Papal Stench

The Holy Sea of Perpetual Stink

In the news this week: Pope Benedict XVI has a personal fragrance. This is wrong on so many levels....

Why is the Vatican spending money on a custom-designed cologne? Don't they have better things to do with their money? Don't they have better things to do with their time?

Granted, maybe this Italian cologne designer did it for free in hopes of getting some extra credit salvation? Maybe this was her penance? That'll be five Hail Marys and a bottle of designer cologne, bless you my child. Even free, it's still a blasphemous waste of energy. Wouldn't all that effort have been better focused toward charitable work? This cologne designer is going straight to hell.

The pope is a leader of the Christian world, or a follower of Jesus Christ who preached humility and a life of poverty. Giving what you have to those less fortunate and doing with less. Wearing cologne is anything but humble. It's self-centered and materialistic. Besides living in the Vatican Palace, besides wearing fancy robes, bejeweled accessories and pointy hats of fine fabrics, besides eating the best food imaginable and besides drinking a hell of a lot of good Italian wine. Why are Christians are so unlike Christ?  Is cologne the new symbol of modern Christianity? Arrogance, materialism, and stupidity all bottled up in one convenient, toxic spray.

Is the pope so ignorant he is unaware of the health issues of chemical sensitivity? If so, he's repelling 15 to 30% of his flock. Of course, maybe I am underestimating him? The article did say he loves nature. Maybe the cologne was made for him, but he would never in a million years wear it? Maybe he's in his private, velvet-covered chambers scowling at the bottle as I write this. Or cursing it. Jesus! Mary! and Joseph! Damn the stench!  

Even if he never uses it, accepting a personal fragrance as a gift sends a bad message. As a public figure with a profoundly influential leadership role, he is promoting the use of something so outrageously frivolous it defies spiritual common sense. Why care about the millions of people starving, without homes or suffering with diseases, it's more important to focus on cologne. It's better to smell like a whore than to spend your time, money and effort making the world a better place.

I love reading the comment sections for online articles. It really gives you an idea of public opinion on any given subject. Anonymous people let it rip knowing they will never have to face the consequences of their honesty. Regarding the pope's designer cologne, most comments are brutal. I didn't see one in support and they all have a tone similar to this one:

"He needs to cover up the stench of young boys and shame."

I tend to feel sorry for the Catholic Church and their current reputation due to some very bad men, but if the pope wants to be like a celebrity, then this is the sort of media attention one would expect. Is it good for business? You'd think he'd have a whole team of public relations managers working overtime running damage control, but I get the impression his PR planted this article.  Maybe they think it will make the pope seem more hip and fashionable? More like Beyoncé?  J-Lo? P. Diddy?

Or perhaps they are trying to make Catholicism seem more like Islam which encourages the wearing of fragrances as it is believed they smell like paradise? Yo, P. Benny, you smell heavenly! Either way, advertising the pope has his own custom-designed cologne shines a very bad light on the Catholic religion and on Christianity in general.

Bless me, father, for I am annoyed.

I vote for a papal recall. The Ratz needs to be replace by someone less smelly and more holy.

Who's with me?