The Pope-"I quit"

[Romeo]

I didn't even know you could resign from that job.


And before the high holy holidays?? Somethings fishy

[Larry B.]

Political. The next Pope will be black. From Nigeria, apparently.

[Artemis]

I thought the Pope job was til death or inablity to do the job due to illness.

Seems a bit odd to me too. Isn't there a big abuse scandal in California right now? I think it was records that were previously hidden by church bigwigs about priets molesting children.Over 100 priests. It's going to cost the church millions to settle this.

[Artemis]

Ok, I just read that the resignation is due to health reason.

Also, there are 5-2 odds that next pope will eb Canadian.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013 ... okies.html

[Matz]

good news, the guy is the biggest fuckin hypocrit

[krakle]

Isn't there a big abuse scandal in California right now?

Not just California, everywhere. Especially in & around the pope's own country.
Just recently, in The Netherlands alone, the catholic church paid 5 millions Euros to victims, as compensation for sexual abuse (including gang rape!)
And that's only the abuse of little boys I believe. Research of abuse among girls has yet to start.

In my opinion the catholic church is a criminal organisation and should be regarded as such by police, state and court.

[Larry B.]

Isn't there a big abuse scandal in California right now?

Not just California, everywhere. Especially in & around the pope's own country.
Just recently, in The Netherlands alone, the catholic church paid 5 millions Euros to victims, as compensation for sexual abuse (including gang rape!)
And that's only the abuse of little boys I believe. Research of abuse among girls has yet to start.

In my opinion the catholic church is a criminal organisation and should be regarded as such by police, state and court.

[Romeo]

I think they located a picture of him in a SS uniform

because "I'm too old" or failing health is a lame reason to resign. All Popes die in office.

[ellis]

Rumor has it he resigned amid some scathing doping allegations...

[SR]

Last pope to resign was in the early 15th century. Fuck the Catholic Church.

Mahoney is under fire again for the manner in which he dealt with cases already exposed under his umbrella. He hid it, and he should be arrested and charged, then convicted and sentenced to life in prison. RICO should be used to charge the church.

[ellis]

VATICAN III is on the horizon...

[Romeo]

Rumor has it he resigned amid some scathing doping allegations...

but he will only admit it on Oprah

[Matz]

my big brother is a catholic. He's got pretty questionable morals lots of the time so he fits right in........ unfortunately

[Pandemonium]

Last pope to resign was in the early 15th century. Fuck the Catholic Church.

Mahoney is under fire again for the manner in which he dealt with cases already exposed under his umbrella. He hid it, and he should be arrested and charged, then convicted and sentenced to life in prison. RICO should be used to charge the church.

Notice that Mahoney is heading straight to Rome to participate in the vote for the next Pope? You know the topic of world-wide sex abuse cases and how they can continue to shield the Vatican and the higher ups will figure into the election process.

[ellis]

[chaos]

This is surely a sign that an asteroid will hit earth on Feb 15th.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/07/us/astero ... =allsearch

[chaos]

[krakle]

maybe this requires its own thread, but these are the prices the catholic church uses to compensate victims in The Netherlands:

5,000 euros - sexual acts
7,500 euros - touching genitals, anus and breasts
10 - 20,000 euros - touching of previously mentioned body parts over an extended period of time
25,000 euros - for single or multiple rape
up to 100,000 euros - for exceptional circumstances like gang rape, serious abuse with permanent injury, or less serious cases where (substantial) financial loss can be proven.

probably only a quarter of over 2,000 victims that actually filed complaints are eligible for compensation.

just a few facts from The Netherlands. apparently in Ireland the average compensation was 63,000 euros with a maximum of 300,000. I'm not sure about compensation elsewhere, but the sexual abuse seems to be everywhere.

I do think that some church buildings are very nice and need money to be maintained. but think about these numbers whenever you donate money to your church.

[chaos]

because "I'm too old" or failing health is a lame reason to resign.

I guess no one minded that he dozed off during Christmas Mass




It does seem like a lame excuse though in comparison:

http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/deja_vu/

February 11, 2013
Peace! I’m Out

2013: Catholics around the world were shocked by the sudden announcement that Pope Benedict XVI (born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger in 1927) would step down from the papacy. Citing advanced age and declining health—some noticed the Pope dozing off during Christmas Mass—Benedict will be the first pope to resign in six centuries. The New York Times reports on the declaration, which came as a surprise to even cardinals in Benedict’s inner circle:

“The pope took us by surprise,” said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, expounding on one of the most dramatic moments in centuries of Vatican history. He appeared at a hastily-called news conference on Monday, where he stood by himself at the lectern, with an unopened bottle of mineral water and a dog-eared copy of a Canon Law guide before him.

Father Lombardi said that the pope would continue to carry out his duties until Feb. 28 at 8 p.m., and that a successor would likely be elected by Easter, which falls on March 31. But he said the timing for an election of a new pope is “not an announcement, it’s a hypothesis.”
Popes in the Middle Ages were far more fond of abdication, especially amidst scandal or political intrigue—here, we present the stories of three such pontiffs:

1045: The godfather of Benedict IX persuaded the controversial pope to resign his role as leader of the Catholic Church in exchange for an undisclosed sum—the only time in recorded history in which money changed hands over the papacy. Benedict, born Theophylactus of Tusculum, had already abdicated and returned to the papacy twice, once in 1036 and again in 1044. He had ascended to the highest ranks of the Church while still a teenager, and Benedict IX’s historical reputation is one filled with scandal and licentiousness. Pope Victor III, in a volume of his Dialogues, referred to Benedict’s “rapes, murders and other unspeakable acts. His life as a pope so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it.”

1294: Celestine V’s abdication decree expressed “the desire for humility, for a purer life, for a stainless conscience, the deficiencies of his own physical strength, his ignorance, the perverseness of the people, his longing for the tranquility of his former life.” Renouncing all luxury, Celestine intended to live out his days in a quiet mountain monastery. Alas, his successor, Boniface VIII, had Celestine arrested on an unknown charge, and the former pope died in custody shortly thereafter. Boniface VIII was a hated enemy of Dante Alighieri, and many believe the lines “I saw and recognized the shade of him, Who by his cowardice made the great refusal,” from Inferno III, 59-60, refer to Celestine.

1415: Gregory XII , the most recent pope to resign before Benedict XVI, did so amidst dizzying political maneuvering meant to end the Western Schism, a decades-long battle between Roman clergy and a rebel clergy based in Avignon. After a series of stalled negotiations in which Gregory XII and his rival, Antipope Benedict XIII, each feared being abducted by supporters of the other, a 1409 council of cardinals attempted to depose both popes as “schismatical, heretical, perjured, and scandalous.” Gregory XII resisted and compromise was finally reached by the 1415 Council of Constance, during which Gregory was allowed to create a group of new cardinals and then resign. During a seventeenth century restoration of the cathedral in which Gregory’s tomb lay, the pope’s remains, which some sources claim were “perfectly preserved,” were reclothed in traditional papal vestments.

[Larry B.]

just a few facts from The Netherlands. apparently in Ireland the average compensation was 63,000 euros with a maximum of 300,000. I'm not sure about compensation elsewhere, but the sexual abuse seems to be everywhere.

Everywhere. All over Latin America as well. Abuses not only from priests, but nuns too. I've yet to see one of them go to prison. Not sure about compensations, though. Here it's more like "oh, the catholic church admitted that some priests fucked children, how nice of them. ok, let's move on to other news..."

In our local case, add to those current and past abuses the fact that the catholic church is arguably the most responsible for the annihilation of the majority of the natives in Latin America. Sure, priests probably weren't running around killing natives, but the church (deeply connected with the Spanish Kingdom) financed most of the campaigns that helped wipe out the aborigines. Plus, people here had their own gods. If they refused to realize that there's only one true and merciful god (and it ain't Thor), to hell with them. Which meant, of course, being killed.

Fuck them all. And kill them all.

[Hype]

All religions, like all species of life on this planet, die out eventually. 2000 years isn't particularly long, but it is long overdue for this disgusting bastion of human ignorance and arrogance.

[Romeo]

because "I'm too old" or failing health is a lame reason to resign.

I guess no one minded that he dozed off during Christmas Mass




It does seem like a lame excuse though in comparison:

http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/deja_vu/

February 11, 2013
Peace! I’m Out

2013: Catholics around the world were shocked by the sudden announcement that Pope Benedict XVI (born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger in 1927) would step down from the papacy. Citing advanced age and declining health—some noticed the Pope dozing off during Christmas Mass—Benedict will be the first pope to resign in six centuries. The New York Times reports on the declaration, which came as a surprise to even cardinals in Benedict’s inner circle:

“The pope took us by surprise,” said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, expounding on one of the most dramatic moments in centuries of Vatican history. He appeared at a hastily-called news conference on Monday, where he stood by himself at the lectern, with an unopened bottle of mineral water and a dog-eared copy of a Canon Law guide before him.

Father Lombardi said that the pope would continue to carry out his duties until Feb. 28 at 8 p.m., and that a successor would likely be elected by Easter, which falls on March 31. But he said the timing for an election of a new pope is “not an announcement, it’s a hypothesis.”
Popes in the Middle Ages were far more fond of abdication, especially amidst scandal or political intrigue—here, we present the stories of three such pontiffs:

1045: The godfather of Benedict IX persuaded the controversial pope to resign his role as leader of the Catholic Church in exchange for an undisclosed sum—the only time in recorded history in which money changed hands over the papacy. Benedict, born Theophylactus of Tusculum, had already abdicated and returned to the papacy twice, once in 1036 and again in 1044. He had ascended to the highest ranks of the Church while still a teenager, and Benedict IX’s historical reputation is one filled with scandal and licentiousness. Pope Victor III, in a volume of his Dialogues, referred to Benedict’s “rapes, murders and other unspeakable acts. His life as a pope so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it.”

1294: Celestine V’s abdication decree expressed “the desire for humility, for a purer life, for a stainless conscience, the deficiencies of his own physical strength, his ignorance, the perverseness of the people, his longing for the tranquility of his former life.” Renouncing all luxury, Celestine intended to live out his days in a quiet mountain monastery. Alas, his successor, Boniface VIII, had Celestine arrested on an unknown charge, and the former pope died in custody shortly thereafter. Boniface VIII was a hated enemy of Dante Alighieri, and many believe the lines “I saw and recognized the shade of him, Who by his cowardice made the great refusal,” from Inferno III, 59-60, refer to Celestine.

1415: Gregory XII , the most recent pope to resign before Benedict XVI, did so amidst dizzying political maneuvering meant to end the Western Schism, a decades-long battle between Roman clergy and a rebel clergy based in Avignon. After a series of stalled negotiations in which Gregory XII and his rival, Antipope Benedict XIII, each feared being abducted by supporters of the other, a 1409 council of cardinals attempted to depose both popes as “schismatical, heretical, perjured, and scandalous.” Gregory XII resisted and compromise was finally reached by the 1415 Council of Constance, during which Gregory was allowed to create a group of new cardinals and then resign. During a seventeenth century restoration of the cathedral in which Gregory’s tomb lay, the pope’s remains, which some sources claim were “perfectly preserved,” were reclothed in traditional papal vestments.

Wasn't John paul always taking a snooze during masses??
I'm not catholic but have sat through a few masses & quite honestly I wanted to take a little nap!

[Artemis]

[Essence_Smith]

I'm gonna go out a limb and say ya'll are not fans of the Catholic church...

I am a non practicing catholic, went to catholic school for 8 years and was also an altar boy...no sex abuse in my parish to the best of my knowledge, but I did get hit by a nun once for taking too long to find a library book...that being said I haev learned to separate my issues with the church from the set of beliefs (which are what they are and we all know its a lot of BS)...I respect people who still practice...I like the catholic mass as the ritual brought me a lot of comfort as a child but I don't practice mostly because of how the sex scandals were handled with them basically shuttling those priests around and hiding it, etc...I never looked at the Pope as anyone special and personally don't care if dude resigned or whatever...my experience with the religion and being schooled by them was a very positive one so I am a little disappointed by the sentiments here though I totally understand...just saying, I have a nun to thank for being able to get through some of the issues I had as a kid so I don't think its always right to judge by the worst of the bunch...

[farrellgirl99]

i went to catholic school for 14 years so its still a part of me whether i want it to be or not. but i just cant support the church as an organization/structure/whatever. mainly because of the supreme sexism, hypocrisy, and gay rights issues. it just goes against everything i believe in.