Pope to resign? Feb 28

[prairiemuffin]

I thought this was just incredibly freaky, as I had just watched the HBO documentary (highly recommended) "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God", which expclicitly calls out Ratzinger for his part in personally reviewing every complaint of abuse that named a priest as the perp. He's got an awful lot of blood on his hands.

[EmiGirl]

My first thought was of a Bible Baptist Church I used to attend where they would preach, with absolute conviction, that the anti-Christ would be a pope (they had a hard-on for Catholic hate.) For some reason they were certain "this polak" (their descriptor) was not the anti-Christ because he was not hard core Catholic enough (remembering that Catholics, or "the papists", sometimes with an even more derogatory adjective thrown in there, are the root of all evil.) If a more traditional/conservative pope is elected, those folks are going to be pissing their pants in excitement over the end times.

My church is convinced that the False Prophet will be whatever pope is sitting at the time of the Tribulation.

[Esther]

The Dutch television interviewed an oldster (85) from Brabant. For the non Dutch/Belgian readers, this is a predominantly catholic rural part of the Netherlands and Belgium. A typical peasant with cap, pipe smoking and an almost unintelligible dialect (which I love), anyway you would expect him to be old fashioned and a conservative catholic. But, he said I am glad this pope resigns, because what he said about gay people is so wrong, to speak like that about a fellow human being is a disgrace!

Hahaha, that's awesome. Yay for nice old people!

And darareaksmey, I absolutely agree they've got their priorities seriously out of whack and they should be more tolerant in just about every way possible. I just meant to say... so many people on Facebook and all over seem to be positively appalled by this, but to me, it's really a good thing for pretty much everyone involved. For him, since he is ancient and even if I wildly disapprove of pretty much every stance he has on anything, people who are old and weak shouldn't be forced to stay in stressful positions like that. And for everyone else, since we can only hope that we get a pope who is at least a tiny little bit less conservative than this one was (and who will take a stronger stance on prosecuting child molesters).

[DistantStar]

JPII was the Pope as I was all of two when he got the job. So when he died even though I'm not Catholic it was weird.

But when I saw the news this morning I can't say I was displeased. At all. Not in the slightest. A "Yay!" might have been heard. I wish him a lovely quiet retirement somewhere where he can't do any more damage. Far far far away from...oh...people. Especially women and young boys.

[darareaksmey]

---snip---

Hahaha, that's awesome. Yay for nice old people!

And darareaksmey, I absolutely agree they've got their priorities seriously out of whack and they should be more tolerant in just about every way possible. I just meant to say... so many people on Facebook and all over seem to be positively appalled by this, but to me, it's really a good thing for pretty much everyone involved. For him, since he is ancient and even if I wildly disapprove of pretty much every stance he has on anything, people who are old and weak shouldn't be forced to stay in stressful positions like that. And for everyone else, since we can only hope that we get a pope who is at least a tiny little bit less conservative than this one was (and who will take a stronger stance on prosecuting child molesters).

Oh, I get that. :) I guess I'm just trying to think like Abigail. :roll:

[homeschoolmomma1]

Wow from what I can tell there is no comment from Josh about the resignation

[thekate]

Remember that Lent doesn't start until Wednesday- she still has a day and a half to comment (rant?) before she has to log off.

Ooops! Bad ex-Catholic! Bad!

[Buzzard]

Wow from what I can tell there is no comment from Josh about the resignation

I totally expected atleast a retweet of frothy but ... crickets...

Rick Santorum â€@RickSantorum

Pope Benedict XVI’s decision is an example of great humility, spiritual leadership & commitment to faith.

[AtroposHeart]

If there is a God, the next Pope will be an African American, twenty-eight year old, lesbian.

[Librul]

The Canadian Cardinal being mentioned on some news sites is one of the most conservative around. Ditto the Africans. Don't think that third world Cardinals are necessarily more progressive or approachable or justice oriented. The Africans especially are very traditional. There are some Latin & Central American Cardinals that might be interesting, but the more interesting they are, the less chance they have.

Highly likely after two non-Italians that it will be an Italian.

[homeschoolmomma1]

Interesting. On Good Morning America one of the ladies they asked said " the vatican looks to America for financial support, but not popes." hmmm I think people are gonna really start leaving the church if they keep making comments like that

[persuas1ve]

I'm surprised he's more likely than Bono, who is tied with Father Dougal Maguire of Craggy Island. :lol:

DRINK!!

[wildflower]

DRINK!!

https://www.facebook.com/FatherDougalForPope

(Link not broken because 'tis funny)

Father Dougal needs more likes so that he can become Pope!!

[divadivine]

Buzzard wrote:

This is a GIANT flashing red light for me. How do you not even take part in choosing your successor??? Because you arent worthy, thats how

He doesn't have to take part in the Conclave and technically, if he were still a Bishop, he'd be too old to participate anyway. I don't think he is interested in naming his successor because it's never happened before in history. Pope Bennie never wanted to be Pope in the first place. Seriously, it's hard to follow someone like JPII who was loved by so many (Catholic and non-Catholics). JPII was Pope for 27 years. He'd been all over the world and he was like a Rockstar. Who wants to step in after that? Most definitely not someone who is more of a scholar and not accustomed to the spotlight.

My theory has been all along that Bennie was chosen as Pope as a sort of Transitional Pope. The Conclave was never going to choose someone who was young to take over after JPII-- his shoes were just too big. No one could have filled them and the Conclave knew if they picked someone young, it was just setting them up for failure. So, why not pick someone who wasn't very well known- who was older and wouldn't serve more than 10 or so years? Bennie fit the bill. Picking someone who was older gave the Church time to grieve the loss of JPII. This also gave the Conclave time to see who was actually serve the Church for 20 or more years like JPII.

Bennie caught all the flack for the changes in the Liturgy that happened last year with the return to wording which more closely follows the Roman Missal. The abuse that wasn't taken care of properly. And the fact that he was not JPII.

I think Bennie is really sick. According to the news reports this morning, he's no longer allowed to make Trans-Atlantic flights- which means he can't serve the people of the Church. I guess he feels like he can't do the job so he should step aside and let someone else take over. Bennie was going to retire before he ever became Pope so he could live with his cats and write about the early life of Jesus. Seriously, he has cats who reside in his house in Germany because pets cannot live in the Papal residence in Vatican City. I think the man is just ready to go sit with his cats and write before he goes to meet his maker.

I am Catholic. I know lots of people don't like Catholics. There are also people who don't like Baptists or Lutherans or FLDS members or Atheists. I think what bothers me so much is people automatically think all Catholic Priests abuse children. Has the abuse issue been handled incorrectly? Darn right it was handled incorrectly. However, people seem to think abuse and covering up abuse is only a problem in the Catholic Church. They're completely wrong. Abuse and cover-up happen in every Church and it gets covered up a lot. The Catholic Church gets a lot of publicity because of the size of the Church. It doesn't make it right by any means. Abuse doesn't happen because Catholic Priests can't marry- because if that would was true, other churches wouldn't have abuse incidents because their clergy can marry.

I'm not a big Pope Bennie fan. He's not what I could consider "A People's Pope." He's a scholar. He didn't handle things correctly. However, I respect him because he's the leader of the Church. That is my choice. I choose to become Catholic as an adult. I know many people probably think I'm a crazy loon, but I found a peace and a place where I felt at home in the Catholic Church. I'll respect your religious choice or your choice to be non-religious if you can respect my choices. I guess the thing that bothers me the most is people who automatically assume there is some cover-up and that is the reason for Bennie's resignation. If I were almost 86, I'd be ready to retire too.

I do hope the next Pope is from Latin or South America. I think it's time to give more representation to the area of the world with the largest Catholic population.

Sorry... stepping off the soapbox now.

[darareaksmey]

I don't mean to sound cheeky, but I'm just interested in how not being able to fly anymore keeps him from serving the people of the church? I mean, popes served without benefit of air travel for most of the church's history, right? Seems to me that with today's technology it's easier than ever to remain plugged in to the faithful without leaving your armchair. What am I missing?

[homeschoolmomma1]

I don't mean to sound cheeky, but I'm just interested in how not being able to fly anymore keeps him from serving the people of the church? I mean, popes served without benefit of air travel for most of the church's history, right? Seems to me that with today's technology it's easier than ever to remain plugged in to the faithful without leaving your armchair. What am I missing?

I think he has a heart condition or something. hmmm no clue

[divadivine]

I don't mean to sound cheeky, but I'm just interested in how not being able to fly anymore keeps him from serving the people of the church? I mean, popes served without benefit of air travel for most of the church's history, right? Seems to me that with today's technology it's easier than ever to remain plugged in to the faithful without leaving your armchair. What am I missing?

It's sort of expected you attend certain events or have audiences with the people of the Church. Especially in this day and age of air travel. When you can't travel to do those things you're not doing your job. Think of a CEO. As a CEO you can only hold so many GoToMeetings and Webcasts before the shareholder start to get a little honked off that you haven't come to see them in person. Why should they always come to visit you at your office?

Our Archbishop stepped aside early last year. He had survived two bouts of cancer and a stroke. After the stroke, Pope Bennie assigned the Archdiocese an assistant Bishop because the Archbishop wasn't able to do his all the parts of his job. He was too sick and needed to rest. He finally decided he'd step aside because he couldn't do the job.... the assistant Bishop was doing everything. The Archbishop couldn't attend all the Masses he was supposed to preside over. He had to let other priests say Masses he was invited to because he didn't have the physical strength to stand up for more than a few minutes. When he finally resigned, his speech was so slurred (because of his stroke) you couldn't understand much of what he was saying. When they named his successor, he was at the announcement ceremony. He is now completely confined to a wheelchair and had to have someone assist him the entire time. There would have been no way he could have continued serving the Archdiocese.

I think Pope Bennie didn't want to be another JPII who wasn't able to really do his job at the end of his life. Why not go out when you can still walk and talk and maybe enjoy a few quiet years with your cats- like most people who retire?

[latraviata]

DRINK!!

Father Jack's 'DRINK!!' was my late son's favourite shout! He loved Father Jack especially that episode when he jumps out of the plane with the only two parachutes, one for him and the other one for the beverage trolley.

[Claddagh]

People are going nuts over this on other places I frequent. I've already heard plenty of end times prophecies and the talk of the next pope being a black man.

There's been prophecies and ideas over the end times with each pope before. Why would this time be any different?

[leggajegga]

If there is a God, the next Pope will be an African American, twenty-eight year old, lesbian.

And that Benedict's last act in office will be to proclaim that abortion, contraception, female priests, priestly marriage, and gay marriage are all in line with Church doctrine.

[holierthanyou]

Allow me to bring the cake (which I decorated for my Catholic mother).

[ceg045]

Ironically enough, today was the first time I was back in a Catholic church in a long while, for the funeral of a dear family friend.

As he was preparing for communion, the priest told the congregation, "For those of you who accept communion weekly, we have the sacrament available for you. For those who do not, we invite you to take part in a 'spiritual communion' and consider the role of Jesus in your life." Not even joking. My family sat out, and I can guarantee it had nothing to do with "Catholic guilt." As we were leaving, my dad said, "You know, I was going to go up anyway, but then I just said 'fuck 'em.' Not exactly the best approach to attract people back to an institution mired in scandal and losing followers in droves."

I don't practice Catholicism anymore, but it does make me sad to see the church swinging further and further to the right. And there's no reason to believe the new pontiff will be any different.

[StacyW]

DRINK!!

FECK!!

[mockingbird]

Ironically enough, today was the first time I was back in a Catholic church in a long while, for the funeral of a dear family friend.

As he was preparing for communion, the priest told the congregation, "For those of you who accept communion weekly, we have the sacrament available for you. For those who do not, we invite you to take part in a 'spiritual communion' and consider the role of Jesus in your life." Not even joking. My family sat out, and I can guarantee it had nothing to do with "Catholic guilt." As we were leaving, my dad said, "You know, I was going to go up anyway, but then I just said 'fuck 'em.' Not exactly the best approach to attract people back to an institution mired in scandal and losing followers in droves."

I don't practice Catholicism anymore, but it does make me sad to see the church swinging further and further to the right. And there's no reason to believe the new pontiff will be any different.

Haha um... yeah, I definitely think you can frame the restriction on communion in a less alienating or guilt-tripping context. At most churches I have mainly heard them say that anyone who cannot or will not receive communion is welcome to participate in the procession and receive a blessing.

[persuas1ve]

FECK!!

That's an ecumenical matter