[dogscoff]

Actually, something occurred to me the other day that Renegade has just reminded me of.

The Pope is supposed to be God's representative on Earth, right? And according to catholics everywhere, and lots of other people besides, this particular Pope was a good Pope, right? Therefore, all (or at least, most) of the stuff he did during his life was stuff that God would have approved of, right? So God will want to look after him in the afterlife, surely? In other words, in the eyes of Catholics everywhere, the Pope-just-passed must stand a pretty good chance of getting into heaven.

So why are thousands of those same catholics sitting in the vatican praying for him? He's going to heaven! What can their prayer possibly do for him that's better than that? Wouldn't it be logical for all those people to be devoting their efforts to someone a little more borderline? Someone who actually needs a bit of divine favour, rather than someone who's already earned a ton of it for themselves?

And if the Pope really does need that much prayer, despite all his good works in God's name, then the rest of us are truly shafted...

I'm not being flippant, I just want to understand the logic behind it...