Who gives a damn about who is the Pope?

[funflower]

If you don't like him, don't join the Catholic Church. Or just leave. The Episcopals and Lutherans will be happy to have you. Or just do what Catholics have always done and disobey him.

So he and the shrub think alike. Who cares, so long as he doesn't vote in Ohio?
;)

[rooboy]

1. My wife does.

She's from Regensburg, which is Ratzinger's home town, apparently.

[funflower]

4. Is your wife Catholic?

I would think most Germans, who are quite secular, would just laugh him off.

[rooboy]

14. Yes, and Bavaria is actually a VERY Catholic region.

in fact, there is a special Catholic tax and they recognize many Catholic holidays.

The Regensburg Cathedral is one of the major cathedrals in Europe.

[funflower]

19. Catholicism in Germany

Is Bavaria Catholic like throw-out-the-condoms Catholic or like the Catholics I know?

[eridani]

11. That is one gorgeous town

The cathedral is amazing, also the Kepler House.

[rooboy]

15. Yeah, the Regensburger Dom is quite nice.

I was actually married in a really old church which is on a tiny peninsula where the Danube and Naab rivers meet. Beautiful area with lots of history. Was once the farthest outpost of the Holy Roman Empire...

[Zhade]

2. Yeah, because the RCC has zero influence outside its own churches.

:eyes:

[readmoreoften]

3. Well, when a pontiff tells their 1 billion followers

that I'm part of the ideology of evil, and then some of the followers tell me that the OLD guy actually was pretty cool toward me compared to the NEW guy who REALLY hates me, it becomes personal and I wonder how much of this spewed venom will land on me or someone I love.

[funflower]

5. Good point....

but I just wouldn't expect more than that from a huge, essentially medieval organization where power is totally centralized and in the hands of a small group of celibate men.

Frankly, why anyone listens to these folks is beyond me....

[readmoreoften]

6. Why anyone listens, this I certainly do not know.

But I would like to know, so I could help talk them out of it. The whole condoms spread AIDS thing, ideology of evil, no birth control OR abortion. Tough poison to swallow.

[Skittles]

7. and we can't really discuss it

without be accused of religion-bashing or whatever

[funflower]

8. Religion-bashing

Personally, I think it's fine to "bash" an ideology, so long as one is respectful to its adherents.

Maybe I didn't follow my own rule up there somewhere.

[readmoreoften]

9. Of course it is.

I respect people's humanity, not their beliefs. I mean, these people believe I'm not fit to be near children. How can I respect that? I won't interfere with the process of their personal enlightment, and if religion is a part of that, then so be it. But if I study Marxism in college and then become a Marxist, should I shut down all conversations if people say they'd like to argue a point of economics with me? My little tet-a-tet with conservative religious sects is that they are saying that their right to believe I'm evil is equal to my right to believe I'm not evil. To *believe* that you are NOT evil is not really a *belief system* it's a psychological health imperative that prevents you from suicide, homocide, or both.

I don't have to accept people who believe I am evil and I don't have to apologize for saying so to anyone.

[funflower]

17. Sorry

You are in a tough spot.

[Is It Fascism Yet]

10. I think it's fine too. It isn't bashing if it's the truth. n/t

[Skittles]

13. I need to stay out of it because I think I may cross the line

religion just makes me angry I guess

[funflower]

20. Angry about ALL religion?

Even the Quakers, UU's or Buddhists? Or only the big, organized "top-down" religions?

[sweetheart]

12. In a word: "overpopulation"

In several words, "By standing against abortion and birth control the
catholic church is responsible for plunging millions of women in to
poverty in the emerging world, millions of avoidable AIDS deaths and
millions of poor and unfed."

Were a pope who actually was a person of god appointed, would it not
be a tremendous relief to the suffering of so many hundreds of millions.
And rather it seems a dark age, when we appoint repressive patriarchs
who will leave a foul stench of poverty and death behind their pious
barbs.

The earth has a population problem, and the catholic church wants as
many catholic babies as possible to strengthen their numbers in an old
paradigm of political power that so is reflected in the world's media.

I could give a toss what wanker they appoint to the job of chief
represser of women... but it will indead foul the planet we have
to share that God advised them poorly.

[funflower]

18. I guess this is the best reason to worry....

Maybe I don't fully understand Catholic culture. Most Catholics I know wouldn't give up there birth control and/or condoms for anything. Maybe in Africa it's a different story.

I do think that when we obsess over it, we feed the idea that this guy is the king of the world.

[lonestarnot]

16. How many billions of catholic people are there in the world? Everyone

should be concerned! Even noncatlics