Worst Pope Ever

[andrewducker]

I'm actually pretty pleased in some ways - by moving, in many ways, even further in a conservative direction the church has made it more likely that it will lose members in the west, and possibly even provoke a schism.

Comments

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Agreed. The more people actually question things and think about them themselves, the better.

[josephgrossberg.livejournal.com]

Then again, the more people question the simplified story that this Pope was a Nazi (i.e. membership in Hitler youth was mandatory, he was conscripted into the Germany army and was a deserter, and both happened when he was just a teenager), the more likely they are to view him favorably.

[andrewducker]

Depending on their feelings on gay rights, of course.

[rainstorm.livejournal.com]

there was a point on the ITN news when they said one of his aims was to stamp out liberalism in the Catholic Church. I thought they'd burned and tortured all those crazy liberals centuries ago..

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

I hadn't even read about Pope Benedict until a few minutes ago. I really wish I hadn't. Depressing stuff. I don't actually care what some man in a hat thinks, but it's saddening when he has so much negative influence over what many many other people think.

(The head of the former Holy Office of the Inquisition too... interesting).

Faith can be a positive influence in the world, and I have absolutely nothing against religions that preach harmony, tolerance and being nice to other people. But statements like "[homosexuality] is an intrinsic moral evil" belong in the dark ages.

[rainstorm.livejournal.com]

"religions that preach ..... being nice to other people"

apparently christianity is supposed to be one of those. funny how war is often brought about by people claiming it's for peace, and how intolerance is perpetrated by people who claim they're not intolerant (michael howard).

"But statements like "[homosexuality] is an intrinsic moral evil" belong in the dark ages."

i agree absolutely. i was overwhelmed with rage earlier when on channel 4 news a man being interviewed said that priests being allowed to marry might happen but that condoms being used to prevent the spread of aids was never going to be allowed by the catholic church. nice to see they have their priorities straight.

the church is also becoming worried that news sexism laws in various countries will mean that the catholic church will be sued for sexual discrimination since women can't become catholic priests (i thought they could. see how much attention i pay, to think the catholic church would unbend slightly).

[andrewducker]

CofE allows priests - but only allowed women bishops recently (and it's still divisive). The first female priests in the UK were in 1992 - and 470 male clergy left in protest.

And the Pope preached against the Iraq war repeatedly. Did fuck all good though.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Like I said earlier, I do think religion can have benefits and use the power it has to genuinely help (Mother Teresa is a lovely example), but it's dragged down by telling people whom they should hate and obvious politics.

(Preaching against the war is arguably outweighed by the staggering situation in Africa regarding contraception).

[rainstorm.livejournal.com]

Mother Teresa refused to help people unless they converted to the Catholic church, didn't she?

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

That I don't know. To most people though, Mother Terasa was essentially a mute. Mother Teresa the symbol was/is arguably more important than whatever she actually said or did in reality. (That's not to run down what she did of course. It's just she remains a tremendously powerful symbol and inspiration for a lot of people who are helping others).

[andrewducker]

Nope. She _did_ baptise the dying without them giving informed consent (arguably). There are some criticisms on the page here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Theresa

[rainstorm.livejournal.com]

Weird, I heard something saying they couldn't be prisets and thought I'd got it wrong. How strange. Fair enough then. But, erm, yeah, they're still horrible sexist.

And the Pope preached against the Iraq war repeatedly.
I didn't say he'd done nothing of value, however what he said/encouraged/did that was detrimental more than outweighs his good points in my opinion.


I'd also like to point out that while Hitler invented the VW Beetle and was apparently quite nice to his secretaries his bad points outweigh that.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

As long as people are actually looking at things themselves it's all good. I have no problem with that.