April 17, 2005

Real-Money Pope Pools Get in before the conclave begins.

Kiera McCaffrey, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based Catholic League, the nation's largest Roman Catholic civil rights organization, said Catholics aren't offended by papal wagers when they're in small amounts. "While we would never encourage it, for the most part it seems like harmless entertainment," McCaffrey said. "It may seem inappropriate or unseemly to be betting on a process that's guided by the Holy Spirit, but I think people's intent for the most part is to just enjoy a diversion. "It's nice that people are taking more interest and looking at the lives of the cardinals." via Beliefnet

posted by Staunch Jingoist 19 years ago
  • Remember the saying ~ " The cardinal who coulda been a contender / is probably now a registered offender "
  • I've had enough of this Pope baloney. The Pope is like Herpes. Before he arrives is pleasure. But after, is a pain in the dong. And just when you think it's gone, it comes back. Worse than before. ... so I hear.
  • Man, it's totally gonna be Joe Ratzinger, and then we step -backwards- a generation. I swear, sometimes the Catholic Church is just like the US Democratic Party, they always manage to pick the worst possible person for the job, and stand befuddled at how their situation is worse afterwards.
  • You've got to fancy the Italians for this surely, what with their home advantage and their strong history in the competition.
  • Squidnunc for Popes!
  • FYI, you can get a free entry by signing up & taking a quick survey.
  • I'm picking a Catholic to win.
  • WHITE SMOKE! i'M STANDING BY THE PHONE!!!1!
  • Ooh man this is gonna be soooo sweet. I can taste those nuns already.
  • Who wants to make a "quidnunc elected pope" FPP? I can't: no self linking.
  • What name shall I pick? Pope quidnunc the funky? MC quidders-popestastic? quidnunc 900ft jesus? Whaddaya think?
  • squidranch is going to be pissed. heh.
  • Wow, I'm so giddy! It's like I'm having a semi-religious experience!
  • The pope previously known as quidnunc
  • sorry quidnunc!
  • benedict XXVI... damn, quidnunc is a much better name.
  • Looks like it's Ratzinger, folks.
  • BULLSHIT VATICAN BULLSHIT
  • AKA Benedict XVI
  • Quidders will always be the Pope of my loins.
  • Hehe...MCT pummels the Pontiff...
  • This is worse than the Great Schism of 1378. I've gone from potential pope to sex toy :(
  • oops, I accidentally had an extra 10 Benedicts. Guess they come cheap?
  • Fuck, they elected the Panzercardinal. I'm simultaneously thrilled that I called this prior to John Pal II's death, and totally chagrined that the Church will now be represented by the most medieval thinker in the Vatican. There's a big part of me that thinks "fuck 'em, I'm not even Catholic." But the Pope is a hugely influential person, and the fact that someone with that much pull will continue, for instance, the Church's disasterous policy of discouraging condom use in the wars on AIDS in Africa (even to the point of lying) is very upsetting.
  • Riiiiigged! That thing was fuckin' rigged! No way is this Rat guy a better pope than quidnunc! No way! Just because quidnunc isn't catholic, a preist (or a cardinal), doesn't wear red, has a history of alcoholic blackouts and extremely odd behaviour (described by one police official as "beyond DeSade and Dame Edna"), wears live animals as a codpiece and occasionally skinny dips in the Tivoli fountain chanting words from ABBA's greatest hits is NO reason he shouldn't have been Pope! This is the greatest injustice in the history of the world (or, more accurately, MoFi)! I for one am boycotting any papal bulls for the next year! Ha! Take that major world religion! Ha ha ha haaaaaa!
  • My husband and I have been thinking up better names for the new pope (NSFGermans): Pope Fritzie I Pope Krautie VI Pope Hitler!!!!1 and finally, Pope Fascistica the Overlord XXX
  • I was really hoping for the Nigerian cardinal in the theory that he would have a strong impact on birth control/AIDS. At least they picked someone who's already old this time.
  • Just because quidnunc isn't catholic I was baptised - and any male adult catholic is technically qualified. But, yeah - that other stuff you said. More seriously: anyone non-European [e.g. me!] would have been interesting.
  • The only impact Cardinal Arinze of Nigeria would have had on the use of birth control to offset the scourge of AIDS would ahve been to continue those same policies I wrote about above. Arinze is at least as conservative as JPII, and is probably just a hair to the left of Ratzinger.