Bell Curve The Law Talking Guy Raised by Republicans U.S. West
Well, he's kind of had it in for me ever since I accidentally ran over his dog. Actually, replace "accidentally" with "repeatedly," and replace "dog" with "son."

Friday, January 30, 2009

Pope Just Does Not Get It

I am mystified at what is going on in the Roman Catholic church right now. The Pope un-excommunicated four bishops who rejected Vatican II reforms. To that much, I say "what-ever." It's all inside baseball. And the whole idea of excommunication seems weird to me. But one of these bishops is a jerk who publicly denies that the Nazi holocaust ever happened. Hello? That is about as anti-semitic a position as one can take these days. It is incredibly hurtful to deny the survivors the reality of their suffering. So what does the Pope do? Nothing. He issues more statements saying that Catholics are in solidarity with Jews blah blah blah. Yet this pinhead keeps spouting this hateful garbage while wearing a miter and causing pain, all over again, to any survivors who hear it. It is also offensive to truth and reason.

Now, if this bishop said "Women should be ordained" or "Being gay is not a sin" he would be disciplined in some fashion. But does the Pope discipline for these statments about Jews? No. What is that all about?? Why is standing up for women's rights in the RC church going to get you disciplined or excommunicated, but there are no consequences to spewing hate against Jews (never mind covering up sexual abuse of children by priests)? This all shows two things. First, the Pope's priorities are so screwed up as to defy comprehenshion. Second, the occasional politically correct public statements from the Vatican on various issues are just lipservice. At what point to American Catholics finally say "Enough!"? I just don't know anymore.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Many of us have said "enough". We ignore the pope, do what we want, and quit participating. It's called voting with your feet.

With the Catholic Church, there isn't much more you can do but defect to the Anglican Church. It ain't a democracy by a long shot.

The Law Talking Guy said...

The Anglican church is only one of very many possibilities. Admittedly we get lots of ex-Catholics in our church now, and it certainly changes the makeup of the church. The title "Protestant" was dropped from the church's name in the 1970s.

This, fyi, is why the cases in court of Episcopal church property are important to catholics. If Roman Catholics could vote by congregation to leave the organization and take their parish property with them... watch out.

Dr. Strangelove said...

I suspect many American Catholics feel toward the current Pope the way most Americans felt toward the last President: We can't stand him, but we still love our country (in this case, church). Most Catholics probably would not consider moving to the Anglican Communion to avoid Pope Benedict any more than most Americans would consider moving to Canada to avoid President Bush. Unfortunately, Benedict might last more than eight years...

The Law Talking Guy said...

If true, that is a pretty brutal analogy.

Anonymous said...

I suspect Dr. S is right.

There is only one thing that would being me back to the church . . . education. If I have a child, I would want to put that child in Catholic School. To do that, I'd have to show my face in Church and be a "parishioner". I still think Catholic education is one of the cheapest private educations you can get and the quality is top notch. Hypocritical, I know. But hey, self interest trumps all! Besides, what better way to teach a child how to pick those scared cows worth slaughtering?

The Law Talking Guy said...

"If I have a child, I would want to put that child in Catholic School."

Why? I have been led to believe that Catholic school education is superior to public school education in really poor districts, but that it is generally just on par with good suburban public schools.