I've heard the papal shoes are specially made by Prada.

@i'm a bottle: Can we get a confirmation?

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BTW, the promise of Heaven and the afterlife does not mean you rush to go there.

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And it just so happens that spiritually, the idea of taking care of your fellow man and showing him love falls under the idea of socialism.

So it's too bad, but the right wing is going to have to eat this one in the face. Just eat it right in the face.

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Like "Hey, peoples of the world, USE CONDOMS. Cool?"

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Although in the case of my preferred writers, it's usually just because they're drunk.

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I won't give any examples since I would rather not be virtually lynched.

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I kind of like Benedict actually. He's smart, and extremely principled about his intellectual choices. He can make harsh and unpopular choices - like this document - it's bound to be extremely unpopular with lots, but it's necessary to say. I'd like to believe he wouldn't have had any truck with saving the careers of pedophiles.

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Ratzi was in the Hitler Youth, that can't be disputed and is not a rumour. Membership was mandatory at the time, that also can't be disputed. That does not tell us if he liked it or not.

Nobody ever said the church is democratic, not even Baby Jesus. The church most definitely was never meant to be capitalist. So, well done, Pope. (I am also not of the oppinion that ethical bussiness behavior is somehow incompatible with capitalism. It's kind of sad that pro-capitalist people exist who believe this.)

And just to rile the pope:

"I am amazed at this old man. Has he not heard that god is dead?"

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And Nietzsche never gets old. But you should keep reading. God acted as our moral horizon, but once we realize we don't need him, it becomes up to us to recreate that moral horizon. In other words - we would sort of create a new God. But one of our choosing.

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Yes, he was forced to join the Hitler Youth because it was compulsory. All six years of his life after that as a bona fide member of the Nazi party, as an assembler in a arms factory and a Nazi infantry solider is a complete lie perpetuated by evil secularists.

I'm not biased against Catholics. I am biased against people who preach stupid abstinence programs in AIDS ravaged Africa. Also: since most Catholics are black or Hispanic, would it hurt the Vatican to consider a Holy See from the part of the world where most Catholics originate, or shall we continue this colonial Great White Daddy mentality in "His" efforts to tame the world's swarthy noble savages?

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What is it about (some) Americans that whenever the subject of socialism comes up, they react as though you've just suggested cannibalism or incest?

@Pope John Peeps II: I'd like to believe he wouldn't have had any truck with saving the careers of pedophiles.
Seriously? He wasn't exactly a file clerk before he became pope. I have a hard time believing he wasn't complicit in that whole sad affair.

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And you ARE biased against Catholics. At least against the Church. You don't seem to understand the fundamental part of the Catholic Church that is rooted in tradition and spirituality- they don't necessarily make decisions based on what's politically practical. Until the spiritual notion of birth control is challenged, the Church simply will not advocate condoms. Spiritual concerns should come before political ones in the life of a church.

Like moving the Holy See. Are you SERIOUS? I haven't been a practicing Catholic for almost eight years and that seriously gets my back up. You're going to move the Holy See from the greatest, most impenetrably beautiful structure and city on earth to where... Johannesburg? Buenos Aires? That's just ridiculous. And why? Just so they can appear to be less "colonial" in your eyes? They don't need your approval.

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Unless he feels like it, of course.

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In WWII Germany, most Germans/Prussians/etc.. didn't even hear rumors of what was happening in the supposed "prisoner" work camps until close to the end of the war. They saw it as a political war between Russia and Germany and when the allies became involved it left many confused and unsure as to what was actually going on. People seem to have this opinion that 99% of Germany knew that Hitler was killing Jews, Poles, Gays, Catholics, Gypsies, etc...and accepted and supported it. Ridic.

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How about you get on a dangerous soapbox like railing agains minbuses offering USG to determine the sex of a foetus and performing abortions if they look like girls (as in China and India)?

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There are many, many other institutions set to the same aim, and many that are more effective and that have more integrity at it than the Catholic Church. Catholicism, generally speaking, is an incoherent mish-mash of ancient mythology, literalist dogma, social pecking orders, and public treasury. How anyone could hitch their wagon to this unimpressive flotsam of human history is shocking to me. How so many millions can do the same every day is disheartening in the same manner as phenomena like Britney Spears or Kanye West or Dr. Phil.

No matter how well argued any particular papal document may be, it is still the product of a hopelessly misguided context. Like New Jersey or Microsoft Windows, Catholicism is something that is so deeply tarnished as to be best razed rather than reformed.

To take it one step further: any religion that worships anything other than a fool, is a religion FOR the fool.

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He's the POPE, man! We're not talking about the the old German guy who owns the deli down the street. The Pope should have a history of noble selflessness not moral ambiguity, especially if he's not going to be morally ambiguous about a serious health threat in Africa.

Also, my apologies for the misue of the term Holy See -- I thought it also referred to the body of the Pope, or something. What I mean is that it's long overdue for a Pope that FROM the part of the world where most Catholics are originating.

Also regarding my bias against Abrahamics: being enough Native American to qualify for a free pencil form the BIA, Christianity in general is as much a vessel of intolerance and murder as it is morality and goodness. I'm not going to romanticize pre-Columbian theology in North America, but let's just say that the Catholics and the Protestants were MURDEROUS LAND-GRABBING THUGS. So excuse me if I carry this forward to the present: where gunning down and enslaving infidels,heathens and Jews has been replaced with kinder, gentler form of intolerance, which is killing people.

Oh, and tell those closeted gay priests to stop molesting altar boys, OK? And when they get caught, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT besides covering it up, defending the priests and bribing the victims with tax-free money.

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Wha?

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