty meal for buzzards and coyotes

[Trevor]

"to record next week's episode
of Extreme Makeover
Catholic Church edition. "

Great lines...made me snort aloud with the image of watching a show like that.