Came for the Giant Green Spider of the Catholic Church...left disappointed.

Good. Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you.

He MUST be torturing heretics in the Vatican dungeon that day.

It's funny how all these people pray to their imaginary fairy hoping for peace instead of just stopping being assholes to each other.

You don't need outside help to be peaceful. It's just us humans down here, and a lot of us are quite capable of not murdering their neighbour in the name of imaginary friends.

What an insufferable biatch ... THIS is exactly why sometimes I hate being Catholic. Open your mind, your popiness ... your relevance may well be on it's way out otherwise.

BurnShrike: It's funny how all these people pray to their imaginary fairy hoping for peace instead of just stopping being assholes to each other.

You don't need outside help to be peaceful. It's just us humans down here, and a lot of us are quite capable of not murdering their neighbour in the name of imaginary friends.

100% true, but much, much easier said than done.

For the religious ignoramuses, His Holiness is making the effort to avoid any hint of syncretism, something that Pope John Paul II and everyone who attended with him was slammed with 25 years ago when this gathering occurred. Neither then nor now was this an event for these leaders in different religions to pray together. The whole point is to be together to pray. A fine distinction lost to the web-dwelling technocracy, but I'm sure people capable of subtlety understand.

He's afraid that the deflector shield will be quite operational when the others arrive...

This is one of those things where I fell true pity for conservatives of all stripes. Ronald Reagan & Pope John Paul II, were both conservatives, but that conservatism was based in the goodness of humans.

The Pope was against abortion, because we could create a world where all children were loved and protected. We could overcome our religious differences and even worship together. And in many ways, Pope John Paul II was to the left of today's Democratic Party (Death Penalty, Iraq War, Unions, worker rights, prisoner rights, etc...), because it all tied in with the belief "Humans kick ass."

Now, Benedict believes the church is more important than the people, hell i bet he believes the church is more important than Jesus.

So they're all going to be wrong seperately instead of all being wrong together. Big diff.

Yomoxu: The whole point is to be together to pray. A fine distinction lost to the web-dwelling technocracy, but I'm sure people capable of subtlety understand.

It's cute that you think that being together to pray means doing so separately.

Yomoxu: For the religious ignoramuses, His Holiness is making the effort to avoid any hint of syncretism, something that Pope John Paul II and everyone who attended with him was slammed with 25 years ago when this gathering occurred. Neither then nor now was this an event for these leaders in different religions to pray together. The whole point is to be together to pray. A fine distinction lost to the web-dwelling technocracy, but I'm sure people capable of subtlety understand.

I am astounded to see a Catholic splitting hairs and struggling to explain away the internal strife in your own Church caused by interfaith services. It's so un-Catholic.

/*yawn*

You assholes, this headline was 4th from the top with no comments and you f*cking retards ruined it.

/there is no god
//get over it

Yomoxu: For the religious ignoramuses

Sounds redundant to me.

RsquaredW: Yomoxu: The whole point is to be together to pray. A fine distinction lost to the web-dwelling technocracy, but I'm sure people capable of subtlety understand.

It's cute that you think that being together to pray means doing so separately.

It's cute that you completely missed the entire point.

Pollexabator:
I am astounded to see a Catholic splitting hairs and struggling to explain away the internal strife in your own Church caused by interfaith services. It's so un-Catholic.

/*yawn*

I wasn't explaining away internal strife. I was pointing out that His Holiness was leaving far less room for misinterpretation than Pope John Paul II. The point is to talk to each other, not fold all religions into the Orange Catholic Bible. Hell, he even invited four atheists to join the pilgrimage. No, I don't know their Fark handles yet, but I'm sure they won't be able to resist the chance to troll so many religions at once.

hurdboy: Yomoxu: The whole point is to be together to pray. A fine distinction lost to the web-dwelling technocracy, but I'm sure people capable of subtlety understand.

What's fun about that? Trolling is so much more satisfying.

/RTFA. Am satisfied with the reasoning. JPII played to the camera a bit too often, perhaps.

Point. Also, agreed on JPII.

Why didn't he invite any Christian leaders?

Komplex: This is one of those things where I fell true pity for conservatives of all stripes. Ronald Reagan & Pope John Paul II, were both conservatives, but that conservatism was based in the goodness of humans.

The Pope was against abortion, because we could create a world where all children were loved and protected. We could overcome our religious differences and even worship together. And in many ways, Pope John Paul II was to the left of today's Democratic Party (Death Penalty, Iraq War, Unions, worker rights, prisoner rights, etc...), because it all tied in with the belief "Humans kick ass."

Now, Benedict believes the church is more important than the people, hell i bet he believes the church is more important than Jesus.

So much this.

The bible thumping part of the GOP is killing them-we need more than 2 parties!

/didn't mean to threadjack

The Jews will be promptly disposed of.

tacojohn: Why didn't he invite any Christian leaders?

Nice. At least 7/10.

I've been to Assisi. It's beautiful and a spiritual experience, even for a raging non-believer like me.

Umbria's hilltowns are wonderful and if you get away from Assisi to other places like Gubbio and Perugia*, you will enjoy the experience. A lot less tourists there. The food is a lot better than touristy crap in Rome or Florence.

\* Amanda Knox not withstanding, Perugia is a nice little city.

DjangoStonereaver: mbillips: tacojohn: Why didn't he invite any Christian leaders?

Nice. At least 7/10.

Although mbillips was trolling, this does bring up a point that not many
people who haven't studied The Catechism of The Catholic Church don't realize:

The Catholic Church holds that ALL 'christian churches' are under their dominion. Not
just the various Eastern and Orthodox churches, but even the various Protestant
denominations who have, in the past, actively worked to destroy it.

So, in a strictly doctrinarial sense (and believe me, Benny is a STRICT doctrinariarn),
there is no need to include any other 'christians'.

I assumed tacojohn was trolling. Traditionally, many U.S. evangelical Protestant sects didn't believe that Catholics were Christian, but rather idolater followers of the anti-Christ. Thus, there are NO "Christians" at this ecumenical conference, is the trolly inference.

Yomoxu: For the religious ignoramuses, His Holiness is making the effort to avoid any hint of syncretism, something that Pope John Paul II and everyone who attended with him was slammed with 25 years ago when this gathering occurred. Neither then nor now was this an event for these leaders in different religions to pray together. The whole point is to be together to pray. A fine distinction lost to the web-dwelling technocracy, but I'm sure people capable of subtlety understand.

10/10

But may be too intellectual to get many bites.

Post was semi-trolling. If we define Christian as followers of Christ, then I'll say some Catholics are Christian, some aren't, same thing for Baptists etc.

/goes to a Baptist church
//Baptist leaders wouldn't go to anything that could be seen as ecumenical

Yomoxu: For the religious ignoramuses, His Holiness is making the effort to avoid any hint of syncretism...

Thank goodness for that. I was terrified that he might be going soft on syncretism.

orbister: Yomoxu: For the religious ignoramuses, His Holiness is making the effort to avoid any hint of syncretism...

Thank goodness for that. I was terrified that he might be going soft on syncretism.

Nothing a few altar boys can't fix.

Lighten up, St. Francis.

Um...actually...he does speak vampire.

how shocking- the antichrist tries to consolidate all religions- not really shocking but par for the course.

impaler: It's a trap!

Shhhhhhhh.
They're all gonna be there at once.

Wait for it. . . waaaaaaaiiiiit foooooooor it.

More like the entire central administration of the Catholic Church is still getting flak from fundies about the previous pope praying with these various folks at the previous Assisi meetings, so they are not doing any spoken common prayers to avoid another public relations crisis.

wallywam1: From TFA: "peace pipe-smoking Native Americans." *Groan*

Is the groan for the stereotyping or the misplaced hyphen?

//They're smoking peace-pipes, not peace pipe-smoking.

I still get a kick out of Christians picturing Jesus as a shepherd. Soylent Green is SHEEPLE!