So let’s take 133 smelly old men. Perverts, deviants, celibates and kiddy-fiddlers, lock ’em in a big room and hide the key until you see smoke. Does that really sound like a good idea? Is that any way to choose the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics? But its what they do. Its as old as… a very old thing. The ‘Vatican’ in some form or other dates back to 400 AD (obviously ‘AD’, cos before Christ there really weren’t many Christians knocking around) and the current ‘building'(? its way too grand for that description) dates to 1600 or thereabouts. Built by slaves, half of whom died in the construction, like the workers who built the World Cup stadia in Qatar, and enhanced by shit-loads of cash, ‘raised’ by the Inquisition and such types, who make ‘bailiffs’ look subtle. The room in which the current ‘conclave’ is taking place was painted by Michaelangelo. Whereas Ray the decorator would have done the lot for £750 in cash. But the Catholic church was always a little ‘flashy’ in its practices. Which was why Martin Luther PROTESTed and led his group of ‘PROTESTants’ away to form something more austere in 1500-or so. The German monk complained that the ‘indulgences’ of the church were, a bit of a cop-out. His words. In that they were ‘get out of jail’ cards for sinners. Bit like ‘confession’ on steroids. So he formed a church that was really unforgiving. Except for Henry VIII. Who it forgave everything.

Anyway. New Pope. New broom. This one’s a Catholic too. And, because he’s been a cardinal for a while, has the inevitable history of some kind of peripheral involvement in sexual abuse scandals. Not ‘doing it’, more on the cover up side. Standard practice for cardinals. PROTECT THE CHURCH!!!, and its reputation. Rather than protecting the innocent, the abused, the children. But there ya go. I would say ‘there’s no smoke without fire’, but in this case, there actually is. Good luck to Pope Leon.

More importantly, Spurs have reached the final of the Europa League. And there we get to play against… Manchester United!!! How odd that two teams who have underperformed so tragically all season in league matches, managed to beat all opponents in Europe. Does this actually mean that most European leagues are a fucking joke? Dominated by one or two massive, rich teams, who always make it to the Champions league with the rest unworthy of the name? Like in Scotland? But with even stranger accents? Or are they just two teams who rise to the big occasion? Who knows. At this point; who cares? WE’RE GOING TO BILBAO FOR THE FINAL!!!!!’

Very Happy Friday

A xxxx