He is coming to town. Guess who?

Guess who is coming to town?

You better watch out;
You better not cry;
Better not pout.
I'm telling you why.
Santa Claus is coming to town.

No, I am not going mad.  I know that it is still two months to Christmas  It just is that as this Papal Visit gets closer and as I hear more about what goes on around it, it sounds more like Santa Claus is coming rather than the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Roman Catholic Church.

What I see first hand from church is that there is fake news about the visit concerning masses and tickets.  But this is not all.  There is also the touting of free tickets to papal masses with one payment for a ticket I heard of being AUS$1,500.  Then the best was yet to come.  A Chinese woman arrived from China, coming unannounced to the Bishops' Conference to get 120 tickets for the papal mass.  Sadly for her, she just assumed that she would get the tickets by simply coming to Bangkok. No such luck!

It gets even better for when I told the story to a bishop here about the Chinese woman coming all the way from China to get a ticket, he just said that she could have his ticket.  Maybe he will join me at the coffee shop on the day.  I wonder if he would wear his mitre on the day. That would be something in the middle of Buddhist Bangkok.

This is all better than Christmas.  Santa never causes such a stir on his annual arrival in town and never so much fun. I wonder if the pope knows what he is causing in coming to town.  It is not all about saying our prayers.  So, you had better watch out and be wary when the papal sleigh lands in my Bangkok.  .