Religious Ledgies: Pray for the Pope

[GypsySorcerer]

Originally Posted by DrummerDeanna

Thanks Amber - I just wish I could be there for her physically - but eh - you do what you can....

Catholic Guilt is a bitch - I have friends who haven't been Catholic in years - but STILL have the damn Catholic Guilt

I try hard not to though....I just joke about it a lot - I'm actually shopping around for religions right now


Anyway - now I will really go home and go to bed and as my hero Scarlett O'Hara says, "tomorrow is another day"

Hope you feel better tomorrow Deanna.

I think it's one's personal relationship with God that matters most. Someone can go to church all the time and not have that.

[Brwn_eyes0511]

Originally Posted by GypsySorcerer

Hope you feel better tomorrow Deanna.

I think it's one's personal relationship with God that matters most. Someone can go to church all the time and not have that.

Very true!

[amber]

Originally Posted by DrummerDeanna

Thanks Amber - I just wish I could be there for her physically - but eh - you do what you can....

Catholic Guilt is a bitch - I have friends who haven't been Catholic in years - but STILL have the damn Catholic Guilt

I try hard not to though....I just joke about it a lot - I'm actually shopping around for religions right now


Anyway - now I will really go home and go to bed and as my hero Scarlett O'Hara says, "tomorrow is another day"

aww, Sweetie! Don't shop for religions! Just do what's in your heart, for now!
I know, I've heard Catholic guilt is a bitch - but my God don't do that!
Since I know you're kinda Catholic, i would say - just do what Jesus would.
and if you are really shopping - I would say - Buddhism teaches that desire is inherintly - not spiritually fulfilling...and causes pain..
and it's never bad too think of what Scarlett would do...

[GypsySorcerer]

Originally Posted by amber

aww, Sweetie! Don't shop for religions! Just do what's in your heart, for now!
I know, I've heard Catholic guilt is a bitch - but my God don't do that!
Since I know you're kinda Catholic, i would say - just do what Jesus would.
and if you are really shopping - I would say - Buddhism teaches that desire is inherintly - not spiritually fulfilling...and causes pain..
and it's never bad too think of what Scarlett would do...

Or Unitarian Universalists, who borrow from everyone.

[amber]

Originally Posted by GypsySorcerer

Or Unitarian Universalists, who borrow from everyone.

yeah, that's a good one.! My super non religious friend went to one of those, for awhile.

[The Catdancer]

4 hours ago Listen to Audio

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II had difficulty breathing as he battled the flu and will spend a few more days in the hospital, the Vatican confirmed Wednesday, but it said tests showed his heart was functioning normally and the pope had rested for several hours overnight.

The 84-year-old pontiff had "just a little fever," papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in elaborating on a terse medical bulletin issued by the Holy See. He told Vatican radio the pope would spend "a few more days" in the hospital, but added that there was "no cause for alarm."

John Paul was being treated Wednesday for respiratory problems in the Gemelli Polyclinic. He was rushed there late Tuesday from his Vatican apartment after coming down with influenza, Vatican officials said. No further medical bulletins were expected Wednesday, they said.

"The cardio-respiratory and metabolic levels at present are within the norm," the bulletin said.

The pope was being treated Wednesday for respiratory problems in the Gemelli Polyclinic. He was rushed there late Tuesday from his Vatican apartment, where he had been battling the flu for several days, Vatican officials said. No further medical bulletins were expected Wednesday, they said.

The papal spokesman said John Paul was taken by ambulance to the hospital after doctors decided "he could be better treated there than here (the Vatican)." In response to a reporter's question, Navarro-Valls denied that the pope lost consciousness, saying: "No, for God's sake!," and he ruled out any need for a tracheotomy.

Navarro-Valls said that as he was leaving the hospital Wednesday, the pope's secretary was celebrating Mass in the hospital room and that John Paul was concelebrating from his bed. Navarro-Valls said he didn't know whether the pope had eaten any breakfast.

He characterized Tuesday night's hurried admission to a special papal suite on the 10th floor of the hospital as "mainly precautionary" for the pope, who also suffers from Parkinson's disease. Trying to appear reassuring, Navarro-Valls even joked at one point that John Paul was taken by ambulance to the hospital because "the subway doesn't go that far."

John Paul was first examined in the emergency room before being taken to his hospital suite, Italian TV and news agency reports said.

Navarro-Valls, who has a medical degree, told The Associated Press early Wednesday that the pope has the flu and acute laryngeal tracheitis _ inflammation of the trachea, a breathing passage _ and had a "certain difficulty in breathing." He denied Italian news reports that John Paul had a CAT scan at the hospital or that he was taken to intensive care.

In a separate statement, the Vatican also said the pope had experienced a "larynx spasm crisis."

Tracheitis requires hospitalization and usually a breathing tube to keep the airway clear. The spasms are likely a complication from the respiratory illness the pope has had. It is possible his Parkinson's disease, which makes muscle control difficult, made it harder for him to breathe.

The first sign of the frail pope's illness came on Sunday, when he kept clearing his throat during a 20-minute appearance at his studio window, thrown wide open on one of Rome's most bone-chilling days in years so he could release a pair of doves symbolizing peace into St. Peter's Square.

Prayers for the pope were being said by faithful in churches around Rome, as well as in his native Poland.

"After we got the news we added a special prayer during our morning Mass," said Bishop Szczepan Wesoly, who presided at the service at the Polish church near Piazza Venezia in the center of the city attended by Polish nuns in black habits.

Security arrangements were among the tightest in memory at the hospital _ a Roman Catholic teaching institution about 2 1/2 miles from the Vatican _ where the pope has stayed some half-dozen times, starting in 1981 when he was critically injured by a gunshot wound to the abdomen in an assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square.

When he was elected pontiff in 1978, John Paul was a robust 58-year-old with an athlete's physique who was serving as archbishop of Krakow in his native Poland, where he played soccer, skied and kayaked as a youth. Less than three years later, in May 1981, he suffered his first health crisis when he was shot by a Turkish gunman in the square.

Other serious medical problems requiring hospitalization included a bowel tumor, described by doctors as benign and removed in 1992, intestinal problems which led to the 1996 removal of his appendix and a 1994 broken thigh bone, fractured in a fall in his bathroom.

A close member of the pope's staff, American Archbishop James Harvey, said John Paul had congestion and a slight fever earlier Tuesday, apparently symptoms of a flu that Vatican Radio on Monday had described as mild.

Tuesday morning the Vatican announced that papal engagements including his weekly general audience on Wednesday was canceled.

Until the pope was taken to the hospital late Tuesday, the Vatican had been issuing reassuring news about his condition.

Harvey said the decision to hospitalize the pope was made by close aides in his apartment complex, who include his longtime Polish secretary.

The flu has been sweeping through Italy since December. The Rome region, shivering through nighttime subfreezing temperatures in an unusual cold spell, has been among the hardest-hit.

It was not known whether the pontiff had a flu shot.

[estranged4life]

Pope, But it is bad karma to wish luck on those on the opposing team

[SuzeQuze]

Originally Posted by GypsySorcerer

Or Unitarian Universalists, who borrow from everyone.

Or Vedanta which is a beautiful Indian philosophy which basically says we are all one and we are all divine. I don't know if there are other places like this, but this place is so wonderful, there is one in MA and one in CA:

http://www.vedantacentre.org

I haven't been there for a while but I want to get back because it is such a place of peace and love, and it is NOT a religion.

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by greatdarkwing

nature.

No one lives forever. That is nature (at least, in this reality). The Pope has been in ill health for quite some time. I will not wish it on him to suffer any longer.

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by DrummerDeanna

Personally - all my praying energy is going to my mom's best friend in the world who is dying before her eyes of stomach/esophagus cancer....it's a horrible horrible situation - but the angry part of me could care less about the Pope in the midst of what she is going through....

My extended family just lost someone to that. He lived for six months after his diagnosis, had six children and was 45 years old. He was a pastor in the Lutheran church.
I send all my healing energy and strength to you and your friend and her mother.

[The Tower]

When you gotta go, you gotta go! Just one more human being's lifespan ending...

[GateandGarden]

Originally Posted by The Tower

When you gotta go, you gotta go! Just one more human being's lifespan ending...

That is true, but I personally don't take it so lightly. It is undeniably common and the way of nature but that doesn't make it any easier. I wouldn't wish death on anyone, not even people I don't like such as the Pope, though I guess that goes without saying. However, if it's the only thing to end his (or someone else's suffering), I can't really argue with that. But I can see many people sobbing and mourning and I can't fault people for that.

[Serrart]

For all those who are praying for the Pope, his conditions aren't preoccupying anymore. His prognosis is much better than yesterday, and the serious phase of his illness could be over in two-three days. He shouldn't stay in the hospital for more than a week.

Romy

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by Serrart

For all those who are praying for the Pope, his conditions aren't preoccupying anymore. His prognosis is much better than yesterday, and the serious phase of his illness could be over in two-three days. He shouldn't stay in the hospital for more than a week.

Romy

Yes, I read it. I'm not that catholic, actually I dislike several things of the catholic church, and I even doubt about God (just doubt) but.. I like this guy. Don't know why but I like this Pope. When I saw him in Peru he was soo sweet, kind, he inspired peace and joy. I like him.

So I wish long live to him. Besides, according to San Malaquias prophecies, after this, there is only one more pope and then.. CAPUT!!!!

[DrummerDeanna]

Originally Posted by Villavic

Yes, I read it. I'm not that catholic, actually I dislike several things of the catholic church, and I even doubt about God (just doubt) but.. I like this guy. Don't know why but I like this Pope. When I saw him in Peru he was soo sweet, kind, he inspired peace and joy. I like him.

So I wish long live to him. Besides, according to San Malaquias prophecies, after this, there is only one more pope and then.. CAPUT!!!!

And isn't the next pope supposed to be evil or something? I don't know a lot about the prophecies - but I thought I'd heard something like that...