New Pope Crosses Over

This week, a new Pope was voted in, and he happens to be the first ever Pope from the Americas. This has been a very historical time for the Vatican, as a Pope has not resigned in 500 years, and a non-European has never before been Pope. The new Pope, Francis is from Argentina, and hopefully this is evidence that Catholicism is moving forward.

A cartoon drawn by Patrick Chappatte displays the pope crossing over the oceans from South America to Europe. It appears to be referring to the Bible story of Jesus walking on water. Because the Pope is a symbol of Christianity, along with Jesus, it makes sense for the cartoonist to link the two figures.

However, the photograph also reminds me of the photos of the ice age. I see a very close resemblance between the Pope crossing over from the Americas to Europe as we see in photos of people during the ice age moving over to the Americas. I think this interpretation could show how prehistoric the traditions of the Catholic religion are.

What are your interpretations?