Does the Catholic Church really have any stones left to cast...its leader consistently demonizes gay marriage; yet, his church can't seem to do anything about the thousands of sexual abuse victims by its supposed "godly" leaders?

From an Advocate.com article: "Attacks on marriage and the family, from an ideological and legal aspect, are becoming stronger and more radical every day...Who destroys this fundamental fabric causes a profound injury to society and provokes often irreparable damage."

I have a feeling that raping a child does more to cause "a profound injury to society and provokes often irreparable damage" than two men or women choosing to enter into a marriage. And what about those abusive priests? I'm pretty sure they commit "attacks on marriage and the family" each time they touch an innocent child.

Organized religion...what a laughing stock!!!

Sorry in advance if I offend anyone, but the Pope can plant his wrinkly parched lips squarely on my pale white ass. He is useless and because of his other pointless rantings his words carry less weight than it used to. The Catholic church on the other hand needs to wake up and smell the coffee or they too will diminish even more in their numbers.

I'll skip the apology that Wade offered up front and just say to the Popester: "Why won't you just die already you f@#$ing old coot!" The dude has an organization full of men running around raping young boys and this is what he continues to harp on over and over and over. Merry Christmas!

[ December 22, 2004, 01:42 PM: Message edited by: George_vikingfan ]

Long live the Holy Father!

Somehow I can't help but think that if Luciani (JP I) had lived longer, the Church wouldn't be in this kind of mess now.

Check out the Dan Brown books...they are GREAT. I'm currently in the middle of "The Da Vinci Code" and I've already finished "Angels & Demons". All of his details about the Catholic Church are fact; it will amaze you what the leaders of the Church have done throughout history. Unbelievable...

My response to the pope is a punch line from a old joke.

"you no playa da game, you no maka da rules!!"

Seriously, quoting the babble, which even that senile old fart should understand, "Let he who be without sin cast the first stone".

I think that if he can prove that his wartime and postwar actions were clean, then he is entitled to his opinion.

From what I understand, there are lots of questions about him with regards to his wartime actions during the Nazi occupation of Poland.

But then the Catholic Church, and more specifically the Vatican, had a large history of collaboration with the Italian and later the German Fascists.

Dear Pope,

When your fan club stops raping children maybe then you can toss some stones.

Merry Christmas,
Razorbacktx

P.S. If you're so damn holy, why are you sick all the time?

I'll consider (and I mean in the smallest way possible) listening to any religious person tell me how to live my life when they all get their own s**t together. Hell, "thou shalt not be married to the same sex" didn't even make it into the top 10 of biblical laws/rules. But I do believe "thou shalt not commit adultery" made the all-important list. When they discover a way to succeed in their own marriages and find a way to embrace the concept of monogamy for themselves, then I'll be more likely to listen. Until then, I say in the nicest way possible...FCUK OFF!!! :mad:

And yes, Pope, that was for you...

I have one observation and question for those of you on this board who are more learned than I about the Roman Catholic faith.

First the observation:

While we are dissing the pople for sticking his nose where it doesn't belong (and rightfully, cuz the old fart really pisses me off), there are much worse people waiting in the wings of the RCC, namely Cardinal Ratzinger.

My question, I read yesterday that he is considered the likely successor to the current pope. Is this right?

If he did become the next pope, the RCC would lose ALL credibility in the EU, and probably most of North America

Your last word there sums it all up; it is, indeed, unbelievable, because it isn't fact. At all.

The Church is composed of human beings, and as such, they've made their share of mistakes throughout history. Sinful beings will do that; but the Da Vinci Codes is a fictional book designed to titillate those whose lives need a little conspiratorial excitement. It is filled with all kinds of BS.

Da Vinci Code reminds me a bit of Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising. The details are vivid and recognizable to those in the know. That doesn't make it truth, or readable for that matter. Red Storm Rising would have been more readable if it had just been the military war game documents it had been based off. I haven't read Da Vinci Code yet.

Ladies and gentlemen, the understatement of the century.

Oh, you guys are just a bunch of "Christianophobes."

Christians are also victims of discrimination: Vatican

Hmmm. Maybe people in stained-glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

JQueer, read the book, great reading.

Having nothing to do with you, I've been avoiding the book lately because I don't really trust the literary taste of the people I know who are highly recomending it.

I have often posted here about how grieved I am that the Church in which I was raised, a Church that many of my distant relatives served (including one beloved great-aunt who was a nun, a scholar, a teacher, a humanitarian and our family's first PhD) has turned so strongly toward evil, at least in its current leadership.

It is even sadder than JP II, a man who did so much to end Communism in Europe, now turns on innocent human beings who not only have done NOTHING to harm "the family," but who are in fact part and parcel of that human family.

Of course, given JP II's current mental and physical frailty, it is difficult to know how much of what is released from the Vatican is actually his thinking, I hear Ratzinger all over this one.

But Ratzinger and so many other bishops and cardinals have cynically and maliciously joined the anti-gay hate movement in order to deflect attention away from their own failings, and it is disgusting. Among my friends and family who remain members of the church, the actions of this leadership are causing a lot of soul-searching about whether to continue as members.

I remember enjoying Ratzinger's book "Salt of the Earth" -- which, IIRC, says the future of Catholicism may lie not in sheer numbers a but in small communities of ardent faith and intense devotional life. In retrospect, it seems that His Eminence had in mind an exclusionary "bunker strategy" wherein a "saving remnant" can preserve Catholicism pure and unsullied from the wiles and wickedness of the world.

I've met many a Catholic traditionalist so wrapped up in their own observance and little cliques that they've become dead and absolutely hateful toward those who don't agree with them completely, living in their fantasy bubble of redemption through sheer mindless acts of piety.

No gay marriage, fine. But civil unions are another issue entirely. I wish the Pope and his circle would focus their efforts back toward the glaring evils done to the people and our world by unprincipled corporate exploitation. Refusing to sanction weddings with diamond engagement or wedding bands, for example...