Hi Weird, sorry for the double post.
The death of the Pope brings me so many memories about the time he was elected and our discussions here is Weird. It was a moment of glory for me, as the most active Argentinian member of the forum 
. It was so shocking...
I think he did a good job. RIP.
Maen.
Dina, I actually thought about you yesterday, when I heard that the Pope had died. He was the first Argentinian pope ever. I think even the first South American one.
I liked that in the beginning he wanted to change a lot in the Catholic church. I still think that he wanted change, but the institution is so big so that he was kind of blocked a lot.
Also I do think that the Catholic church needs to adapt more to modern times. In my country there is such an increase of people turning away from faith in the last years. I guess it us in part due to at least the Catholic church almost living in the middle ages. Some rules did not transfer well into modern society.
I hope that the next pope will continue what the late pope has tried to start and modernise the church.
I am not a very religious person myself. I would rather say that I am almost agnostic, but I did grow up in a mostly Catholic region. I remember that as a child I was afraid of priests and God. Most priests I knew seemed so far away from reality, I could not imagine they understood everyday problems.
But still the church belonged into the society and was rooted there through many cultural aspects.
In Germany, religion is rather a private matter except for the rules on religious holidays, like no noisy partying on Good Friday or most shops closed on Sundays.
Otherwise there usually is no public display of one's private beliefs.
LOL, I just remember my culture shock when I went to an US American service. At that time I was a member of a temporary Christmas choir organised by the families of American soldiers in the city. Most singers were Americans. I was the only German singer without ties to any American soldier. I just came because they advertised in the newspaper that they needed more singers.
It was fun, I met some nice people, some of them I could not understand.
Before every rehearsal they would hold hands, bow their heads and pray. I thought that was weird, but OK. I wasn't used to this kind of devotion. We don't do that. We just meet, greet each other and start to sing, even in a church choir.
But the shock came during mass. There was an American preacher and the way he prayed I have so far only seen on TV in some movies. And I thought this wasn't real. It was fascinating to see that in real life. And suddenly people all around me were shouting how much they loved God and Jesus.
I almost had a heart attack when the man next to me jumped up to shout out his love for Jesus.
I was used to being quiet in church except for prayer. And even then you do it in kind of a murmur.
In our choir we have a relatively new singer. She joined about a year ago. She is from Nigeria and her way of expressing her beliefs reminded me a bit of my experience in the American service. She usually tones it down a lot. And I've asked her if she feels that our service is somehow not enough, as she is used to people being more open. But she told me, that she understood that just because someone isn't expressing their beliefs like she does, this doesn't mean theirs is less strong than hers.
Yeah. I thought I'd share that with you. Whatever you make of it.
Also: there is an Argentinian school in Antarctica? Wow.
