69 replies on “Joseph Ratzinger”

  3. “And that raises questions about the future of the papacy given that Benedict himself has said popes should resign if they can’t do the job.”

    But he won’t resign. I hope he doesn’t, and that he lives for at least another ten years. Long enough to see the Catholic Church under his guidance become increasingly irrelevant and more and more abandoned by people of integrity.

  4. “And that raises questions about the future of the papacy given that Benedict himself has said popes should resign if they can’t do the job.”

    But he won’t resign. And I hope he doesn’t, and that he lives for at least another ten years. Long enough to see the Catholic Church under his guidance become increasingly irrelevant and more and more abandoned by people of integrity.

  5. @ 40- Nope, can’t agree. Uncle Palpatine is too evil to live. Ditto the sentiments that if only there were a hell for him to go to…sigh.

  6. What 40/DRF said, at least the first part.
    Ratzinger was elected as a placeholder. The impression I got was that the College wanted someone who wasn’t going to change too much in the time he had while they considered who (if anyone) to elect for a longer term.

    None of which makes the guy any better; he made it his business to cover for child rapists. And yet, even if hoping being happy for the old man’s ill health did anything (and I don’t think it can; I’m not religious myself), would the result change anything? Is the next pope likely to be so different from the current one? Wouldn’t anyone the cardinals elect do pretty much the same?

  7. What most of you forget is that J Rat was a “compromise” candidate for Pope because of his old age.. the point being that he wouldn’t reign for that long.

  9. I’m hoping that he lives long enough to answer for a few things. We’ve got an infallible mouthpiece of Bog here with his name on a letter telling his church to cover for child molesters.
    If it takes a hundred years to bring him to jail he should live that long, especially if he wants to keep saying things about women and AIDS and such that make his stupid fucking church look even worse than it already does.
    I say long live Ratty the Nazi protector of rapists, but only long enough for us to nail him (after due process) to a wall.

  13. @62, Hey, if the Pope couldn’t even be Christ like, what hope do we have? Unless Christ was a pedophile protecting Nazi like the Pope, in which case do you really want us to be Christ like?

  14. Oh boy, lotsa hate here. I’m neither Catholic (an atheist really) nor a fan of Ratzingers, but I don’t wish him dead. I hope that much like the USSR in the late 70s, a bunch of the old hard-liners from the curia are getting ready to croak and with them, the anti-Vatican-II reactionary swing will fade.

    For those who wish for the Catholic Church to keep losing members and ‘relevance’ – be careful what you wish for. In the developed world, lapsed Catholics are secularists, mostly. But in the developing world, the lapsed Catholics are going in for far more reactionary, virulent and anti-modern evangelical groups. Take heart that the Catholic Church acknowledges and supports the theory of Evolution, for example. It’s not the RCC which is pushing for anti-gay laws in Africa.

  15. ” It’s not the RCC which is pushing for anti-gay laws in Africa. “

    But when the UN wanted to push for world wide decriminalization of homosexuality the biggest opposition to it, other than the countries that actively have laws against it, were the US and the Vatican.

    Fortunately the Vatican doesn’t actually get a vote, but the clearly expressed their view that they did not want the UN to be able to prevent any country from making being gay a crime.

  17. Ratzinger actively protects sexual predators from police investigation. He is as bad as the rapists and should be in prison himself. The sooner he dies, the sooner the Catholic Church can attempt to be reformed.

  18. His death won’t do any good, unless.

    Unless the millions and millions of self-avowed ‘Catholics’ who disagree with their church on just about everything starting with papal infallibility actually human-up and leave it. As it is, the Catholic Church continues to say it speaks for about 70 million Americans. Americans who have abortions, divorce, love people of the same gender, feel there oughta be female priests, and yes, feel there’s nothing special about the dude designated in some medieval ritual as Vicar of Christ on Earth.

    Without them, the Church is nothing but some back-street store-front. With them it has the power to elect candidates, black-ball others, bugger little boys, defy prosecutors, brainwash children (even the ones with two mommies or two daddies) and generally punch far above its weight in the affairs of our politics and society.

    Stand down or join up. ‘Fessing up won’t cut it anymore.

  19. I disagree entirely, @68. If the modernists leave, nothing will ever change. The Church has thousands of years of wisdom and tradition that are worth holding onto, and we should bring them with us into the real world.

    @42, Actually did catch Mr. Fry’s performance. Doesn’t mean I have to agree with the guy. You should catch Mr. Nicholas Kristof’s article on what he calls “the two Churches.” (Don’t worry. It’s short.) Yes, the hierarchy has some problems, but the priests and nuns on the ground are doing one heck of a job.

    (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/opinio…)

Comments are closed.