The pretentious prick who pretty practically protected predator priests

The pope is infallible..... He doesn't have a phallus.

He's the guy who has more fancy dresses, sparkly hats, flowing capes and dazzling jewels than all the Disney Princesses put together. And the guys he works with wear dresses too.

The pedophile protecting, gay bashing, dress wearing veteran of the Hitler Youth.

Though I can't say anything too harsh, as I am currently trying really hard to rub uglies with a devout Roman Catholic friend of mine. She's a red head.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2013 12:06AM by forbiddencokedrinker.

The Pope is irrelevant....as is every other religious leader. The fact there are church leaders in positions of power who can ruin lives, cause murder, genocide and other atrocities to happen by forcing their followers to follow stupid rules under penalty of excommunication or death is an obscenity....

Ron Burr



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2013 05:56PM by Lethbridge Reprobate.

I like it when people call him Joey Rats, short for Joseph Ratzinger, his actual name.

There's no getting around the breath-taking beauty of the Vatican, though - at least, that's how I see it.

I'm not and never was a Catholic. However, the age-old chants and rituals appeal to me. In movies like "The Cardinal," and "The Shoes of the Fisherman," where they show the rituals of how the Pope is elected - it's like watching millenia-old choreography. They same the same words, in the same language, and move in the same patterns. . .this fascinates me. Doesn't mean squat, but it's pretty to watch as a historic relic.

And the priceless art work contained in the Vatican. . .wow.

I guess I would have to say that I respect the guy in charge of the Vatican State, as I would respect the head of just about any sovereign state. I respect the traditions he represents. I just don't buy into them, personally.

His holy pupate, morphing from fleshy caterpillar man to butterfly god in a traveling glass case. He's dressed like a bishop from a chess board, triangular hat and floor length gown. The pope will invade your bedroom and steal your condoms. He figures that holding up two fingers and muttering some Latin makes him appear to be deep. Weepy Italian matrons are most imressed.

I have the official translation of when he stands on the Holy Balcony and waves his fingers and mutters in Latin:

"All of you I-talians. Git offa the grass!"

Don Bagley Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> He figures that holding up two fingers and
> muttering some Latin makes him appear to be deep.
> Weepy Italian matrons are most imressed.


Benedict is actually a pretty deep thinker and theologian. You don't publish The Dialectics of Secularization: On Reason and Religion with someone like Jürgen Habermas if you are a total idiot. He was an academic long before he became a pope. I'm not arguing that he's a good man on a personal level or that his conduct as pope is beyond reproach, just that he's not intellectually shallow.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg_en.html

http://www.firstthings.com/article/2008/04/europe-and-its-discontents---50

In an interview in 1999 Habermas stated that,

"For the normative self-understanding of modernity, Christianity has functioned as more than just a precursor or catalyst. Universalistic egalitarianism, from which sprang the ideals of freedom and a collective life in solidarity, the autonomous conduct of life and emancipation, the individual morality of conscience, human rights and democracy, is the direct legacy of the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic of love. This legacy, substantially unchanged, has been the object of a continual critical reappropriation and reinterpretation. Up to this very day there is no alternative to it. And in light of the current challenges of a post-national constellation, we must draw sustenance now, as in the past, from this substance. Everything else is idle postmodern talk."

I wouldn't say the Pope is stupid. A traveling cross-dresser who manages a cadre of child molesters ain't my cup of tea, is all.

++ 1

Not impressed.
To employ reason to preserve religion and to then employ religion to protect child rapists, preserve death by AIDs, and guarantee the oppression of girls and women worldwide, is morally bankrupt. The Pope is proof that intelligence and integrity can be strangers.

I don't think in the end that he's going to be one of those memorable popes. He's not going to be beloved (as was John XXIII,) nor admired for his tireless work ethic (JP II,) nor even despised to any great degree. He's a placeholder, not a dynamic leader.

+1

A clownish anachronism? Yeah, I'll go with that.