Do as he says, not as he does

Loved his stuff on materialism.

mmagdalene: Loved his stuff on materialism.

Not to mention his ideas on celebacy...

ZOMG!! NO JUICE!!!!1!

On myspace? Any pics? Is he gettin none, or gettin nun?

/hangs head in shame

Il Douchey: Do as he says, not as he does

I came here to say that.

What is a play on a Fark Jeopardy question?

Good jorb, subby.

I thought they deleted all those Myspace pages the other week. ;)

/ducks

Krantzstone...you win, thread over.

*golf clap*

I snorted coffee out my nose.

Thank you.

Il Douchey: Do as he says, not as he does

Yeah, he's an ex-Nazi after all. So should anyone care what he says?

Krantzstone: I thought they deleted all those Myspace pages the other week. ;)

/ducks

O! Didst thou snap? Verily, thou didst!

So, is he also still railing about material wealth and totalitarian rule?

/or are we not allowed to ask questions?

He is so off my friends list. Farking drama queen.

/plus he keeps posting that stupid "25 random things" bulletin...

Bennie is going to be the knife in the back of the Catholic Church Inc. He seems to be a total hypocrite and keeps telling people to do things that are archaic and counter to functioning in life today.

The church has been spending an awful lot of time telling the media that they are growing even though the real numbers seem to say otherwise. They are scaling back and possibly closing all of the Catholic churches in South Dakota except for a few in populated areas over the next few years. There have been stories about schools and churches being sold on the coasts either due to dwindling attending members or to pay their pedo-priest lawsuit bills.

Yeah, he broadcasts. So?

Sylvia_Bandersnatch: So, is he also still railing about material wealth and totalitarian rule?

/or are we not allowed to ask questions?

Reported. The Inquisition will be visiting shortly.

Bohemian: Bennie is going to be the knife in the back of the Catholic Church Inc. He seems to be a total hypocrite and keeps telling people to do things that are archaic and counter to functioning in life today.

Benedict basically has the exact same theological views as John Paul did, it's not like the Catholic Church has been the bastion of liberalism in the 20th century. This is all stuff they've been saying forever.



The church has been spending an awful lot of time telling the media that they are growing even though the real numbers seem to say otherwise. They are scaling back and possibly closing all of the Catholic churches in South Dakota except for a few in populated areas over the next few years. There have been stories about schools and churches being sold on the coasts either due to dwindling attending members or to pay their pedo-priest lawsuit bills.

The Church is growing in the global south, however. This is a bad thing for anyone who hopes that it will get more liberal, as the American wing of the Church is far, far more liberal than the African & South American wings.

maddogdelta: The Inquisition will be visiting shortly.

Still, no one ever expects it.

The guy should consider taking a break from telling the rest of us what to do without, if he can't even do without it himself.

I noticed no mention of the perils of priests molesting children while Church leadership covers it up. You'd think when worrying about perils, it might get a shout out before You Tube.

Shrugging Atlas: I noticed no mention of the perils of priests molesting children while Church leadership covers it up. You'd think when worrying about perils, it might get a shout out before You Tube.

I'm trying to phrase this so I don't sound like an apologist, because that's not my intention. But is this still actually a problem? I'm not saying that kids still aren't being molested, but in actuality the number of priests who molested children is actually far lower than the number of teachers doing the same (both in percentage and actual number). The real problem was the cover ups. Are the cover-ups still going on and have the guilty people not been punished? If the answer is no, than as heinous as the actions of the Church were, it seems like the issue has been largely dealt with. I mean what else are they supposed to do?

maddogdelta: Not to mention his ideas on celebacy...

For a very loose sense of "his ideas".

It would be great if the Pope's MySpace photo was a selfshot MySpace angle picture.

attackingpencil: I'm trying to phrase this so I don't sound like an apologist, because that's not my intention. But is this still actually a problem? I'm not saying that kids still aren't being molested, but in actuality the number of priests who molested children is actually far lower than the number of teachers doing the same (both in percentage and actual number). The real problem was the cover ups. Are the cover-ups still going on and have the guilty people not been punished? If the answer is no, than as heinous as the actions of the Church were, it seems like the issue has been largely dealt with. I mean what else are they supposed to do?

Well the cover ups are the real issue in my opinion. As to whether they are still going on, here's an article from last week (new window) about a Cardinal in Los Angeles under investigation for doing just that.

When Cardinals are acting in this fashion, I find it impossible to believe they are 'lone-wolfing' it and acting without at least the tacit approval of leadership much higher up in the Church hierarchy.

attackingpencil: ...as heinous as the actions of the Church were, it seems like the issue has been largely dealt with. I mean what else are they supposed to do?

You make some good points and I think you are right that they have pretty much done all they can to get past this. The problem is, it just isn't enough. To most everyone outside of the Catholic Church, it has become an utterly discredited institution. They have lost all moral authority, and any pronouncements such as "people watch too much tv" can be met with "Yes, but you condoned pedophile rape". That's a game ender.

Of course those inside the Church can't or won't see it that way; they aren't even considering conceding defeat and shutting down...yet. Time will tell if they can recover. I doubt it.

/Even if Maddoff repaid all of his victims, would you ever invest with him again?

Shrugging Atlas: Well the cover ups are the real issue in my opinion. As to whether they are still going on, here's an article from last week (new window) about a Cardinal in Los Angeles under investigation for doing just that.

When Cardinals are acting in this fashion, I find it impossible to believe they are 'lone-wolfing' it and acting without at least the tacit approval of leadership much higher up in the Church hierarchy.

I totally agree that the cover-ups are the issue, but isn't that article talking about someone being for cover-ups which took place a while ago? It seemed like it was discussing someone who escaped the earlier investigation but is now being checked out. Or did I read the article wrong?

Il Douchey: Of course those inside the Church can't or won't see it that way; they aren't even considering conceding defeat and shutting down...yet. Time will tell if they can recover. I doubt it.

I dunno, I find it hard to believe that the oldest institution on the planet is just going to fail because of a sex scandal. It survived the Roman Empire, the black death, the pornocracy, antipopes, the Reformation, etc, etc. I mean there are what? a billion Catholics? People will forget, they always do.

Mugato

Elton John just called, he said those shoes are too gay even for him

Yeah, but does he have a PayPal account?

just look to Nastradamus -;) lol

You complain when he doesn't use modern communication to reach people and you complain when he does. STFU unless you have a reasonable argument. Cry me a river atheists.

Thisbymaster: You complain when he doesn't use modern communication to reach people and you complain when he does. STFU unless you have a reasonable argument. Cry me a river atheists.

No, moran - he's using it AND complaining about it. That's the point. If you think about it long enough, perhaps your opinion will evolve.

Shrugging Atlas: Well the cover ups are the real issue in my opinion. As to whether they are still going on, here's an article from last week (new window) about a Cardinal in Los Angeles under investigation for doing just that.

When Cardinals are acting in this fashion, I find it impossible to believe they are 'lone-wolfing' it and acting without at least the tacit approval of leadership much higher up in the Church hierarchy.

Your suspicions are well grounded.

Pope 'led cover-up of child abuse by priests' .

So YOU cry me a farking river, Thisbymaster. Your Pope was accessory after the fact to thousands of sexual abuse cases, and in my humble opinion should be rotting in jail. His Holiness my ass.

/that article was my first greenlit

Thisbymaster: You complain when he doesn't use modern communication to reach people and you complain when he does. STFU unless you have a reasonable argument. Cry me a river atheists.

Yes, everyone who criticizes the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church is an atheist.

Thisbymaster: You complain when he doesn't use modern communication to reach people and you complain when he does.

1) I don't remember anyone complaining that he doesn't use modern communication.
2) No one is complaining that he does it, they are complaining that he's urging the rest of us not to do it while he does it himself in a big way.


STFU unless you have a reasonable argument.

You're taking the piss a bit there. Come back when YOU have a reasonable argument.

attackingpencil: Shrugging Atlas: I noticed no mention of the perils of priests molesting children while Church leadership covers it up. You'd think when worrying about perils, it might get a shout out before You Tube.

I mean what else are they supposed to do?

Excommunicate all clergy and staff involved in the cases and then press legal charges against them. Do this proactively. If the church finds out before the outside, do something about it right away. Don't wait to get caught and then try and cover it up and pay off the victims. Right now it looks like they approve, if not directly at least tacitly, of the activity.

attackingpencil:
The Church is growing in the global south, however. This is a bad thing for anyone who hopes that it will get more liberal, as the American wing of the Church is far, far more liberal than the African & South American wings.

True. When the Episcopalians and Methodists talk about ordaining gay bishops and whatnot, it's always the African branches that get all red-faced and huffy. What generally makes the engine go is the fact that Americans, I imagine, put more in the plate and give more to Rome than, say, famine victims in Zimbabwe.

Of course, there's no actual telling what proportions of the Vatican's financing come from varying parts of the world since Rome prefers to keep that a state secret.

One wonders why.

attackingpencil: I dunno, I find it hard to believe that the oldest institution on the planet is just going to fail because of a sex scandal.

Most sex scandals are essentially isolated incidents involving a few people. The scope, duration, number of conspirators and victims make this very much bigger than what is typically implied in "sex scandal".

a.p.: It survived the Roman Empire, the black death, the pornocracy, antipopes, the Reformation, etc, etc. I mean there are what? a billion Catholics? People will forget, they always do.

All those things it survived were outside threats, not a self inflicted cancer that destroyed from within. This sickness inspired disdain, not sympathy or support.

As far as people forgetting, the modern mass communication network that the Pope is denouncing does a great job of reminding people about things like this. Again, time will tell, but I think the Catholic Church is camminare morto

Someone explain to subby the difference between overconsumptuon and saturation.

highwayrun: it's always the African branches that get all red-faced

That's pretty funny.

First the world tells them to get in step with the 21st Century. So they do. Now the world tells them to get back out.

MasterThief: First the world tells them to get in step with the 21st Century. So they do. Now the world tells them to get back out.

No one is telling the Pope to back off technology. It is his hypocritical stance regarding technologies' use and consumption that irks people. It's about limiting people's access to information, which has been the Roman Catholic Church's agenda for ages. That is why the Church despised the invention of the printing press, because that would enable the common man to access books. His railing against people using technology and media is the same M.O. all over again. The Church believes that they should be the filter that all your knowledge passes through. Knowledge, and access to that knowledge, is power. The church knows this, and seeks ways to keep that power all to itself.

Wow, popestrokers are losing big time in this thread.

katrina_666: No one is telling the Pope to back off technology. It is his hypocritical stance regarding technologies' use and consumption that irks people. It's about limiting people's access to information, which has been the Roman Catholic Church's agenda for ages. That is why the Church despised the invention of the printing press, because that would enable the common man to access books. His railing against people using technology and media is the same M.O. all over again. The Church believes that they should be the filter that all your knowledge passes through. Knowledge, and access to that knowledge, is power. The church knows this, and seeks ways to keep that power all to itself.

Here's what the Pope actually said:

Benedict XVI: The concept of friendship has enjoyed a renewed prominence in the vocabulary of the new digital social networks that have emerged in the last few years... It would be sad if our desire to sustain and develop on line friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbours and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation.

"If the desire for virtual connectedness becomes obsessive, it may in fact function to isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development."

I'm curious how this gets translated into a desire to limit people's access to information. Seems to me like all he's saying is that electronic communication cannot replace face-to-face communication, so remember to turn off your computer once in a while, go hang out with your friends, and remember to sleep and set aside some non-computer based recreation time.

Hmm... I was under the impression that Catholics were actually supposed to use their brains when discerning information. In fact I think idle worship is not far from idol worship in some senses of sin. Why do you think so many great scientists, mathematicians, philosophers and the like were ... Catholic ...? The Church seems to be a huge bastion of free speech, providing guidelines and directions for those who need a point of reference.

The who?

That guy still has influence over the world?

MickCollins: Someone explain to subby the difference between overconsumptuon and saturation.

Someone explain to MickCollins the difference between stunning hypocrisy and living an inspirational life of full of piety and humility devoted to the proclamations of the Mystery of Faith.

iPope