What do you make of the Pope?

[lacktheknack]

He's the Pope Messenger of God to The Catholic Faith as a Christian I have nothing against him.

And I, as a Christian, DO have something against him.

As long as the stories of him harboring pedophiles are going around (true or not), I can't have an intelligent discussion about religion without people going "ZOMG TEH POPE IS A PALPATINE CLONE AND PROTECTS PEDOS HOW CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT RELIGION U DUMBASS!!!11!ELEVENSIES!!"

I mean, for the love of all that is holy, I'm not even Catholic!

 

[lacktheknack]

The Catholic Church (as with all religious institutions) is a cult. nuf said

Doesn't work. A cult is, by definition, a "perversion of religion".

 

[ragestreet]

He's a pedophile-supporting old fart.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

Look, I haven't got a thing against the Catholic faith, nor do I hold any sort of ill will toward Catholic practitioners, but as an organization, I am disgusted with their protection of child-molesting priests.

Were they not operating as a religion, they would have been shut down hard for all of their transgressions. The child-molesters in question were relocated and the families of victims were paid off, as opposed to the criminals being apprehended by law enforcement; everything about that is wrong. Not only is it wrong, but criminal, yet the whole "accountability" thing seems to go out the window when everyone's afraid of the political ramifications of stepping on the toes of a religious organization.

 

[Sgt Doom]

I wouldn't be too sad if he got assassinated, the pedophile-protecting scumbag.

 

[JWAN]

well the info was buried but I think it says more about the people who gathered this information YEARS ago and waited on it just to make a point.

Weak on both sides

 

[Cody211282]

I think he is a lot better then some religious leaders. At least he isn't yelling for the fall of western civilization and for a holy war against everything he doesn't like.

 

[rekabdarb]

Wait wait... which part. the fact he was in hitler youth? or that he's catholic? or maybe he's the head of one of the the richest and oldest companies in the world? or that he protects child molesters

 

[Brad Shepard]

Well, i grew up with Pope John Paul, so i still wish that crazy guy was alive, i mean comeon, that guy survived a lot of crap and died of old age, he was shot what, 4 times?

OT: i just had a bad feeling at first after i heard he was a youth Hitler, but then i thought that they had no choice in that day, so whatever right?

 

[FinalHeart95]

This is the same pope that disowned the use of condoms, right?

Yeah, no.

 

[mad825]

imo, the pope or popes are pointless they mean nothing to no one except for Catholics.

the most annoying thing about popes is that they act like they are a leader of a nation like they had any political power, dictating on what is right and what is wrong to the world leaders/countries as if they were going to pull out some magic wand and fix the worlds problems in an instant.

I'm going to stop here before I say something I'll regret.

 

[Weaver]

I'm not catholic so i don't two crosses about the Pope..but i think it's funny that he was a Hitler youth at one point. (Yes it's true Joesph Ratzinger aka Pope Benedict the XVI used to be a nazi supporter there's a swastika logo under that pope hat)

Taken from wikipedia:

"Following his 14th birthday in 1941, Ratzinger was conscripted into the Hitler Youth ? as membership was required by law for all 14-year old German boys after December 1939[7] ? but was an unenthusiastic member who refused to attend meetings.[8] His father was a bitter enemy of Nazism, believing it conflicted with the Catholic faith."

From what I understand it was like enforced boy scouts. So if you're a fourteen year old told you can go camping or be put to death, what would you choose? Cake or death, CAKE OR DEATH!!??

Yeah it was forced. My great uncle was in the hitler youth.

 

[Worgen]

looks like an evil emperor, much more deeply involved with the child abuse scandal then he should be for his position and his position is one that pretty much proves there is no god (see since they dont have all the pope candidates sit around outside waiting for a bird to crap on them or some other divine sort of suggestion they are worthy of being pope, instead they vote on it, which is kinda like saying "we know this is bs but you should believe in it")

and this really should be in the religion and politics section

 

[miriahofthewind]

As a Roman Catholic I think what he's done is deplorable. The Church should be protecting her people from those who hurt them, not hiding the abuse under the rug. I think the Pope should step down and many people would disagree with me because we've never had that. However there was a point in time when we never had a pope who wasn't Italian or wasn't a saint or wasn't a martyr. Things change.

 

[Spaghetti]

Being a sort-of-protestant + full-blown-socialist, the Pope means nothing to me.
A good example of me not caring was his recent condemnation of British gay-rights legislation for being too Liberal. Being British, I think the reaction I usualy have in such a situation is anger and outrage, but this time I didn't care. Partly because the Pope has little to no influence in the UK and partly because it only confirmed his conservative views.

 

[ethaninja]

Man I hope I don't get banned for this but hey, you asked so: He is a bastard who uses religion to justify himself for all his wrongdoings. (I'ma leave a little disclaimer here: This comment was submitted as is blah blah blah. If it pisess you off, ignore it, and don't start some sort of flame war)

 

[Weaver]

I want JP2 to come back, he was a cool pope.

May he rest in peace.

I really liked and respected John Paul II. Not only was he trying to spread tolerance and friendship, he actually made friends with musicians and other celebrities (he owned a pair of sunglasses given to him by Bono for pete's sake), and the Church was much more tolerant under his rule.

Benedict really upsets me as a Catholic woman. Although what do I care, I was divorced and am currently seeing a non-Catholic with the intention of having extramarital sex. I'm about 2 steps away from excommunication now.

I'm not religious at all, but I still respected JP2. Mainly because he was a man of the world. He seemed to "get" how things worked in reality and realized that if you just lock yourself up in your ivory tower then your views are going to skew.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I personally can't believe there was a selection of potential popes and he got chosen, myself.

I will say that I remember when the previous pope was in power, and there wasn't the overwhelming dislike of the pope then, and you have to ask why?

Is it just that he looks a bit creepy? Is it the Nazi youth links, which I'm willing to believe he was forced into and is just anti religious propoganda? Just that he's been unpopular since he got in, doesn't seem to be just the AIDS or the child molesting scandals.

I understand that the Pope needs to be protected from danger, I'm not one of these people who thinks God should protect him from bullets, but I do think they could tone down the riches a little,some large charitable donations wouldn't hurt their image right now.

I also think that John Paul would have dealt with the scandal far better, offering a full and humble apology and compensations to those affected, and while it would have been bad, it would have come across better than how a lot of people feel, that Benedict seems sorry that they've been caught out, not that the crimes happened. It all seems to be an awkward situation that needs to go away for him.

As for condoms and AIDS, I think one of the biggest failings of religion is not to move along with the times, but maybe it's rooted in the whole concept of 'no contraception means large families and more new catholics', with the bonus of 'except it'll spread AIDS in those heathen countries where we don't have many catholics, and that's fine.'

 

[Wildrow12]

Uh....isn't this in the wrong section?

 

[miriahofthewind]

I want JP2 to come back, he was a cool pope.

May he rest in peace.

I really liked and respected John Paul II. Not only was he trying to spread tolerance and friendship, he actually made friends with musicians and other celebrities (he owned a pair of sunglasses given to him by Bono for pete's sake), and the Church was much more tolerant under his rule.

Benedict really upsets me as a Catholic woman. Although what do I care, I was divorced and am currently seeing a non-Catholic with the intention of having extramarital sex. I'm about 2 steps away from excommunication now.

Yeah, but when was the last time someone got excommunicated? I mean, they were threatening that to John Kerry at one point and they never followed through.