Boycotting French goods

Now that's a great idea! He really needs to keep to the business of the Catholic church as opposed to sticking his nose in politics. I'm sure that somewhere there are some pedophile priests who 'need counseling' and 'need to be removed from the environment' (i.e. shipped to another parish to do it all over again) that caused them to act in the way they did. If he wants to get involved with politics, how about demanding that all priests accused of abuse be turned over to the PROPER authorities, the police/FBI/etc., instead of the church's authorities.

Sorry for the rant..............

 

Your anger at the Catholic church for inaction wrt pedophilia is understandable, and mostly justified. However, with the war on Iraq, you cannot say that the Pope is sticking his nose in Politics, and is out of order as a result. We are talking about the pre-meditated killing of a group of people by another group, and you are labelling it Politics, and therefore off-limits for the Pope.

This is exactly the kind humaniarian crisis that we should expect he Church to hold a position on.

Disagree with the Churches view on the war - fine (I disagree too by the way). But don't deny them the right to publicise their view on it all.

 

I just get annoyed when the Pope sticks his nose where it doesn't belong. Case in point: When he was in St. Louis a few years ago, he met with Mel Carnahan, a.k.a. Tax-Man Carnahan, our then governor to discuss an inmate that was scheduled to be executed very soon. The Pope had the nerve to tell Missourians how wrong it would be to end this man's life. He went on and on about how our society needs to end capital punishment and focus on making htese men productive citizens again. NOT ONCE did he mention the victims that suffered at the hands of this man or others like him. If he wants rapists, murderers, child abusers to live as opposed to being executed by states that have voter support for capital punishment, take these scumbags back to the Vatican and let them live there where the riches of the Catholic church can support them. By the way, I'm not just down on the Catholics (although they are fun to mess with, especially the 'cafeteria catholics'-you know what I mean), I'm don't believe in any religion. I'm a proud Atheist.

 

I agree with you in the main. The Pope should not get into Politics, my point was simply that the war with Iraq was just so big and potentially damaging from a humanitarian point of view, that you couldn't just parcel it neatly as "politics" and expect the Pope to back off. Capital punishment is a different thing altogether.

What is a cafeteria Catholic by the way? Anything involving food is worth knowing more about...

 

Mark,

Points well taken. A cafeteria catholic is one who picks and chooses which doctrines they follow. For example, Catholics are not supposed to use any birth control, after all the man in the pointy hats says "NO!", but many, many Catholics do.

These folks, you could probably put any other religion in here as well, simply pick and follow the doctrines that they like best and which ones fit their lifestyle the best.

 

I guess, I could have worked that one out myself. And to be honest, thats what I am - I'm a cafeteria Catholic - but since I don't talk about my religion, I don't hink anyone can really hold me to account for it.

By the same token, I guess I'm a cafeteria citizen too. I choose to ignore the 50mph limit every day on the way to work, but have not commited theft, drug pushing or murder yet. Theres a couple of boxes ticked on the tax return that I'm not proud of, and that barbeque of mine is made with bricks taken from the builders next-door. But at the end of the day, I'm basically law-abiding. I treat my religion the same way.

 

I like that one. I gotta run now. Have a good one.

Scott

 

Interesting that the Church is critized for not doing enough during WWII yet now they are told to be quiet.

 

Well, since the Iraqis launched some of those banned WMDs that they swore they didn't have at our troops yesterday, you'd think the issue would be resolved.

Instead, French protesters burned the American flag in Europe, and Canadian hockey fans boo'ed our National Anthem.