In Rome, I saw the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain but nothing was as quintessentially Italian as seeing the police clear the street only for a huge mortorcade to come by with our new American Pope. There he was in his holy robes, smiling as he gave me a wave. I walked away feeling elated, brimming to tell everyone the Pope waved to me! I visited Vatican City later and each room I passed in the museum my disgust at the Catholic church grew. Every statue, mural, and room was a display of the human ability to create and also a show of ungodly wealth. Even if god is a god of miracles, it will take him a great effort to get his Popes past the pearly gates. Standing in the holy places in Rome, I couldn't help but feel they were the shells of a misguided effort to invite god to the terrestrial domain. Man need not search for God in a place, but to look for the divine in each other person. The real test of Sainthood is the ability to find the divine in those found to be the most irritable, pernicious, and evil among us.
| An Exciting Surprise |  |
| He Wears a Funny Robe | |
| He's an Absolute Monarch | |
| He's American | |