Ratzinger/Benedict XVI

[serg]

The new pope - good or bad?

I personally am not thrilled by the choice. 2 reasons:

1) I don't like him at all
2) I had money on Francis Arinze of Nigeria

Serg

[brother_gyne]

he looks scary

[Grandpa Bambu]

he looks scary

I second the motion!  

John.

[Grandpa Bambu]

The new pope - good or bad?

They say Ratzinger is an hard ass Conservative. This is not good! Sounds like he has 10th century values while living in the twenty first century. That's okay, he's old and the next Pope is not far off.

Just my $0.02  

John.

[Cuttin Headz]

You can't just say that "O, he's just ole, he wont last long, hes just an interim pope." Old popes can do a lot, look at what happened with the Second Vatican Council. They made the church more accessible and changed the language of mass to the vernacular.

[headheldhigh01]

i'm not catholic, but rumor had it ratzinger had issues with parts of vatican 2.  

[Jim1985]

I am a catholic, a young Catholic at that and I think it is unfair that the new Pope has taken so much slack before he has even been given a chance to prove himself. I think one thing that the Catholic church teaches, along with all other churches and social teachings, is to judge people by what they do and not by pre-conceptions! He may turn out to be a dark horse!

Sadly vocal critizism of the Catholic church is allowed, whereas the same level of critizism of Islam or Judaism would not be tollerated. I am not in any way calling for people to start critizising the other world religions, each is as valid in their views as the other, but it would be nice if people treated the Catholic faith the same way!

[Blarneystoner]

AMEN! (no pun intended) is that a pun?

[serg]

I read recently that dear old Benedicto 16 has condemned the harry potter books.

Seriously, doesn't this guy have anything better to do?

[doddy]

I am a catholic, a young Catholic at that and I think it is unfair that the new Pope has taken so much slack before he has even been given a chance to prove himself. I think one thing that the Catholic church teaches, along with all other churches and social teachings, is to judge people by what they do and not by pre-conceptions! He may turn out to be a dark horse!

Sadly vocal critizism of the Catholic church is allowed, whereas the same level of critizism of Islam or Judaism would not be tollerated. I am not in any way calling for people to start critizising the other world religions, each is as valid in their views as the other, but it would be nice if people treated the Catholic faith the same way!

Vocal criticism of the Catholic church should certainly be "allowed", I'm somewhat disturbed by your complaint of it being "allowed" - what do you suggest, restrictions on free speech?

The Catholic church gets criticized for a number of very valid reasons. It's refusal to accept the use of condoms despite the spread of AIDS in Africa, for example. This isn't to say that it hasn't, and doesn't do great work - it certainly does.

Islam and Judaism get just as much criticism. People get criticized (and worse, verbally and physically abused) just for LOOKING like a follower of Islam. In the same way, what do you hear more often as an insult "you f*cking Jew", or "you f*cking Catholic"?

See my point?

[Blarneystoner]

Good point, Doddy, but I think he means for example if you were on TV and you talked trash about the Catholic church you would be fine, but if you said something bad about the Jewish faith then you would be branded an anti-semite.

[serg]

Good point, Doddy, but I think he means for example if you were on TV and you talked trash about the Catholic church you would be fine, but if you said something bad about the Jewish faith then you would be branded an anti-semite.

Yes, I know what you mean. There does seem to be quite a lot of pc tip toeing around minority religions. It's a delicate balancing act, inevitably goes too far one way or not far enough.