A really big day in Rome (and an unexpected book review)

It almost feels redundant to call it an historic event during a week when we touted yet another "historic" weather event and storm. Just don't know what else to call a move by the Pope that has not happened in more than six centuries...so a really big day in Rome it is. For me, it came upon waking up after I spent the night reading late...a novel with some real life issues. Sons of Cain by Val Bianco. The book, if you have not read it is an exciting novel about real life secret service type catholics who are charged with protecting the Catholic Church from an attack, both internal and external. I love that it is an exciting Randy Alcorn-type novel that allows us a peek at the supernatural fight that is going on around us, along with the real physical battle. Yes, the good guys win. There are casualties, though, it is nice to see that God will win in the end, and in fact, He already has. But also, He will win some of the skirmishes...sometimes directly helping. We don't always have that awareness.

So I know it is a novel, but some of the issues that were brought up could be pulled right off the new pages. An idealistic American president with an agenda...wanting to go down in the history books for passing legislation for the American Health Care System; all this despite common knowledge that the tax base cannot sustain the cost of universal health care. The president and administration pushing an agenda that will have to incorporate increased use of and acceptance of state/doctor assisted suicide...at the end of life and whenever else it would be convenient. We can only afford universal health care if we don't waste too much of it on old people and chronic illness for undeserving individuals. And really, who is deserving. All touted as a Good; thinking people will want to take charge of their own end and will want to protect their wealth for their children. The book also explores how life-time politicians--politicians who make a business of well, politics, and hand it down to their children, raised in the life style and with the same leanings and mindset--keep the country mired in the same direction. It also examines a system of government where the people who toil in it can legislate lucrative job opportunities and then fill the positions (the book examines Senators with medical experience working themselves into high paying jobs in its administration--much like in real life, the officials who develop vaccines and then take government jobs to mandate them for all children thus increasing their wealth, regardless of consequences.) It explores, briefly, the tendency of the country to accept a new value and then once it becomes mainstream, open the door to similar horrors that don't seem so horrific anymore. Having lived through 40 years of Roe v. Wade, it is easy to see how this can happen, and the book refers to Abortion style of acceptance opening the door to the euthanasia. There is a model, and why not use it for everything. Finally, it is nice to see, albeit in a novel, the clear influence of Evil in what can be seen as current issues. Yes people, there is Evil and there is an orchestrator of it. Evil, personified in the Devil. He lives and He has an agenda. He may even use a president, or other influential people to forward his agenda...

So with this fictional book forefront in my mind, it was with fear that I woke up to the news that our beloved Pope Benedict was resigning for health reasons. Raised with enough knowledge of Fatima and its predictions, any new Pope is looked at with anxious eyes. With an Historic resignation, I read with much anxiety, not so much about what will we address a retired pope as...Cardinal Ratzinger? Is it legal for him to do this? From who does he get permission and who has to accept his letter of resignation? as I did the blog posts and articles about why he decided to resign. His health. His inability, in his assessment, to handle the rigors of the job during this time and with the, sigh, historic decisions he must make. I accept that, and with millions of other catholics, I will be praying that the Lord has raised up a strong, young man of God to carry on the office of Peter. Who will keep us Catholic. Who will promote love and dignity in our lives and interactions in a world that seems to want to equate "right" with whatever feels "right" right now...that looks at a long time not as 40 years but as 2000. I want a Pope who can determine the will of God and have the strength to keep us on His path and not just swing us more to the middle, as the Times would have us go. And I would offer one last prayer...a prayer that was typed out in Bianco's book at least twice,

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"St. Michael the Archangel, Defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into hell, Satan, and all other evil spirits who prowl about the earth seeking the ruin of souls...amen"