I never thought I’d see anyone as tone deaf to the realities of the world and its problems as I see in charge of the Roman Catholic Church right now. Clearly, that institution is on its deathbed and it is time to pull the plug on it and leave it to die!
This article just left me stunned in its inanity:
Pope: ‘priests are gifts to the world’
The Pope has described priests as “gifts to the world” – as it emerged that five clergymen had been suspended in Italy following allegations of sex abuse.
The pontiff made his remarks to a packed St Peter’s Square in a bid to mend bridges following a series of sex scandals that have rocked the Roman Catholic church in recent weeks.
It is thought that the Pope was aware of the five suspensions which involved one 51-year-old priest and another four in their sixties, none of which were named.
In his sermon Pope Benedict said: “The priest is a gift from the heart of Christ, a gift for the church and the world.
“If we look at history, we can observe how many pages of authentic spiritual and social renewal have been written with the decisive contribution of Catholic priests, inspired only by passion for the Gospel and for man, for his true religious and civil freedom.”
The Pope did not make any mention of the sex abuse scandal which has hit countries such as Ireland, Germany, Austria and the United States and led to several bishops resigning.
Pope Benedict has himself been drawn into the scandal, following an allegation from when he was Archbishop of Munich in the 1980’s, where he is accused of “dragging his heels” over a known paedophile priest.
In his sermon the Pope made no reference to the scandals but on Friday he did say at the end of a ceremony to mark the Year of the Priest that he “begged for forgiveness” as a result of abuse by priests.
He added that he would do everything possible to protect children from paedophile priests as he attempted to show he and the Vatican wanted to show decisiveness in tackling the problem.
As he spoke it emerged that four priests from the Gallipoli area of southern Italy had been suspended by their bishop monsignor Domenico Caliandro following claims of abuse. Another priest from Caravaggio near Cremona was also suspended.
Monsignor Dante Lafranconi, bishop of Cremona, confirmed that the priest had been suspended and asked to attend a “rehabilitation course” and also pointed out no official police complaint had been made.
Earlier this month the Vatican’s chief prosecutor in dealing with abusing priests warned that they “faced the fires of Hell for their sins.”
Pope Benedict, you are an idiot! I think can I speak for nearly all non-Catholics when I say that I neither need nor want these “gifts”. They are like poison that has perverted the whole world! The sooner the rotting corpse that is your Church is torn down and buried, the better off all of us will be!
If this were any other body, it would be undergoing procedures to have you removed from office and your immediate predecessor, Pope John Paul II, should also have been made to retire a decade before he died in office. His infirmity as seen in the last years of life was a perfect symbol of the decay of the Church itself.
Dale Husband's Intellectual Rants 
“Pope Benedict, you are an idiot! I think can I speak for nearly all non-Catholics”
You can’t. Speak for yourself.
“If this were any other body, it would be undergoing procedures to have you removed from office”
Citation needed. I didn’t realise that the rest of the world punished all it’s criminals. How is Bush enjoying jail for all the torture he allowed?
“His infirmity as seen in the last years of life was a perfect symbol of the decay of the Church itself.”
I prefer to think of his infirmity as a metaphor for the strength of your argument and opinion here.
You can’t. Speak for yourself.
Are you implying that anyone should tolerate such idiotic statements? Sorry, we really need higher standards, even in religion.
I didn’t realise that the rest of the world punished all it’s criminals. How is Bush enjoying jail for all the torture he allowed?
I said remove the Pope from office, not send him to prison. Even impeachment and removal of a President from office does not automatically send him to prison. He would still have to be convicted of a crime by a court of law.
I prefer to think of his infirmity as a metaphor for the strength of your argument and opinion here.
Considering that Catholics have virtually no credible arguments for their theological and historical claims, you made me laugh.
Are you implying that anyone should tolerate such idiotic statements?
Nope I’m implying that regardless of your raging ego and apparent belief that you speak for “nearly all non-Catholics” – you actually don’t, and the evidence shows that nearly all non-Catholics haven’t got a clue who you are and wouldn’t want you to speak for them without asking.
“I said remove the Pope from office, not send him to prison”
Indeed you did, unfortunately the end of your sentence was not the falsehood, it was the beginning: “If this were any other body, it would be undergoing procedures…
Yeah, no. The evidence suggests that this is not the case. You did say you’re an atheist right? You do know how evidenced based thinking works, right?
“Considering that Catholics have virtually no credible arguments for their theological and historical claims, you made me laugh.”
“Catholics don’t know shit therefore it’s funny that I don’t know shit either?”
Well it makes me laugh too…
“the evidence shows”
“The evidence suggests”
“You do know how evidenced based thinking works, right?”
The very fact that you make an issue of evidence, yet overlook the corruption and bigotry of Roman Catholicism to attack me instead means you are a first class hypocrite, no better than you claim I am. The REAL evidence shows it and its leadership has no legitimacy. At least the political leadership of the United States, however flawed, is firmly based on its Constitution. There is nothing in the New Testament, the foundation of Christianity, for the justification the Catholic Church’s existence.
Note in the blog entry above I did not even go that far. So why did you attack me? Because my statement against your beloved Pope made you upset. Grow up! He is not worthy of your admiration.
“You did say you’re an atheist right?”
No, you did. And that proves how ignorant you are, the assumption you expressed that one has to be atheist to attack idiotic religions and their leaders. It was never about promoting atheism but simple common decency that ALL people should have, even Catholics themselves!
Oh! You’re a non rationalist then? Because only an atheist can honestly make a website subtitled “Expressions of Honorable Skepticism” without being a raging hypocrite.
(Dale Husband: That is only your blind, bigoted assumption. I’m an empiricist, not a rationalist, because I do not believe that human reason alone can ever generate certain knowledge. And if you are not Catholic, why did you even bother defending the Pope like you did?)
“The very fact that you make an issue of evidence, yet overlook the corruption and bigotry of Roman Catholicism to attack me instead means you are a first class hypocrite, no better than you claim I am”
Hee hee hee. Seriously? Someone can’t know that you’re full of it without “overlooking the corruption and blah di blah”?
I think you need to get over yourself dude – just because I’m pointing out that you’re a massive windbag full of your own self importance, doesn’t mean that I don’t agree with you about the heirarchy. Perhaps you need to take a look at your self importance, it seems to be making you read silly things into a simple criticism of your sentence, to justify the outrage you feel at being criticised.
(Dale Husband: You must hate all bloggers who express their strongly held opinions on the internet. Ironic, that.)
“You don’t speak for everyone” =/= “You don’t speak for everyone + by the way the Pope’s a great guy”
p.s. And don’t bother replying – I thought you were an atheist, a Gnu or at least New, but I see you’re not so therefore don’t have any alleigance to logic or honesty, so there’s no point debating with you. Goodbye.
(Dale Husband: Goodbye and good riddance! I’ll reply to anyone who makes such hostile statements like yours on my own blog. The Pope himself, along with many other religious leaders, are bigger windbags than I have ever been. I just react to their absurdities.)