As a non-Catholic (but Catholic church attender), I've always been puzzled by some of the practices of the religion.
I blogged some of my first thoughts on the subject of Catholicism vs. Lutheranism in my first-ever blog post, "Too much Christmas," read it here: (click). One of the most puzzling to me, is that it allows its most important decision to be publicized on TV, and that the networks care to follow it so closely. It isn't that I don't think the church should allow it, but why not make some money off the ordeal (especially with
recent financial problems looming in some areas) with exclusive rights or something. Like the Super Bowl. That got me to thinking...
Most of the time, the Catholic church seems very similar to Major League Baseball - old school, proud of its heritage, and, in the truest sense of the term, an "old boys club." Much like what was described in
Moneyball (THE BOOK, the movie is good, but READ THE BOOK!) But, there's one event every so many years that people seem to get really excited about; papal elections. Unlike pretty much everything else the Catholic church does, this one gets big press. I'm not old enough to know whether this is a new phenomenon in our 24 hour news cycle or a relic that's been happening for decades, but consider this:
I hope to illustrate that (and I literally would if I were any good at graphic design) - there are about as many Catholic SUPERFANS as there are NFL SUPERFANS (mass and game attendees, respectively). However, an NFL "mass" costs much more to get into, unless you're a "really good" Catholic.
I joked on Facebook several weeks ago that I was eligible for the papacy. The truth is, this isn't the case. But if it were, I would be game for a marketing overhaul of the church, to make it look more like the NFL than the MLB. For example the NFL gets extensive media coverage on its draft while the MLB does its draft over telephone.
The NFL figured out how to make its championship game the biggest TV event of the year, while the MLB World Series is only important to the two cities involved. The NFL also announces trades in a dramatic fashion with big names, while the MLB's farm system often moves a big player in return for 10 little names.
Here are three quick suggestions for the Vatican:
The Draft Announce the appointment of cardinals with the same fanfare as papacy - let them all sit in a room with about twice as many priests as there are cardinal positions so we have drama and possibly a cardinal bracket. You know, like the Pope bracket: http://www.popebracket.com/
The Mass Allow ESPN (or maybe CEN (pronounced "SIN") - the Church Entertainment Network) to do a 30-second highlight of the changes form last week for those (the 77 percent) who didn't make it. And sell seats for $50.
Trades Rather than moving priests around every once in a while as they do today, allow parishes to donate vast amounts of money to a great cause in a type of reverse political campaign and solicit their new priest.
So those are just 3 of my ideas. The black smoke came out of the Sistine Chapel for the first time - making me think of this blog. If the church and it's members feel that I'm fit to be Pope or VPM (Vice Pope of Marketing), let there be white smoke.
