I was looking for a bloggy bit I thought I had posted here. I knew the title, Two Popes? No Big Deal. It was nowhere to be found. As a borderline elderly gent, I was, of course, worried about senility and other cognitive degenerating ailments. In this case, I knew I wrote it. So, I did a general Google search. Lo and behold, it popped up, not as a blog post but rather in the Armenian Weekly as a Letter to the Editor on March 12, 2013. OK then. I did write it. I just forgot where it was published. The good thing was that I felt a lot less senile. To me this seemed like a normal error; the kind I have made with regularity throughout my life.
I read the letter and I liked what I wrote. I liked my writing style that combined insight, humor, sarcasm, and the national self-deprecation that the Armenian people need more of. That is when I realized how much I missed the daily writing and subsequent blogging. The resolution was almost immediate.
I used to write the first thing every morning. Looking back at the almost fourteen years in which I was actually good at writing every day, I realized that it was when I started writing at the end of the day when the habit began to wane. I was probably just too tired at the end of the day. Also, when I began my encore career as a full-time faculty member, I seem to have less time than when I was a corporate executive. This last observation mystifies me because the only conclusions possible is that I was a much better corporate executive than I am a college professors. The other conclusion is that I was more willing to shirk my corporate responsibilities to write than I am my professorial duties. Both conclusions unsettle me for different reasons though both are hits to my self-image and self-worth. I might consider exploring this subject in a future blog if I didn't find it so danged boring.
I have made several other resolutions yesterday and today. The only one that I am making public is the one disclosed here which is to renew and resume my daily writing habit. Certainly I know that with any resolution made at this time of year and, in fact, anything called a "resolution," the obvious question is whether it can be sustained? Will it last a day, a week, or even a month, let alone "the rest of my life" timeframe given to almost every resolution. All I can say is let's see...
So, I start 2018 with this short prelude and include my Letter to the Editor telling the Catholics not to worry about having two Popes.
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Dear Editor,
In February, Pope Benedict announced his intention to resign the Papacy. As the month ended, he officially stepped down. The College of Cardinals is convening shortly to choose the next Pope. The intent is to have the new Pontiff in place before Easter, this holiest time in Christendom.
There has been a lot of buzz since Pope Benedict’s announcement. His resignation or retirement or whatever it is called only happened once before, and that was something like 600 years ago. There has been a lot of discussion and speculation about having two living Popes. Who would have the authority? Who would have the greater influence? Would Pope Benedict second-guess the new pontiff’s actions? This is in spite of Pope Benedict’s stated preference to live out his days in prayer as a simple hermit.
This is new and uncharted territory for the Catholic Church. They are not sure how to act and react. The second oldest Christian Church needs the help from the oldest Christian Church in the world: the Armenians.
How could the tiny nation of Armenia and Armenians in the diaspora possibly help the far bigger and far richer Catholic Church? Well, in this one regard, the Armenians have a vast amount of experience. Armenians have had two or more Popes—we call them Catholicoses—for centuries.
Indeed, we are a small nation. Has there been any reason to have two Popes? It is simple; we have a history of being invaded by peoples who did not appreciate our Christianity. We moved the head of our church upon occasion from Etchmiadzin (our Vatican) to different and safer locations. As Armenia is a mountainous place with plenty of isolated places, it was easy to have a Vatican tucked here or there to be used as needed. When they moved the Catholicos back, the vacated temporary Vatican had all this structure of followers, priests, bishops, and monasteries. This infrastructure simply did what human infrastructures do—they assumed they had an independent right to exist. So, they simply elected a brand new Catholicos and, voila, we had two. There were periods of times when we had more than two Popes. We tried a few different numbers and for our really small numbers and dysfunctional collective psyche, two Popes seemed to be the optimal number.
Truth be told, we have a few Patriarchates as well. One is in Istanbul and the other is in Jerusalem. These Patriarchs are like junior Popes. We are small but we are splintered. In this splintering, and through constantly being conquered, we have found our strength and odd arrogance that has sustained us as a people for these many years.
We could tell our Catholic brothers and sisters not to worry. It is no big deal having two Popes. There are problems like families divided by allegiance to one Pope or the other. The factions may not talk to each other for several generations. Yes, there may be excessive facilities since each Pope needs his own church in each community. No big deal, really. There is nothing to make a fuss over. It is actually fun and a source of incessant heated debates and discussions at every holiday. Except for the divided factions that hate each other and never speak, it helps keep families together and feeling righteous. The Catholics have no clue how rich their lives will become with two Popes!
Welcome to the two-Pope club, brothers and sisters.
Sincerely,
Mark Gavoor
Mark Gavoor
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