The Pope?

M (looking at the front page of the newspaper): The pope.

Me: Do you know who the pope is?

M: The pope, he's the really Christian dude.

I don't have strong feelings about Catholicism. I'm pretty down on the anti-choice angle and priests molesting kids, but some of the most admirable social justice workers I've known have been Catholic. (I can't say that some of my best friends are Catholics, because, well, they're not.)

But the pope? I just don't get it.

[If that punch line fell flat and you're wondering what I don't get, well, I don't get the whole thing. That they have a pope. That people believe he's an infallible channeler of God. That people are going to church to pray for him. That he's Polish. That he can be so good on poverty and so bad on women and homosexuality. You know, all that pope stuff.]

[Or, as I said to S the other day, do you think they'll pick a woman next time?]

[And if that fell flat too, well, it was funny when I said it.]

[And, in case you're wondering, I don't get the Lubavitcher Rebbe either.]