The Pope: Has He Gone Out On A Rope?

The Pope believes he is more powerful and influential than he really is.

A statement such as this does nothing to persuade people to embrace the Catholic Faith and pisses off the rest.

He's lost credibility. Good thing he decided on Benedict and not John Paul. He's no John Paul.

 

He's already admitted that he sees 'Third World' (have I mentioned that I'm not totally comfortable with this term?) countries as the primary areas for Catholic Church expansion in the 21st Century...

...I'd humbly suggest that maybe we're not the target audience, and the tone and manner --indeed, the content of the message-- is not meant for us at all.

He's zigging when everyone zags (where's that Catera Popemobile?) and gambling that any the possible disunity he causes between branches of the Christian Church will be outweighed by a hopeful influx of new Catholics whom (he believes) will respond to a more extremist message.

It seems repugnant to me...but I, too am not of the target market...and, honestly, he probably cares little --if at all-- if he pisses off folks like myself.

It's an interesting gambit; sometimes I feel like he really had no other choice.

Waiting for some sort of refutation of Vatican II.

It's scary, and actually makes me glad that I'll die someday and have no children who may potentially be faced with regression on a number of fronts.

 

I'm all for starting a recall movenment on the Pope. Get a petition going. He is too 'In your face' with other Christian denominations. He is just plain stupid when dealing with muslims.

If the petition idea fails, we should kidnap him and bring him to the US for trial. His letter to American bishops in 2001 (when he was still known as Ratzinger) was blatant obstruction of justice. For those who didn't hear about it, Ratzinger threatened priests and bishops with excommunication (and firing) if they cooperated with American law enforcement investigating perverts. He did give them one out: they could talk after the victims reached the age of 28.

 

Far be it from me to suggest Ratzinger's yet another dogmatic German. The College should go after an Irishman when Ratzinger expires. Or a black African (yeah, right).

Pope: soap on a rope.

(Liberties taken as an ex-Catholic.)

 

The Pope's latest sounds like every other religious proclamation that there's only one way to live and everyone else can go to hell. Yawn.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fan-atic @ Jul 12 2007, 12:52 PM) [snapback]477595[/snapback]</div>

He is a bit of a brute sometimes, apparently. And his insensitivity to non-Christian faiths is simply remarkable. I think it's the latter which actually worries me most. The infighting among Christians is one thing, when he takes it further, it does concern me a bit.

I wonder, at what point his global fight for conservative Catholicism (when it's at the expense of non-Christian religions) actually becomes an issue of national security.

 

Anyone else think he looks like the grinch who stole christmas?

[attachmentid=9657]

 

Any catholics on here that can tell us how the catholics salvation plan works?

I have enough knowledge of how the 'catholic thing' works to have enough points of disagreement to not need to dig any deeper. When I saw the pope's news thing recently, I began to wonder what it is that is the baseline for the catholic church.

Anyone know it and can lay it out... assume you meet bob on the street and he's never heard of any of it... What does he do to be saved?

 

geez, i'm digging way back here.

something about good works and being catholic. of course.

 

Don't forget the sidetrip through purgatory that they taught us about.
And have now changes their mind on and denounced.
Infallible popes my A**.
My great uncle is an 85 year old priest (actually earned Monsignuer) and he is vocally against the papal heirarchy and focuses on the message of Jesus instead of the fire and brimstone crap. He was always the only priest I could even stand to listen too when I was growing up. He's spent his retirement years running a church on an indian reservation, where he pretty much ignores the differences in Christian sects and tries to merge the basic Christian message with native American history and theology.

 

Deleted duplicate