Pope Damage Control I teaches us how to take responsibility.

[Warren Stupidity]

Vatican: Pope did not intend to hurt Mexicans' feelings

In a statement Wednesday, the Vatican said the pope's words were contained in a personal e-mail and that he had merely repeated a phrase that his friend had used.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/02/25/pope-apologizes-email/23983289/

Ah the old "Jimmy said it I didn't know it was a bad word" excuse. It is good to see that the autocratic ruler of a religion with over 1 billion adherents has the ethics of a grade school boy.

[skepticscott]

1. Would anyone swallow that excuse

if the wonderpope had used the word "nigger" or "faggot"? I'm doubting it. So why does this get a free pass? Is it somehow less ugly and bigoted?

[AtheistCrusader]

10. He really is a piece of work, isn't he. But he's so lovable and fuzzy that most christians can't see

it at all.

[trotsky]

2. Disgusting and pathetic.

But never mind, I heard that Dawkins wants to send all children to atheist concentration camps and then eat them!

[Warren Stupidity]

3. I don't understand, why not just eat them first?

[trotsky]

4. They need to be seasoned with blasphemous thoughts first.

Duh.

[Goblinmonger]

13. mmmmmm Marinated in the blasphemy

and then served with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

[AtheistCrusader]

11. Gotta ripen first.

[Curmudgeoness]

5. Doesn't he realize

that when you are some high muckity-muck, there is no such thing as a "personal email"? Hell, there isn't even such a thing as a personal email when you are a low level employee at some podunk company.

Even the Pope makes mistakes in judgment, I guess.

[AlbertCat]

6. Even the Pope makes mistakes in judgment, I guess.

Yeah, but they're infallible mistakes of judgement.

[Curmudgeoness]

7. How much longer

can we keep that "infallible" myth going?

It worked well in the Dark Ages, but seriously, there is just too much information available to us these days to keep it alive. It is time for the Pope to admit it----he is just a man.

[skepticscott]

8. Well, the pope lovers would say

that he's only "infallible" when he puts on his +2 Cloak of Infallibility, but that the rest of the time, we can't expect him to show even a semblance of decency (as opposed to condescension) towards homosexuals and the transgendered, because, you know…baby steps!

[onager]

9. He's only infallible when speaking ex cathedra

Which means stuff relating to the whole church. I think that's the way this particular game of Three-Card Monte goes, anyway.

There are plenty of people in Other Groups who can pope-splain why we shouldn't take papal infallibility seriously. Except when we should. Etc.

Wiki lays it out pretty well (link below). Apparently the last time we had a Real Infallibility moment was in 1950, involving the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

When it comes to the ONE TRUE CHURCH, I always see a lot of hand-waving and falling back on the "logic" and "rationality" of Catholic theologian/philosophers. And in that game of Three-Card Monte, you're assumed to be a believer or close to becoming one. Otherwise your cries of "WTF?!?" will go majestically unanswered.

I do find most Catholic beliefs to be interesting and entertaining. But only in the same way I'm interested and entertained by, say, the beliefs of a South Pacific Cargo Cult or those of the People's Temple.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_infallibility

[Curmudgeoness]

12. What about that God's spokesperson on earth?

Maybe I was mislead at some point, but I remember that I was told that the Pope speaks God's words to the world. Well, mislead is as good a word as any.

[Lordquinton]

14. I was going to ask when the last time a Pope actually stood by his words

because that seems to be a thing with these popes, they get to speak for the church, except when we call them on heinous crap we get the "He's not speaking Ex Catherada" line. Maybe it's time we throw it back at them, that his stance against rapist priests doesn't count because he's not wearing his special hat.