Chapter 4 Footnotes

Encyclical of Pope John Paul II on developments involving communication with the dead.

My brilliant husband Jim wrote the encyclical that starts Chapter 4. I had had the idea that the church would need to rationalize the existence of the AfterNet and asked Jim if he could write a church encyclical, basically a letter from the pope explaining something to the faithful. He basically found an existing encyclical and adapted it.

I believe the church would try to explain the afterlife as purgatory, a place where souls go who  have been cleansed of original sin — in other words, they’ve been baptized — but still must be cleansed of whatever sins they still carry — in other words, they haven’t been offered absolution through confession or their sins still require some penance in purgatory even after absolution. After all, even if you’ve regularly made confession, it’s unlikely you’ve remembered every sin you’ve ever committed. Once they have been cleansed, they’re admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven. No one’s ever said how long that might take, however.

This is a good place for me to explain that although I am an agnostic verging on atheist, I’m still a Catholic. Nothing’s ever going to erase all that parochial school upbringing and I still have a fondness for the church. I’d like to think the church would find a way to stay relevant even after the discovery of the afterlife.

I should also mention the other weird Catholic construction: limbo, the place where souls who have not been baptized but have otherwise led virtuous lives go after their deaths. This includes children who have died before being baptized. I’ve steered clear and will continue to steer clear of any mention of children in relation to the AfterNet. It’s just too horrible to contemplate.

Yes, she died just a month ago in a stupid traffic accident. she’s a Ft Carson army soldier and she got sent to India as part of the “peacekeeping mission”

Fort Carson is the giant Army post south of Colorado Springs and home to the 4th Infantry Division. The peacekeeping mission refers to the aftermath of the India/Pakistan war that went nuclear after the discovery of the afterlife. Obviously the timeline of Good Cop, Dead Cop is quite different from that of the real world. One of the biggest differences for the U.S. is that the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon never happened on Sept. 11, 2001.

Great, I can be RoboCop, Munroe thought, until he realized the robot was about four feet high and school bus yellow.

The idea of the robot came from Honda’s Asimo, which will make an appearance in the as yet untitled sequel.

After his death, there were understandably fewer pictures.

Even now, facebook pages and blogs exist after someone’s death. Think what it would be like in the world of the AfterNet. You can attend your own funeral. And will the line “’til Death us do part” still have any meaning?

Of course, her shoulder mike, which was attached to her radio, which was on the belt, fell on the floor and keyed the emergency button.

My particular friend Lee Thomas, who is a Lakewood, Colo. cop, has told me many amusing stories about her experiences, several of which have included open mikes. Linda Yamaguchi is essentially a combination of myself (my frequent need to pee) and Lee (she’s similarly height challenged).