He’s not *our* pope
Why are we doing the flags at half mast thing for the pope? Do we do it for the Archbishop of Canterbury? Do we do it for all religious celebrities? If so why? If not why? Why single out the pope? Catholicism is a horrible religion, especially for women.
I did ask Google but it refuses to tell me – it just keeps repeating FrancisFrancisFrancis. Yes I know, I’m asking about other popes and clerics.
I feel like going out and buying a flag just so that I can fly it. Is there a devil flag? An atheist flag? A gender-atheist flag?
It’s a pastiche, but it might do
https://www.amazon.com/Emvency-Tapestry-Pentagram-Baphomet-Satanic/dp/B07D7Z47WN
Because of who’s in charge; see:
USA: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title4-section7&num=0&edition=prelim
UK: https://www.flaginstitute.org/pdfs/Flying_Flags_in_the_United_Kingdom.pdf
Canada: https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/flag-canada-masting-rules.html
I’m reasonably confident other nations have similar rules, but wasn’t about to search them all ;-) Basically, there are mandatory times for half-masting and discretionary ones, but there seems to consistently be a clause that amounts to “because the boss said so”.
(…also, somewhat ironically: swearing in your Google search helps weed out garbage.)
I’m impressed that Google responed at all to your question. I use AI all day to help with my work. But I can’t use it for help with my “gender critical” writing without camouflaging the subject matter. Otherwise, it just blocks me.
If I offer it a sentence for grammatical correction and finessing, I have to first take out any reference to criticism of the transgender movement, or it just spits back a big red circle/slash symbol with a warning about content rule violations. It happens even before pressing “send” on my request! The split second you type something contraband, or paste some words into a search box, if it sees that they might be even a little bit impure, the query gets shut down right away.
It’s very Big Brother. I hate it!
Judging from his positions on many issues (aboriginal rights & history, same sex relationships, women’s rights…) he was a fairly “progressive” man. But “dog” is just a four-legged animal whose name is misspelled and should be kept in a kennel, not “worshipped” in a “vatican”.
It is disappointing that it is so difficult to get Google to answer that question. I was able to find that flags were directed to be at half staff upon the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005, but I don’t know of others.
Now I do: Pope Paul VI in 1978. So probably others.
So Google Maps has to display “Gulf of America” and yet you can’t talk about the trans? Explain to me why that goon was elected again…
Arty – yuck! Who do they think they are?!
The pope is a head of state, so not especially unusual, if the holy see is considered an ally.
No less annoying, though.
Oh yes, that explains it. I always forget that he’s a head of state, no doubt because it’s so absurd. (It’s also so disgusting but that doesn’t usually make me forget.)
US flags were also at half-staff for Mother Teresa’s death. The president at that time was neither Republican nor Catholic. Clinton was Southern Baptist.
It’s pandering to a powerful voting demographic. Makes me wonder if they’ll start doing that for the Mormons when the prophet dies; after all, the church manages to control their worshippers enough to do substantial damage on women’s issues.
They were???
How ridiculous.
They weren’t, that I can find. Flags were lowered in India and Albania.
It was AI who gave me that information, and I do suspect they are more A than I most of the time.
Who else has had Tim Minchin’s The Pope Song as an earworm the last few days? It’s more specifically about Benedict, but it could be about the office itself.
This headline made me chuckle:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/apr/22/pope-last-sacrifice-granting-an-audience-to-jd-vance
Ophelia #10
“I always forget that he’s a head of state”
It’s a holdover from the over a millennium when the pope *was* the head of state for a significant chunk of Italy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_States
FWIW at least one devout Catholic thinks it is a good thing that the pope is no longer the earthly governor of that chunk of land, distracting him from religious affairs. Perhaps the legal fiction of retaining Vatican City as a nominal state should be ended.