Anyone have a fast, solar-powered electric popemobile for his holiness?
The Vatican says Pope Benedict XVI would gladly use one as another sign of his efforts to promote sustainable energy and take care of the planet, but one has yet to be offered.
Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, who runs the Vatican City state, said Wednesday Benedict would certainly prefer an electric popemobile to a traditional, petroleum-powered one given the priority he has given to making the Vatican a leader in green energy....
Neil, I agree with you about cars that are totally solar powered. They are much too frail to really be used for any serious purpose. The popemobile, I would think, could be an electric.
The Pope's desire for contact with people is no doubt considered an important job qualification for His Unholiness. It doesn't really make him any more brave than other man it is just part of his job -- in leading people astray, The Scandal of the Catholic Priesthood.
Auto glass is heavy, Jim, especially the bulletproof variety which I understand is 40mm thick on the popemobile. This is why WW2 combat planes used bulletproof glass only for the cockpit windshield.
Hitler also had heavily armored Mercedes parade cars. Unlike Western Allied leaders, he had (& needed) the survival instincts of a scared rabbit, which is why he was so hard to assassinate.
Do an Internet search for solar powered vehicles & see how frail they look.
It seemz to me Neil, some of the later popmobiles are really glass encased carriages, that aren't all that heavy. Didn't SermonAudio have a sotry some years ago, have a story of someone buying one of the Pope's cars, PJP II's cars?
I think Popes have decided it looked rather cowardly not to be open to their adoring public, and not how a "Christian " leader (of course note, Should Roman Catholicism really be classified as a Christian religion? -- No.)is is suppose to behave, they do make themselves more accessible than the other leaders of the world.
This is pure posturing. How would it develop enough power from photovoltaic cells to move the weight of attendants & all that armor plate & glass? And they could only use it in sunny climes.
I think even a conventional battery popish EV would be a challenge. For comparison, one of the current popemobiles is a customized Mercedes ML430 SUV with (I assume) a 4.3L V8 to move all that mass.
Solar powered automobiles are just not practical. I do not know if the present popemobile is electric or not, but apparently it isn't. I think that an electric popemobile would allow His Unholiness to be worshiped and adored by his worshipers.
Charles Spurgeon wrote: Christ did not redeem his church with his blood that the pope might come in and steal away the glory. He never came from heaven to earth,and poured out his very heart that he might purchase his people, that a poor sinner, a mere man, should be set upon high to be admired by all the nations, and to call himself God's representative on earth. Christ has always been the Head of the church.
Dr. Alan Cairns | 8/3/2009
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john uk from wales: "
lisa
romans 12 vs 14 bless them that persecute you: bless..."
