I'll be the first to admit my understanding of catholic practice is not complete. Is the pope chosen directly by the cardinals or through every catholic church constituent voting? If it's the latter, then yes, that's definitely the way to do it, but if it isn't how should the people get the cardinals to do this?
Saving a religion by breaking its commandments sounds a lot like saving democracy by shutting down democratic processes. On the other hand, due to the unfathomable and ineffable nature of the divine, such actions could easily fall into the category of murders done in times of war/crusade.
In the end, I think maintaining a cohesive religion of that size without having that leeway to condone "inexcusable" actions is just as impossible as preventing 100% of the possible corruption of the organization. And honestly, I can't think of a more effective way of removing corruption within an organization.
I'll be the first to admit my understanding of catholic practice is not complete. Is the pope chosen directly by the cardinals or through every catholic church constituent voting? If it's the latter, then yes, that's definitely the way to do it, but if it isn't how should the people get the cardinals to do this?
In older times the way the people got the Pope they wanted was through some unfortunate balcony accidents and cooking ingredient mix-ups.
I thought about it a while before responding.
Saving a religion by breaking its commandments sounds a lot like saving democracy by shutting down democratic processes. On the other hand, due to the unfathomable and ineffable nature of the divine, such actions could easily fall into the category of murders done in times of war/crusade.
In the end, I think maintaining a cohesive religion of that size without having that leeway to condone "inexcusable" actions is just as impossible as preventing 100% of the possible corruption of the organization. And honestly, I can't think of a more effective way of removing corruption within an organization.
To my knowledge, it's entirely the former, not the latter...
Hence the whole "secret meeting with coloured smoke to indicate choice" thing...