Pope to Resign

That's something, first one in six centuries.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/world ... wanted=all

ROME — Citing advanced years and infirmity, Pope Benedict XVI stunned the Roman Catholic world on Monday by saying that he would resign on Feb. 28 after less than eight years in office, the first pope to do so in six centuries.
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After examining his conscience “before God,” he said in a statement on Monday that reverberated around the world on the Internet and social media sites, “I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise” of his position as head of the world’s one billion Roman Catholics.

Word has it that the new pope is from the Isle of secola on the italian southern coast. My sources tell me he will be called "pope Secola" !

chester wrote:Word has it that the new pope is from the Isle of secola on the italian southern coast. My sources tell me he will be called "pope Secola" !

HA. I see what ya did there.

I think we should all get in a conclave and when the smoke from the coal fire smoke goes white we have a candidate. I vote for freetown fred for his work servicing horses and women. This will be the first native American to be Pope I believe. I could say more but I do not wish to offend the RCs around here.

Is this a precident? They don't usually resign do they. Well they are in constant crisis anyways what with all the peadophile central thay've been for years on end. We'll see who's next Pontiff. After watching the Borgia's and Medici, I have a jaded view!

Flyer5 wrote:

chester wrote:Word has it that the new pope is from the Isle of secola on the italian southern coast. My sources tell me he will be called "pope Secola" !

HA. I see what ya did there.

...Ive read that the new pope openly speaks out against the Japanese religion of Shugo....

....will that make him the " shugo free pope secola " ?

I'm not religious at all. I think religion was made up by a few smart fellas many years ago in order to control the masses. And while I have a problem with most religions the catholic church in particular I find very distrubing. If you believe in Jesus Christ then you know he was supposedly a very humble man. He didn't go in for gaudy gold outfits, big gold and jeweled hats, gold thrones, goblets, staffs, etc. I was going to attach a picture of the pope but I don't own any and didn't want to get in trouble with the mayor. But just google images of the pope. It's amazing. Is this what the humble Christ would have wanted? I don't think so.

And then you add in the catholic churchs colaboration with the Nazis in WWII which is well documented including assisting in the identification and rounding up of Jews during the war and the hiding and transporting of nazis out of Europe after the war.

Not appalled yet? How about the systematic enabling, covering up and turning a blind eye to pedophile priests around the world? That one takes the cake for me. Inocent, trusting children indoctrinated into the church believing that it is their link to the after life and putting 100% trust into it and its representitives (priests) only to be raped, sodomized and otherwise physically abused by them. Too scared to say anything cause who's going to doubt a priest? And what does the church do when confronted with this horror? Quietly relocates the priests to other parrishes without any warning or regard to their new flock. It's unforgivable. It's evil. Yeah, not a fan of the catholic church. Sorry if this offends anyone but the truth is the truth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPOfurmrjxo

And to get my pope joke in, I heard to retire for health reasons after he was diagnosed with a Mass.

Coalkirk, tell how ya really feel? I work at a Chathoilc (spelling) hospital. It will be intresting to see how or if the overhead prayers may change in the next few days.
Every am and pm the Our Father is said. Some like this. I think what you give power, has power. As for a FF, I need to do a sweat lodge with him first.
Cracker.

This is unfortunate. Cardinal Ratzinger was a good man and I was happy when he was chosen to become the new Pope.

Growing up protestant the pope means nothing to me. My wife is catholic and this is big news to her and her family. It is just a curiosity to me.

I'm a Catholic, and it's just a curiousity to me too. I guess I should say ... non-practicing Catholic.

Those evils of the Church that have been mentioned have been committed by those who are not of the Church, regardless of position. The Church is the body and teaching of Christ and not fallible human beings.

There have been saintly Popes as well as sinners. Pope John XX111 regarded his upbringing in poverty as a blessing. The enforced regalia and pomp of a Pope had no effect on him. Others lack or lacked that strength.

I agree Franco. The men of the church today are a reflection of our f'ed up society. Lots more pedophiles out there when there is a questionable moral compass, it seems.

When there is lack of fear of God, there is more of this behavior. Morality allowed guns to be ordered from a magazine, AND brought TO SCHOOL for a hundred years without one single school shooting before.

franco b wrote:Those evils of the Church that have been mentioned have been committed by those who are not of the Church, regardless of position. The Church is the body and teaching of Christ and not fallible human beings.

There have been saintly Popes as well as sinners. Pope John XX111 regarded his upbringing in poverty as a blessing. The enforced regalia and pomp of a Pope had no effect on him. Others lack or lacked that strength.

Well I agree that the teachings of Christ are very different than the actual institution of the catholic church. But the widespread sexual abuse of children known by and shielded by the insitution of the catholic church around the world is as far from those teachings as you can get. Thousands of innocent childrens lives were ruined. This abuse wasn't an isolated thing. It was rampant throughout the priesthood. Sexually abused children grow up to be abusers, repeating the perverted practces that they were a victum of. They also have much higher rates of alcoholism, drug abuse and suicide than the general population. If they manage to avoid all of that they have self-esteem issues that affect them their whole lives. There is nothing worse in my opinion than violating a child or a sacred trust.

coalkirk wrote:Well I agree that the teachings of Christ are very different than the actual institution of the catholic church. But the widespread sexual abuse of children known by and shielded by the insitution of the catholic church around the world is as far from those teachings as you can get.

Yes, the teachings of Christ have been corrupted by many within the organized church, sometimes even with the intention of doing good. To give an erring brother another chance with the best of intentions, which the road to hell is paved with.

Our political scene is also chock full of phonies who violate their oath of office at every turn, yet we still retain faith in the underlying ideals that our country was founded on.