First of all, billions of Catholics are celebrating replacing one old white guy with a different old white guy. Show some fucking respect. This guy has one of the several self proclaimed bat phones to Christ. Don't make him use it to cry to the Trinity about how disrespectful you are.

Secondly, these guys have been wearing dresses for a long time, ok? That doesn't make them gay. Any formerly endowed Mormon knows that what we had to wear in the temple was more ridiculous. If only we had been so fortunate to wear what they were wearing. Especially given the staff. That way when Satan started to whine like a bitch we could have stood up and slammed our staff down while shouting, "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!"

Furthermore, the pope's clothes don't make him the "Prom Queen." Great tits and a bitchy attitude make you a prom queen. You can't just have one of those traits and trick the student body into voting for you.

Thirdly, with all of the good that the Catholic church does around the world, you're going to focus on the pedophilia?

Really? How petty.

Just because a bunch of children were raped and then the people responsible were moved around so that more children were raped and then word of all this moved up to the last few popes and nothing was done about it other than covering it up, moving people around further, and then settling out of courts with standard "shut the fuck up" clauses doesn't mean the ENTIRE organization is corrupt, OK?

It just means that the people at the top knew that children were getting raped, moved people around, and then covered the whole thing up.

It's a big, worldwide organization. Bad things are going to happen. What would YOU have done if you were in charge? Called the police? You have a batphone to god!

Fuck tha police!

And would you all just please shut up about the birth control thing? Jesus Christ that gets old. Sure, many of the Catholic guys at the top are still harping on it being a sin, but most American and European Catholics aren't even paying attention to that shit. And that's really how you can gauge the effectiveness of ANY religion is how useless the practitioners find the uninformed opinions of the guys at the top.

You can criticize Catholicism all you want. But really you should do it by sitting quietly in Mass thinking about how you don't agree. You don't go around the internet blabbing about how "awful" the Catholic church is. That just makes you look like a bigot.

Lastly, don't bash the religious organization over its history. That was a long fucking time ago. Those witches and heretics are all dust now. Maybe those people were killed in the name of god, or maybe those people were killed because they were stinky assfaces. You don't know. You weren't there.

Plus, every religion has some naughty things in their past. Are you just going to denounce every religion? That makes you anti-intellectual.

Just accept that everyone else was doing it, so why not us? That's the sure footed logical position.

I guess I wasn't quite "lastly" because did I also mention, "shut up?"

Seriously, shut up. Why are you trying to harm religion? What did religion ever do to harm you?

HA HA.

It would be funny, if it all weren't true.

I still say we should call him "Francine."

Have any of y'all seen on you tube the Intelligence Squared debate regarding Is the Catholic Church a force for good in the world? On one side is MP Anne Widdicomb and a RCC bishop, and on the other Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens (oh dear, I fear I've opened a dreadful can of worms by mentioning THAT name).

Guess which side wins rather resoundingly? If for no other reason, watch it for its educational and entertainment value!

I did see that one. If I recall, they did polls at the start and finish, then at the final poll, there was a very small percentage that agreed the church was a force for good. Started out much more even.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2013 04:16PM by Mormoney.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2013 04:19PM by Mormoney.

HaHaHa. On TV the other day, Baba Wawa (Barbara Walters for those of you who didn't watch SNL in it's heyday) herself said that Catholics are important because they are the ONLY religion who has a leader that claims to talk to God. It's almost like Mormons are irrelevant or something. Having the ONLY batphone around makes them special. Of course, you'd think God might have mentioned he had some lightening bolts for those pedophile priests but he hasn't struck equally bad Mormon leaders off the face of the earth yet so maybe it isn't his priority. Or maybe, like Baba Wawa, Mormons aren't important enough to notice.

Either way, these are just men (dressed as women) subject to human frailties and you are right, we should just sit in the pews and shut up and think uplifting thoughts. I mean, we ARE getting this advice from (Raptor) Jesus himself - what do we need holy leaders for if we can message the big guy directly.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2013 03:42PM by CA girl.

Ex cathedra, orfrom the chair, and its infallible pontificating (guffaw), not to be confused with speakimg through a catheter tube. That's something else just as special.

Really. You've got to laugh so you don't cry.

I loved hearing the other day, can't remember where I read it, but some catholic big wig said that almost no one hates the catholic church. He said there are many that think they hate the church, but what they hate about it is what they think they know about the church. But their lack of understanding makes them hate only their perception of the church, and do not and cannot hate what it actually is, since they don't know the church well enough to hate it. Those that do truly know the catholic church all love it, with maybe very very few exceptions.

I hate fresh tomatoes. But obviously I don't really hate fresh tomatoes, because I'm unfamiliar with the chemical composition. I must first learn the atomic structure, before I can truly declare and be honest to myself that I really hate tomatoes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2013 04:20PM by Mormoney.

Then I spied the author name and that expectation went away. :)

Even though it's satire (if that's what you'd call it?) it's ironically a serious post due to making so many crucial points, whichever side of the divide you're on.

I admit to having been torn in the past. I was in the "it does so much good" brigade for a while. I still struggle with seeing good and bad and so not knowing which way to go on things (not just this issue). But when the seamy underbelly came out into full view re Ireland (hundreds of thousands of abused children) I couldn't take it any more.

That is why a discussion about whether it's 1% or 4% or eleventy percent of all priests who are pedophiles is academic to me. As I recently stated on another thread, the main issue to me is the cover-up. So if 1% of priests molested 50 children each over three decades and it was covered up by church hierarchy and the priest moved and the abuse allowed to continue, is that better than if 4% of priests molested 50 children each over three decades and it was covered up by church hierarchy and the priest moved and the abuse allowed to continue? It is still a whole helluva lot of abused children and the central issue remains the cover-up, not a squabble over numbers. (Is it better that "only" 100,000 children were abused than if it was many more hundreds of thousands?)

That is one great post, RJ, even if I am torn in some ways on some of the issues and also am not inherently down on Catholics except to the extent that abuse is tolerated.

Same way as I am not down on Mormons.

I just have no use for either of their churches.

Which makes me sad rather than any other emotion like glee to engage in gotcha or anything else that anyone may imagine.

To see some of the priests interviewed during the media frenzy over selection of a new Pope downplaying the abuse (in numbers and how it was handled by the church and its place on the list of serious issues) was so disappointing and disheartening to me.

Like if you elect a new leader you get a major do-over.

Like we're supposed to just smudge over a history of decades of abuse and cover-up.

It just does not work that way.

Or is this too just a 'fleck of history'?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2013 04:37PM by Nightingale.

Dang, this post made my bosom burn so much the heat moved a little south and I had a small sacred explosion in my pants; I haven't felt the spirit so strongly since my last reparative-therapy-electrical-correctional-intervention, thanks RJ:)

I'm no Catholic, nor could I ever be, but I have studied the Middle Ages a lot. You cannot understand Medieval Europe without the Church, and the Church is headed by the Pope. (In the day, it really was THE CHURCH before Martin Luther).

I think it is amazing to see a medieval relic that has survived nearly 2000 and years still going. The election of a new pope, the 266th, is a historic event. I especially love that he named himself after St. Francis of Assisi, the most admirable saint.

And this is why we, meaning me, loves Raptor Jesus. Wonderful bait and switch.

lighten up, frances

;)

You do have a way with words RJ. I'm just grateful your scepter isn't pointed at me ;)

I'm grateful for Raptor Jesus' scepter.

Priests are more important than lay people within Catholicism. That point can’t be disputed because it’s based in doctrine. The Catholic Church has attended to widespread cases of child rape in manifold ways that bear this out.

One of the issues non-Catholics may not appreciate is that in the Catholic Church, priests inhabit a separate and higher sphere of existence than lay people. This is because every Sunday when he performs the sacrament of Mass, a priest performs the Miracle of Transubstantiation.

It is Catholic doctrine that, during the Eucharist, the wine and bread is changed into the Body and Blood of Christ.

Lay people, nuns, deacons—none of them can perform the Miracle of the Mass. Without a priest, virtually nothing sacramental can be accomplished.

By virtue of this miraculous ability, priests are privileged and indulged within Catholic hierarchy.

The implications are vast, especially when priests rape children.

Agreed, R J, one doesn't have to buy into the Catholic Church to be able to respect the right to believe that the several billion members choose to follow. The Catholic Church does a hell of a lot more good than the LDS Church, that's for sure. I know awesome Catholics and idiot Catholics, just like any other group of people, religious or not.

As with all religions, including TSCC, those who seriously try to live their beliefs deserve respect, not ridicule, regardless of whether we buy into their beliefs or not. This is a holy moment for them and mocking it demeans the mocker more than the mockee.

Now the total hypocrites from any religion, on the other hand, I reserve the right to make fun of them with unrestrained glee.

I don't bash the Catholics...they are what they are....I just don't care about them....and I'm married to one.

Ron Burr

What is a "white" guy?

Is white a country? I've never heard of it.

I am all for religions, but not hypocrites.

The problem is: when people sincerely and truly practice their "religions," oftentimes they turn into hypocrites and bigots.

The new pope certainly is a religious man, but his records are just too difficult for me to embrace.

Read this thread:

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,826162


He sounds like the Big 15 Bigots when it comes to marriage and adoption.

Is this the same pope who ratted out people the the Argentine Junta to get them pushed out of aircraft ?

Seems he has murder on his hands.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2013 10:58PM by Dave the Atheist.

That was wonderful it read like a Daniel Peterson apologist piece,except for the fact that it was spot on.

Raptor,

Hehehe... I must interject a serious concern of mine here....

You stated that you are ashamed of us for posting anti-Cath stuff...

Can you please, please; just forgive us this one time?

Can you, huh? Pretty please?