Do you think the Pope should resign?

tut tut bloody well tut

Some people think the US could have prevented them happening altogether.

And many people ascribe the defeat of the Nazis mainly to Russia.

The late entry of the US into WWII came when all parties were exhausted.

I'd better declare too, that I've not got a dog in this fight.

I was born into the blue tribe of Scotland but I have long since come to the personal conclusion that all religion is bunkum, albeit with a few nice bits.

Try reading my posts Ed. Christianity is a concept. It does not include any "they". " They" represent the idea and have human failings.

I refer you to Chapter 15 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. Media is run by people who "act the same as anybody else" as well, except that they have a more powerful instrument at their disposal.

It was a jest Mac. I have a low taste.

Lose the bunkum and you lose the nice bits. How valuable are the nice bits?

Very valuable, up to now, as a cement for society. To answer that fully would take us well off-topic, though.

Nowadays? I'm not sure if the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. People seem to need to follow something, even if it's only Manchester United or Jennifer Lopez.

So therefore, to get back to the original question here, how do you vote on the Pope's resignation, yea or nay?

I don't know that a proper answer would take us off topic. I'm inclined to think that it is the essence of the topic. The stories are one thing and the coverage of them by Media is another. Media coverage looks to have fish to fry that go well beyond the stories of these isolated incidents. And I have offered reasons why.

There is no way that the banking crisis was caused by anything other than the impetuosity of the passions which are whipped up by media in order for its profits to increase. So much so that the traditional reluctance to go into debt was set aside. The Church is an institution which restrains such impetuosity. It's decline would decrease that restraint.

Joe has spoken of some of his friends leaving the Church because of these stories and if he knows a few like that there must be a large number taking a similar stance in wider society and all as a result of media's stories about these deplorable incidents. Now you make think that the damage to the victims of these incidents is worse than the damage to the child victims of motor accidents, or occuring in larger numbers, but I don't. Nor of broken marriages which are very often the result of financial problems. Nor of bad diet which has horrrific effects of a permanent nature on millions of people and which is encouraged by media on a minute byminute basis.

So I think there is a distortion. And in the one case it is isolated and condemned by the Church and in the other it is not isolated and is encouraged by media.

The valuable aspects you mention you are used to taking for granted. Suppose they no longer existed.



If they no longer existed do you think it would make you more sure.

It is a question of emphasis Mac. There is no defence of the rouge priests from me. There is a question of how they are being used and why.

I think the Pope should hold up his hands and say "Mea culpa." He speaks some Latin I believe.

Further to that, I believe desperate situations call for desperate measures and I think his resignation over this would strengthen the Catholic Church. Do I think that would be a good thing? No I don't. But let's start with him facing up to the problem.

You'd think the make-up would have given the bishops a bit of a clue.

Hahahahahahachoke.

One a large percent of Russia war fighting ability came out of Detroit second
we did end it even if we are not perfect we are the ones who ended it.

I vote for the church to be declare a cult under European laws with the same standing as Scientology and for the same reasons.

A interesting question that connect with should the Pope Resign, is how many of your good old Roman Catholics would allow your young children to be in the custody/control of a Priest?

Would the good father be a trusted figure as in the past or not?

Take a peek at John Charmley's Churchill's Grand Alliance 1940-1957 (Hodder and Stroughton, 1995).

Keep it up Bill. We like to see your simplistic soundbites. It helps us weigh the strength of your side.

We had "horseshit" earlier as an intellectual contribution.

What a very low opinion of mankind you have that for some strange reason the bulk of the people need to have faith in fairly tales of the society will strangely fall apart.

I think the word is "rogue," not "rouge" although I think plenty of the latter has been worn by the former

Naming a title of a book should somehow support your position and not even quoting it just naming it!

I am impress that you had read a book or at least know it name but other then that your scholarship leaves something to be desire.
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'tis odd, someone correct me if I am wrong, but in the apology to the Irish was anything said about the future? I was taught that a Good Act of Contrition must contain a statement of intention to avoid further occasions of sin.

Spendius: Now, I'm confused. First you said 'good riddance' to the likes of persons such as I, then you said you would make it some kind of mission to return me to the fold. Being able to say such differing things with equal fervor is one of main forms of cognitive dissonance holding up the sagging foundations of the Holy Roman Institution of Just Shut Up and Sit There While We Save Your Pathetic Soul.

Joe(another is God's love for men more than women. Odd duck He...)Nation

I'm not sure how much use the pope resigning would be, past a symbolic apologia, as the problem is, to me, a whole culture of protective secrecy. The entire structure under his aegis is part of this, or it seems so.