Or, a number of things that won't happen.
1. The Pope tells Obama to stop drone and other attacks on civilians and makes participation in drone attacks a mortal sin.
2. The Pope urges the prosecution of Presidents Cheney and Bush on war crimes for their initiation of the Gulf Wars.
3. The Pope begins the sell-off of the Church's vast holdings and uses the proceeds to feed and house the poor.
4. The Pope denies Communion to any politician in the US and elsewhere who takes bread from the mouths of the hungry and shelter from the homeless. Paul Ryan is immediately excommunicated as an example.
5. The Pope acknowledges that sexual desire is natural and good and that humans can find moral expression of this desire in any way they choose between consenting adults. Masturbation is acknowledged as a nearly universal and healthy phenomenon.
6. Vows of celibacy among priests are abolished; the priesthood is transformed to include both men and women, straight people and gay people.
7. Masses of Confession and Contrition are regularly said for the Church's transgressions in abusing children sexually. Survivors are encouraged to speak out if they wish and restitution is made.
8. The whole anti-birth control/abortion thing stops now.
9. The Pope declares healthcare to be a human right. Bishops and Cardinals in countries that do not offer healthcare are urged to work for it, including denying Communion to those politicians opposing it.
10. The Catholic Church shall consider itself in a state of sin until the people of Haiti are delivered from their misery.
I was raised Catholic. Even after I came to doubt the existence of god, I still enjoyed the rituals and mythology of the Church, the chanting and incense, the majesty of the cathedral where I sometimes still attended mass.
For a time, I accepted the term "fallen away Catholic". But I didn't fall away, I walked away. It was a conscious choice. And when I looked back, what I saw, in an institution that I once admired, appalled me. That was years ago.
The Church beckons to ex-Catholics like me, to reconciliation and reunion. But the Church is not about to change and it is no longer relevant in my life except as an unfulfilled potential for good.
That stuff up there seems pretty harsh, or maybe not. It is what I have thought for many years. On this day of the election of Pope Francis the 1st, I thought I would post it.
