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AIBU?

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Original poster

to think that Catholics shouldn't be Catholics if they find their leader so hateful?

281 replies

slightlystressed · 04/02/2010 11:23

Thread about a thread I'm afraid.

Lots of catholics seem to condemn the Pope for his views on homosexuals, women, condoms in Africa etc.

But he is the leader of their church, and was elected by other cardinals who must share his views, they knew he was extremly conservative when the voted for him.

Why do catholics carry on being catholic when they seem to disagree with so many things their church preaches?

OP posts:
EleanoraBuntingCupcake · 04/02/2010 12:53

quite hully, i grew up with my brothers making jokes like this about the priests at school who quite plainly did eye up altar boys.

i think making a crack like this about the head of a religion that has had institutional abuse of children and woman at its heart is fair enough. making a similar joke about my mother is just mean!

sarah293 · 04/02/2010 12:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Hullygully · 04/02/2010 12:53

Let us all love each other. It's all we have, the rest is guesswork.

onagar · 04/02/2010 12:55

"We don't condemn the entire German population"

No, but all those wearing the uniform and claiming proudly to be party members we did.

FreddoBaggyMac · 04/02/2010 12:55

StrictlyKatty I agree with what you've said on here, you're doing a great job... don't let them get to you! [smile
Thelma, well in my book you are a Catholic in name only. That will not change if we debate it for three years!

StrictlyKatty · 04/02/2010 12:56

Hully, the red mist has decended!

I HATE abuse jokes. They are soooooooo offensive to the victims. What the Priests did was wrong, so wrong, and to make comments about them just looking up alter boys frocks really upsets me. It makes something so awful seem funny. Which it wasn't. I don't understand why a person would joke about it?

Also the Pope was CHILD during WW2 so can hardly be counted as a Nazi. Especially when his family were very anti Hitler and his cousin was murdered by them for being disabled.

Miggsie · 04/02/2010 12:56

I thought the basic view was that the Pope was God's representative on Earth and can never be wrong as he leads by divine right.

So if you think the Pope is being crap then you are basically saying he is wrong and fallible and therefore can't be God's representative???

Lots of people make pilgramages to Rome to see the pope and buy holy medlas blessed by the pope, so a lot of people think he is very special and in touch with the Divine.

I'm confused basically.

What is the point of him then if you can belong to the religion yet say you disagree with him?
I thought the whole point of the religion was that it not a democracy.

I am not bashing Catholics, I would like to know how he is the leader and divinely instituted but wrong.

JohnnyTwoHats · 04/02/2010 12:57

Miggsie- papal infallibility doesn't apply to everything the Pope says.

Hullygully · 04/02/2010 12:58

Offer love to each other and see the world smile.

StrictlyKatty · 04/02/2010 12:58

Following his 14th birthday in 1941, Ratzinger was conscripted into the Hitler Youth, as membership was required for all 14-year old German boys after December 1939,[7] but was an unenthusiastic member and refused to attend meetings.[8] (His father was a bitter enemy of Nazism, believing it conflicted with the Catholic faith. In 1941, one of Ratzinger's cousins, a 14-year-old boy with Down syndrome, was taken away by the Nazi regime and killed during the Aktion T4 campaign of Nazi eugenics.[9]

FreddoBaggyMac · 04/02/2010 12:59

Exactly Johnny, very few things in fact.

onagar · 04/02/2010 13:00

but god would let him carry on leading all his children astray then? Bit unfair that.

FreddoBaggyMac · 04/02/2010 13:00

Would like to Hully, but it's hard when in return the world keeps calling me a narrowminded gay-basher!

hobnobsaremyfavourite · 04/02/2010 13:00

Do you actually know anything about the Catholic faith Eleanora? Or are you basing your ridicule of it on assumptions , half truths and hearsay?

Hullygully · 04/02/2010 13:00

I'm confused as well now. Isn't he God's representative on earth? Are you saying that he represents the essential God message, but puts his own, possibly wrong, bits in as well?

(Okay re Nazi, Strictly)

itsmeolord · 04/02/2010 13:01

Nice Onager. So do we condemn the children of those who wore the uniform?

EleanoraBuntingCupcake · 04/02/2010 13:02

'assumptions , half truths and hearsay' that'll be the catholic faith then!

TrickyTeenagersMum · 04/02/2010 13:02

Can I just say... fabulous thread everyone.
Am a Catholic and loving the debate! Come on!!!

JohnnyTwoHats · 04/02/2010 13:03

Hullygully- the Pope is not God. So he is capable of mistakes and sin like the rest of us.

Miggsie · 04/02/2010 13:03

Thanks Johnny Twohats...I did wonder about that one.

FreddoBaggyMac · 04/02/2010 13:04

no Eleanora. If you really want to know the catholic faith it is written down in black and white in the catechism!

StrictlyKatty · 04/02/2010 13:04

No, in the same way Rose West's children are not resonsibilble for her being pure evil.

EleanoraBuntingCupcake · 04/02/2010 13:06

oh its written down, it must be true!

JohnnyTwoHats · 04/02/2010 13:06

Miggsie- I think it's a common misconception of papal infallibility.

onagar · 04/02/2010 13:06

"Nice Onager. So do we condemn the children of those who wore the uniform?"

itsmeolord, I think you misunderstood me there. I am not blaming the pope at all for once being in the hitler youth.

By 'wearing the uniform and claiming proudly to be party members' I was referring to present day christians proudly saying they are catholic and then not wanting to be blamed for anything their organization does

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