quartercomma: Holy shiat!  They finally went after an infallible, revered leader of an all-controlling religion for decades of covering up child rape?  They'll get me next, I better resign.

--what the Pope thought when he heard about Joe Paterno

You have earned the fabled "smart" AND "funny" votes. I present you with one Internet.

Guilt? Good luck with that.

H31N0US: Sir Not Sure The Unscannable: Have some respect, people. Wouldn't you want to resign when you feel like you can't work anymore?

He is a scumbag who threatened excommunication for anyone who assisted the investigation of child rape. He is beyond respect, as is the institution he used to lead.

Excommunication is emancipation.

He's 85 years old.  Take a look at the daily schedule this guy has.  I respect him for having enough respect for the office to call it quits when he can't give it 100% anymore.  Many previous Popes should have done this, but they didn't.  As far as any hidden agenda or secret conspiracy goes, if one comes out I'll be disappointed.  Until then, the old dude gets benefit of the doubt.

Publikwerks: namatad: immrlizard: He's not MY pope.   I didn't vote for him

You know that the next pope is going to be a young, black, democrat from chicago ...
bhwhahaha hahaahha hah ahah hahahahah

The next pope is a muslim?

Not just the pope, he will also be the Mahdi.

advex101: He's 85 years old.  Take a look at the daily schedule this guy has.  I respect him for having enough respect for the office to call it quits when he can't give it 100% anymore.  Many previous Popes should have done this, but they didn't.  As far as any hidden agenda or secret conspiracy goes, if one comes out I'll be disappointed.  Until then, the old dude gets benefit of the doubt.

Well, the papacy isn't exactly an office. The pope supposed to be St. Peter incarnate and all that rot. John Paul II, who was far more popular, wouldn't even consider abdicating. When asked about this, he once said "the Vicar of Christ cannot come down from the cross."

advex101: Publikwerks: namatad: immrlizard: He's not MY pope.   I didn't vote for him

You know that the next pope is going to be a young, black, democrat from chicago ...
bhwhahaha hahaahha hah ahah hahahahah

The next pope is a muslim?

Not just the pope, he will also be the Mahdi.

The Pope is near!

advex101: He's 85 years old.  Take a look at the daily schedule this guy has.  I respect him for having enough respect for the office to call it quits when he can't give it 100% anymore.  Many previous Popes should have done this, but they didn't.  As far as any hidden agenda or secret conspiracy goes, if one comes out I'll be disappointed.  Until then, the old dude gets benefit of the doubt.

Right. Because the man who is KNOWN to have helped cover up child rape and who knowingly and willfully spread the deadly lie in Africa that condoms cause or contribute to AIDS deserves the benefit of the doubt.

It's people like you who provide the soil for these evil old weeds to thrive in.

He'll be the Mahdl-T, the savior who'll drive us to paradise. He'll also be the Dukelet, Pall Agamemnides, son of Duke Lotto of House Pancakes, who is known as Assol, Pall Mauve-bib, the Kumkwat Haagendasz.

He probably got tired of wearing that big Pope Hat.  I mean, come on, that thing is huge.

unlikely: Guilt?

If I could believe that in any small way I contributed to his resignation, I'd buy myself a steak tonight and eat it without salt because I'd be all the awesomesauce that steak could handle.

ZOMG THIS.

One of the many (in fact, infinite number of) things that keeps me Protestant is that our congregations choose leadership for themselves, from their own members.  We don't get to unilaterally appoint leaders for churches on the other side of the planet, and they don't get to shuffle around dodgy priests into our churches to hide them.  We sure as fark don't hand over all power of decision to a tiny group of individuals and tell them "whichever scheming twerp you pick is fine by us" without any say into the process.  Feedback?  Most definitely.

Disclaimer 1:  JP2 was awesome.

Disclaimer 2:  This kind of thing should happen more often.

somedude210: AdamK: why should i feel guilt for a guy quitting god?

Catholics like to guilt people. It's a joke

i thought that guilting people after quitting god was a jewish thing?

ibetthejewsdidthis.jpg

namatad: immrlizard: He's not MY pope.   I didn't vote for him

You know that the next pope is going to be a young, black, democrat from chicago ...
bhwhahaha hahaahha hah ahah hahahahah

chigcago? don't you mean from "hawaii" ? ;-P

not good enough, what they really need is a true christian pope



either way we can't lose, lulz lolz lulz

Publikwerks: NutWrench: immrlizard: He's not MY pope.   I didn't vote for him

You don't vote for Popes!

How do you know?  immrlizard could be a Cardinal.

Listen, strange Cardinals gatherin' in a room distributin' scepters is no basis for a system of religion. Supreme pontifical power derives from a mandate from the heavens

Documentation of Ratzinger's complicity in the fight to help pedo priests evade the law is coming to light.

Let's hope Mahoney and Ratzinger are both indicted soon. RICO charges would be appropriate.

1)
"...In [Los Angeles] archdiocese documents released under a court order earlier this month, [bishop] Mahony is revealed to have taken actions deliberately contrived to avoid legal prosecution of priests who had sexually abused -- and even raped -- children..."

2)
"...in a 2003 letter to Ratzinger, Mahony says of Father Lynn R. Caffoe that between the priest and one boy, there were 100 "instances of masturbatory and copulative acts," according to an account in the Los Angeles Daily News.
But Mahony never reported Caffoe's alleged crimes to police, and Ratzinger apparently never instructed him to..."

Link

ohhhh - catholic guilt - reminded me i need to call my mother

fwiw - i think, if there is any sort of scandal, it will end up being a fiscal problem. As others point out, the church has weathered years of sex scandal. It's much more difficult to either 1) go broke; 2) loose your tax exempt status and go broke; 3) see more cases to be settled and go broke. There are fewer and fewer properties and "paying customers" and a round of new settlements might break the system

at 86, i doubt he is concerned about this, if true - who wants to arrest and jail the pope?

as a catholic who misses the church i remember (like the GOP remembers the Reagan years that never existed) its disappointing he resigned. Never liked him but quitting is quitting - saying you are "too tired" discredits much of the prayer of roman catholics world-wide ("good lord, help me get through this for i am weak and weary")

Sir Not Sure The Unscannable: Have some respect, people. Wouldn't you want to resign when you feel like you can't work anymore?

I'm not going to "have some respect," because this is Fark. Deal with it.

However, I agree with the second part. The guy doesn't want to be the pope anymore, and I can't blame him. Let him retire, for crissakes.

somedude210: well...jesus was a jew   IS A MYTH...

FTFY

get a brain moran

somedude210: "I'm an episcopalian, which is like Catholic-lite. All the God, half the guilt"

and full retard, never go full retard

Girl Pants
If in fact is he stepping down because he feels he can't do the job properly anymore, I give him major respect. It takes a decent man to actually give up power for the greater good.

In reality, I'm with the many who think he's probably getting out before something bad happens.

Well, he has said during an interview in 2010 that he thinks a pope has a right and maybe even the duty to step down if he realizes that he's become physically, psychically or mentally unable to fulfill the duties of his office.

ThurmanMerman: He's saying he's resigning because he's spiritually not strong enough to lead.  Which really does make one wonder what's coming down the pike that we don't know about yet.


Maybe he's going to pull a Mother Theresa and we'll find out from his diary after he dies that he's given up believing in god and was just commiting heinous acts in god's name for years because he doesn't know how to do anything but continue to perpetuate the sham.

But I'd place my money on more scandal details coming out that the Vatican is furiously suppressing behind the scenes by whatever means necessary. Either more damning information about his involvement in the child rape scandals or the Vatican money laundering/financial corruption scandals.

Slaves2Darkness: DROxINxTHExWIND: What could come out that's bigger than touching little boys? We all knew they were doing that when he BECAME Pope. So, what do you all think the scandal will be?

That the Pope himself buggered little boys.

and then tried to hide the bodies? :D

typical christians

somedude210: I drunk what: somedude210: well...jesus was a jew   IS A MYTH...

FTFY

get a brain moran

somedude210: "I'm an episcopalian, which is like Catholic-lite. All the God, half the guilt"

and full retard, never go full retard

you seem unusually pissy.

2 things:
1. It's entirely possible that there was a prophet named Jesus in Jerusalem during this time frame. Being the son of god is up to you to decide.
and
2. I'm a Buddhist (raised Catholic), that was a joke made by a comic. Hence the quotation marks.

But lemme guess...militant atheist who feels their holier than everyone else because they've "seen the light" about there not being a God or higher power or life force or some other such thing? Yes? Okay then.

i'm ok you're ok

UDel_Kitty: 1derful: I thought that the whole "health issues" thing was weird since they paraded the last pope around asleep and drooling on himself in his later days.

And perhaps for that very reason John Paul II should have resigned several years before his death. Just because the precedent is to be pope until death, doesn't mean it should be.

Maybe there's a scandal worse than the crap already floating around the church and Vatican that can force a pope to resign, but I don't find it hard to believe that Ratzinger has decided that he is too infirm to carry out his duties. If that's the truth of it, then good on him for setting a new precedent. That'll be about the only good thing he's done as pope.

***
From a decent article, although not the one I was thinking of (that JPII made it a point to emphasize understanding and love of the old and sick by being so public in his condition in his final years, which... was a pretty good point):

"One thing is clear: Benedict has made a conscious choice not to be John Paul II, who turned his own wrenching, illness-filled last days into something like a parable. It could be hard to watch John Paul wave at a crowd with a hand that trembled, and he knew it, and sought consciously to use that time to emphasize his community with anyone who hurt, and with his God. Say what one will about John Paul II, but one couldn't honestly read his biography without being moved-he worked in a limestone quarry during the German occupation of Poland, studying at a secret seminary-and one can't quite blame Benedict for not matching that, or for lacking John Paul's Popemobile charisma or the manner that made his faith seem so manifest. But then it was John Paul II's conservatism, particularly in the selection of cardinals, that assured Ratzinger's succession. And which way is really better? Should pain-not only of the ill, but of the poor-simply be borne? One can argue that Benedict is far more honest-and by providing a valuable example of his own about knowing when one is done, perhaps he is doing the Church a six-century-overdue favor. But it is inescapable that Joseph Ratzinger has not lived, and will not die, as Karol Wojtyla did."

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2013/02/benedict-in-r e signing-is-no-john-paul.html#ixzz2KiIyv1py
It's one thing if your mind is gone.   It's entirely another if your body is just frail.  JPII had it more together at the end (maybe not the last year) than Ratzinger ever did.  The latter was a transitional pope for sure.

Hell, for all I disagreed with JPII, you can't deny that he was hardcore from the get-go.

/Speaking of Polish Catholics, Happy Pączki Day!

Did he hang any of the homosexual pedophiles acting on behalf of the organization he is "leading" by the neck until they were dead?

No?

Then that motherfarker can eat shiat and die.

Catholic "church" = Tax free homosexual pedophilia organization

gingerjet: Kibbler: sure haven't: Did people really misconstrue the original release that said it was due to his diminishing strength? They never did say he was OMGSICK, just that he's... old. He's old and tired and can't be the Pope effectively enough.

Which is why all the other popes for the last 600 years stuck it out until they died.

Sorry.  Not buying it.

Not buying it either.  I like to think its all the guilt for protecting pedophiles for all those years finally weighed down on him.  But I'm not optimistic on that either.

That's actually my theory now--he's honestly starting to realize it was immoral and is trying to make it easier for him to be prosecuted.

Probably not what happened, but it's a nice thought.

sure haven't: Did people really misconstrue the original release that said it was due to his diminishing strength? They never did say he was OMGSICK, just that he's... old. He's old and tired and can't be the Pope effectively enough.

The last Pope had farking Parkinson's and still kept at it. Every pope in the last 600 years kept at it until they died. No, there's something else we're not being told.

PsiChick: gingerjet: Kibbler: sure haven't: Did people really misconstrue the original release that said it was due to his diminishing strength? They never did say he was OMGSICK, just that he's... old. He's old and tired and can't be the Pope effectively enough.

Which is why all the other popes for the last 600 years stuck it out until they died.

Sorry.  Not buying it.

Not buying it either.  I like to think its all the guilt for protecting pedophiles for all those years finally weighed down on him.  But I'm not optimistic on that either.

That's actually my theory now--he's honestly starting to realize it was immoral and is trying to make it easier for him to be prosecuted.

Probably not what happened, but it's a nice thought.


A very nice thought indeed, but it flies in the face of everything we know about the behavior of the Catholic church as an organization, and Ratzinger as a person specifically. It's about as likely as Vanessa Hudgens and Jessica Alba agreeing to a menage a trois with me this weekend.

I'll be hoping, but I'm not exactly betting any money on it.

this seems appropriate for this thread

NutWrench: You don't vote for Popes!

Then how do they get elected?   Wait, don't tell me, a watery tart slings a scimitar at him.   Right?    Tell me I'm right.   I know that someone gets elected that way.

The rumor is that the pope has resigned to marry his 16 years old male assistant.

I drunk what: somedude210: well...jesus was a jew   IS A MYTH...

THIS!

In the true spirit of dark. No evidence required. No fact wanted. Just hatred for someone different.

immrlizard: He's not MY pope.   I didn't vote for him


You don't vote for popes!

xen0blue: JackieRabbit: He's resigning because it has become too hard to sneak little boys into the Vatican. The convent he'll be living him will give hime more cover.

Yeah, because the pope is soooooo gay

Pedophilia is more like a third sexual orientation.  It really has nothing to do with being homosexual OR heterosexual.

And yes, I know you're a troll.