Well, I am shocked that anybody is shocked at this.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,,1692693,00.html
The Pope has decided to charge to reprint his words - you know, those brilliant missives that come from God's vessel on Earth? It appears people are upset at this. Why should the word of God and the Pope be sold?
It appears that people have forgotten that the Church exists to make money. This is no surprise. Kudos to Benedict XVI for doing what religion does best.
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Invoking papal copyright. At first bite, it does strike me as terribly shameful. But as you noted, dear Accuser, YHWH&Co has always been up for sale, the product merely manifests itself and is consumed in different forms.
I am a man of faith, but as practicing Lutheran I've always been adamantly opposed to the medieval tenets of Catholicism, a church hierarchy which at it's core claims that only the elite class of ordained may speak directly with God.
But as I businessman, I look at the Catholic Church from an entirely different perspective. I respect it, as I would any other corporation that has established itself via money and power and endured. However, I find this latest money scheme of theirs as symptomatic of an issue far more troubling. It reveals that Vatican Incorporated is in the midst of a financial crisis, as other archaic corporations have experienced as of late.
Like GM and Ford, Vatican Inc has consistently failed to generate enough revenue per each financial quarter – falling well short of market and shareholder expectations. Sure, the papacy has a constant source of income from the earnings of its stock/bond & real estate portfolio, on top of donations from it's flock of a billion... but as a corporation it's lapsed into stasis as an innovative revenue churning machine.
Unlike GM and Ford, Vatican Inc still sells a compelling timeless product. But charging fees for the publication of papal texts is negligible in terms of potential revenue. Instead this copyright will only result in significantly reducing what is essentially free product-placement and promotion within the vast sphere of media supplied content. Whoever instituted the copyright of papal text should be burned at the stake for heresy, because it will be deleterious to the cause of promoting The Brand. This dog-shit of an idea painfully illustrates how the Pope and his board of directors lack the contemporary cultural and marketing savvy of a CEO the caliber of a Jack Welsh or a Steve Jobs to come up with innovative ways to promote and distribute its product for consumption while reinvigorating brand.
The Word of God™ should be distributed in new ways, say, for a nominal fee as podcasts and ringtones. Follow George Lucas's lead and sell action figures at Wal-Mart of all the characters, major and minor, that appear in the Bible. Offer a Bobblehead Jesus© with a McD Happy Meal. Hell, buy an NFL franchise team, hire Landor to brand it something like "The Apostles," and establish a stadium base somewhere in Southern California, where there are more Catholic-fed Hispanics per square mile than anywhere else in the US. This local market demographic alone will ensure that all related high-priced football merchandise will be consumed eagerly, with national, perhaps even international, potential thereafter. God willing, perhaps the jerseys and doo-rags alone might become so popular as to initiate a fashion zeitgeist of it's own, becoming as ubiquitous as Tommy Hilfiger's branded clothing used to be in the mid-90s. These merchandising and PR strategies are just a few examples.
Yes, the problem with the Vatican is that it's sorely out of touch with the times. But this assessment isn't based on the typical critique, one which focuses on the values and beliefs of the Church, viewed by many, even within it's ranks, as stubbornly blind or insensitive to accommodating the ever altering composition of contemporary society. Vatican Inc is outdated because it hasn't embraced the latest marketing models of the new millennium. It's almost as if they've forgotten that God is just a brand, like any other.
Some people favor Coke, others prefer Pepsi... but it isn't because of the taste.
- Rick McCormack
Hill Conigilo Polins & Associates
Marketing Consultants
You're wrong, it's not about money; I took a vow of poverty and haven't accepted a penny since 2004. ...but you're right, if they want us to have it they should give it to us instead of making us bribe them; gratis accepistis, gratis date.
Rev. Thomas S. Painter (R)
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