Some days, you can see the future. With the pope gone and all of the Cardinals in one room, it's going to be the most amazing target of the 21st Century. And we are probably just a few months away from it.

Recently Peggy Noonan editorialized that we should all avoid making comments about nuking Mecca (Quiet, Please, on The Western Front) http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=105001767

But it is not going to stay quiet for long. The Swiss Guards are not known for their air defense and a month long conclave in St. Peter's will be a tempting, indefensible target.

-- Billy Pilgrim (madhack@mail.md), April 09, 2002

Answers

It's almost beyond belief, Silly Billy!
You must have stayed up half the night for a month figuring out how to outdo your previously most idiotic thread-opener.
We are here to pursue the universal vocation to sainthood, the Fathers of Vatican II tell us.
Get your currently useless mind out of the gutter, Puffbrain Pilgrim! We are not on this planet to speculate about the potential mass murder of church leaders. Think about HOLINESS, not HORROR!
God, please help this poor man.
JFG

-- (jfgecik@hotmail.com), April 09, 2002.

Billy, you have an interesting point, but you posted it to the wrong site; the replies are so predictable that any regular visitor knows what the responses will be, i.e.; the same people will cheer your scenario as something to be dearly wished for, the same people will call those first repliers anti-catholic idiots, the same people will call for the protection of heaven.

You did not make any comments on your own prediction! Why not?

-- Bob Hennessy (bobhenn@hotmail.com), April 09, 2002.

--Pilgrim must be tipsy. Thanks, Billy. For this wake-up call out of the future. Hey, any idea who'll win this year's Kentucky Derby? Let me know by the first Saturday in May, will you?

-- eugene c. chavez (chavezec@pacbell.net), April 09, 2002.

Billy, see what I mean? Before my reply got posted, you were called "silly ... idiotic .... puffbrain" by someone who then claims to be concentrating on holiness. And Eugene, predictably, also jumped out to let you know that you personally, and your thoughts in general, are insignificant. Thanks for posting something interesting. Please keep it up, but this board is dominated by some very wierd Pharisee personalities who can't stand honest inquiry

-- Bob Hennessy (bobhenn@hotmail.com), April 09, 2002.

Gee, Bob,
You posted a tad late. Maybe I should've hesitated to say anything to The Pilgrim. --So you could get first shot, or at least right after the John post.

You seem a little bitter, Mr. H. Is it something I said last month? Come to think of that; you were making predictions well into the future too. Was it 200 years? Yes. Nothing wrong with that tack. We'll all be dead long before we see what you predicted coming true, won't we? I can't even tell you if the sun will rise tomorrow. Just some of that Pharisee short-sightedness. By the way, did Billy P make an honest inquiry? Shucks!!! I can't stand honest inquiries!

-- eugene c. chavez (chavezec@pacbell.net), April 09, 2002.

Swan writes:

" Both of you lead the way in destroying meaningful conversation."

I assume by your email that you are from Santa Monica, CA. Swan, how is it that you live in such a beautiful city, yet you have such a negative attitude.

I think that this passage has endless application here on this forum. Matthew 7:4,5 -

"Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. "

"A plague on both your houses. "

OK, Mercutio.

In Christ,

Mateo.

-- (MattElFeo@netscape.net), April 09, 2002.

Did you ever watch a small child careen across the floor and take a tumble just missing the corner of a coffee table? Or a child ride a bike and have an awful spill just missing terrible injury? What stops them---Fate or dumb luck? Not to my way of thinking--I think it's their guardian angel or angels. The scenario that you describe could happen but not likely and if it did, it would be because it was supposed to. Everything in this world that happens both good and bad is because it is supposed to. The most awful thing that ever happenned was the murder of Jesus but it was allowed to happen because it was supposed to. put your faith in God and hang on for the ride--it's not all bumpy. Ellen

-- Ellen K. Hornby (dkh@canada.com), April 09, 2002.

Mr Pilgrim, you are not very original. Tom Clancy described a similar scenario in Executive Orders about six years ago: at the end of a war between Japan and the United States of America, the hostilities already ended, a runaway kamikaze pilot steers a JAL Boeing 747 into the Capitol, where the President, the Cabinet, virtually all members of Congress, and the Supreme Court have gathered for the introduction of a new Vice President.

Given the proximity to plagiarisation, I suggest we refrain from further commenting.

Regarding practicality--while the the Swiss Guards may not own Stingers, Italy does have an Air Force, and a decent one it really is. Furthermore, the Sistine Chapel is surrounded by structures of similar or greather height, so to reach it by air is verydifficult. (Even the Vatican's heliport is several hundred meters away, for sheer accessibility.)

Pax et bonum, and FINISH IT!

-- Oliver Schrinner (piraya@hispavista.com), April 10, 2002.

Billy: where were you before September 11? You could have saved so many people in the WTC and in the Pentagon!!! So the Swiss guard has no air power and yet the USA has it, but could not prevent the massacre!!! In Mexico, when someone come out with things like yours the first thing we ask is: ¿De cuál fumas?

Enrique

-- Enrique Ortiz (eaortiz@yahoo.com), April 10, 2002.

Is it not to ever have an open discussion here without all these barbs being thrown out? I come here for dialogue and so often see children. Please oh please let us be adults and discuss our faith religion with hope and charity.

We need sunilght here not more dark shadows. These are difficult times for all.

-- Jean Bouchard (jeanb@cwk.imag.net), April 10, 2002.