Wow! Yet another era of close minded religious mind fucking has BEGUN.....
*****Disclaimer: If you are one of my few catholic friends who read this, and I haven't pissed you off already, this may be the entry that does it. I want to sincerely apologize to you if I offend you in any way, shape or form. I have complete respect for you, and I firmly believe that you have every right to believe what you believe. I am not in any way attacking individual catholics, nor do I feel that you are somehow morally inferior to me because I believe something different.******
So, a new pope has been elected. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7523254/?GT1=6428
From the article:
"If the new pope was paying tribute to the last pontiff of
that name, it could be interpreted as a bid to soften his image as the Vatican’s
doctrinal hard-liner. Benedict XV, who reigned from 1914 to 1922, was a moderate
following Pius X, who had implemented a sharp crackdown against doctrinal
“modernism.”
On Monday, Ratzinger, who was the powerful dean of the
College of Cardinals, used his homily at the Mass dedicated to electing the next
pope to warn the faithful about tendencies that he considered dangers to the
faith: sects, ideologies like Marxism, liberalism, atheism, agnosticism and
relativism - the ideology that there are no absolute truths.
“Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church,
is often labeled today as a fundamentalism,” he said, speaking in Italian. “We
are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism, which does not recognize
anything as definitive and has as its highest value one’s own ego and one’s own
desires.”
His conservative actions include a letter of advice last
year to U.S. bishops on denying communion to politicians who support abortion
rights, which some observers viewed as a slam at then Democratic presidential
candidate Sen. John Kerry.
He also accused the media of fueling the priest sex abuse
scandals of recent years. "I am personally convinced," he one told an
interviewer, "that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic
priests, especially in the U.S., is a planned campaign."
And Sister Jeannine Gramick, a nun who he ordered to stop
ministering to gays and lesbians in the United States, called his election "devastating" for those who believe
the Catholic Church needs to be more tolerant.
Disciplined church
dissidents
Ratzinger served John Paul II since 1981 as head of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that position, he has disciplined
church dissidents and upheld church policy against attempts by liberals for
reforms. He turned 78 on Saturday.
The new pope had gone into the conclave with the most
buzz among two dozen leading candidates. He had impressed many faithful with his
stirring homily at the funeral of John Paul II, who died April 2 at age 84."
I dunno. My thoughts are only worth two cents on this entire issue, since I'm not catholic and my understanding is VERY one sided. The papacy deals specifically with a specific religious group I'm NOT a part of, so my right to criticize it is limited. I'll admit that. But this appointment still disturbs me. I guess it's just that I've always had a huge fundamental problem with the concept of religious groups becoming political zealots... and the catholic church (as a whole) has become so much more than a religion. It has become a driving force that purposefully places itself in the secular world as a "guiding light" for the rest of us dirty sinners. And the establishment has done so much to perpetuate gender and sexual orientation stereotypes, impede the use and distribution of contraceptives in African countries, and to treat women as inferior persons not capable of making decisions regarding their body. And now the church just elected a hardliner who is ultraconservative, and unwilling to connect to a modern world--- to lead 1.1 billion catholics worldwide. ( I could be wrong about this number... for some reason that was swimming around in my skull.. feel free to correct me, please! ) This is just one more reason for a heavy sigh that is still insignificant in the greater scheme of things.
So, a new pope has been elected. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7523254/?GT1=6428
From the article:
"If the new pope was paying tribute to the last pontiff of
that name, it could be interpreted as a bid to soften his image as the Vatican’s
doctrinal hard-liner. Benedict XV, who reigned from 1914 to 1922, was a moderate
following Pius X, who had implemented a sharp crackdown against doctrinal
“modernism.”
On Monday, Ratzinger, who was the powerful dean of the
College of Cardinals, used his homily at the Mass dedicated to electing the next
pope to warn the faithful about tendencies that he considered dangers to the
faith: sects, ideologies like Marxism, liberalism, atheism, agnosticism and
relativism - the ideology that there are no absolute truths.
“Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church,
is often labeled today as a fundamentalism,” he said, speaking in Italian. “We
are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism, which does not recognize
anything as definitive and has as its highest value one’s own ego and one’s own
desires.”
His conservative actions include a letter of advice last
year to U.S. bishops on denying communion to politicians who support abortion
rights, which some observers viewed as a slam at then Democratic presidential
candidate Sen. John Kerry.
He also accused the media of fueling the priest sex abuse
scandals of recent years. "I am personally convinced," he one told an
interviewer, "that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic
priests, especially in the U.S., is a planned campaign."
And Sister Jeannine Gramick, a nun who he ordered to stop
ministering to gays and lesbians in the United States, called his election "devastating" for those who believe
the Catholic Church needs to be more tolerant.
Disciplined church
dissidents
Ratzinger served John Paul II since 1981 as head of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that position, he has disciplined
church dissidents and upheld church policy against attempts by liberals for
reforms. He turned 78 on Saturday.
The new pope had gone into the conclave with the most
buzz among two dozen leading candidates. He had impressed many faithful with his
stirring homily at the funeral of John Paul II, who died April 2 at age 84."
I dunno. My thoughts are only worth two cents on this entire issue, since I'm not catholic and my understanding is VERY one sided. The papacy deals specifically with a specific religious group I'm NOT a part of, so my right to criticize it is limited. I'll admit that. But this appointment still disturbs me. I guess it's just that I've always had a huge fundamental problem with the concept of religious groups becoming political zealots... and the catholic church (as a whole) has become so much more than a religion. It has become a driving force that purposefully places itself in the secular world as a "guiding light" for the rest of us dirty sinners. And the establishment has done so much to perpetuate gender and sexual orientation stereotypes, impede the use and distribution of contraceptives in African countries, and to treat women as inferior persons not capable of making decisions regarding their body. And now the church just elected a hardliner who is ultraconservative, and unwilling to connect to a modern world--- to lead 1.1 billion catholics worldwide. ( I could be wrong about this number... for some reason that was swimming around in my skull.. feel free to correct me, please! ) This is just one more reason for a heavy sigh that is still insignificant in the greater scheme of things.