Holy S**t! Pope resigns

Incredible.

Well, Ravasi definitely looks sinister enough to be the next pope.

Hypatian wrote:

... Comic Sans? Really?

I like how you have to type page numbers in to go to the next page.

Agent 86 wrote:
Hypatian wrote:

... Comic Sans? Really?

I like how you have to type page numbers in to go to the next page.

Click the page corners, rather.

Edit, didn't realize it was only the corners after clicking the cover at the bottom right, I just stayed there. :X

Edit2, also... wow, that is some poor page design. That's really the best the Vatican could do?

Demosthenes wrote:

Edit2, also... wow, that is some poor page design. That's really the best the Vatican could do?

They're all about 80 years old, what do you expect?

Apparently Vatican City is an independent Geocity-state.

H.P. Lovesauce wrote:

Apparently Vatican City is an independent Geocity-state.

Bravo.

So with Benedict retiring from the highest Catholic office, does this mean that he can finally get laid?

Nevin73 wrote:

So with Benedict retiring from the highest Catholic office, does this mean that he can finally get laid?

Publicly, yes. Unfortunately, he'll also lose access to the secret special room in the Vatican for such things.

LouZiffer wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

So with Benedict retiring from the highest Catholic office, does this mean that he can finally get laid?

Publicly, yes. Unfortunately, he'll also lose access to the secret special room in the Vatican for such things.

He's going to get laid in public?

Um, he's still a priest, guys. FWIU those vows still going to be in effect. Whether he kept them is something else.

Yellek wrote:
LouZiffer wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

So with Benedict retiring from the highest Catholic office, does this mean that he can finally get laid?

Publicly, yes. Unfortunately, he'll also lose access to the secret special room in the Vatican for such things.

He's going to get laid in public?

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/P4060Qe.jpg)

Yellek wrote:
LouZiffer wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

So with Benedict retiring from the highest Catholic office, does this mean that he can finally get laid?

Publicly, yes. Unfortunately, he'll also lose access to the secret special room in the Vatican for such things.

He's going to get laid in public?

Crank or Crank 2: High Voltage style!

momgamer wrote:

Um, he's still a priest, guys. FWIU those vows still going to be in effect. Whether he kept them is something else.

Priest or not (I haven't seen what the Pope Emeritus is considered), the vows taken are supposed to be for life. My tongue was shoved way over to one side in my previous post.

Yellek wrote:

He's going to get laid in public?

IMAGE(http://content.foto.mail.ru/bk/ssukalom/_answers/i-12.jpg)

Now that he's not pope, he'll probably need to polish his papal staff himself.

Demosthenes wrote:

Now that he's not pope, he'll probably need to polish his papal staff himself.

So you're thinking Crank 2?

The trust in the Catholic Church is at an all-time low in Belgium (LINK to Catholic University of Leuven papers).

IMAGE(http://deredactie.be/polopoly_fs/1.1560908!image/2377830378.png_gen/derivatives/landscape670/2377830378.png)

That huge drop you're seeing after two decades of stability, that's after the Roger Vangheluwe scandal broke out. As bishop of Bruges, he abused two nephews for decades. Unsuprisingly, the then-head of the Belgian church, Godfried Danneels (outsider for following up John Paul II) tried to cover it up. One of the victims taped the conversation with Danneels and made the tapes public.

The kicker: the chart represents the 'hardcore' Catholics, the 5% of Belgians who still attended church more than once a month in 2011. Among the entire population (2011 (PDF): 49% Catholic, 6% Muslim and 31% No Religion) the trust has dropped from 60% in the eighties to 31% right before the Vangheluwe scandal and 11% the year after.

So yeah, the new Pope will have his work cut out for him.

dejanzie wrote:

So yeah, the new Pope will have his work cut out for him.

He'll have his work cut out for him in Belgium, the rest of Europe, and even the US. I completely expect the Church to cut and run, chilling out in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Plenty of tithe money there.

Yonder wrote:
dejanzie wrote:

So yeah, the new Pope will have his work cut out for him.

He'll have his work cut out for him in Belgium, the rest of Europe, and even the US. I completely expect the Church to cut and run, chilling out in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Plenty of tithe money there.

Being completely open about pedophilia cases is paramount to regaining trust in Western countries, but that's never going to happen.

The trust in the church over here had already been eroding for decades among the general populace though, due to their stance on homosexuality, women priests, celibacy, anti contraceptives etc. Which represents a serious catch 22 for the RCC: relaxing on social issues could help them here, but could also badly hurt their only remaining growth markets.

I think another look at the magic and mysticism is another part.

Sexual abuse is a problem. But I see women's and reproductive health issues as a more germane issue. And most of it is either fabricated or out dated. The recent controversy over Morning After Pills as causing abortions fits nicely in both camps.

I just continued right on into reading your signature after your post OG, very apt.

Yonder wrote:

I completely expect the Church to cut and run, chilling out in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Plenty of tithe money there.

Unfortunately, the Catholic Church really can't just sit back and relax because evangelical Christianity has exploded in those regions and its growth has largely come at the expense of the Church.

In Latin and South America, evangelicals went from a being virtually unheard of in the 70s to hundreds of millions of worshipers today. Mexico has gone from having virtually all its population identify as Catholic in 1970 to barely 80% today. Evangelicals are on track to be half of Brazil's population by the end of the decade.

And the story of rapid growth and expansion of evangelical Christianity--mostly at the expense of Catholicism--is the same in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The stodgy, tradition-bound Church is getting its ass kicked in the marketplace of ideas. The more it turns to the past, the more it resists change, the quicker it will cut its own throat. And all of this is happening alongside the seething story of rampant sexual abuse and unforgivable cover-ups that the Church somehow thinks will simply go away if they ignore it.

The next pope is either going to have to drag the Church kicking and screaming into the 21st century or get busy rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Unfortunately for whoever the next pope will be, implementing change in an organization with a 2,000 year old bureaucracy is going to be exceptionally difficult.

dejanzie wrote:

Sex abuse survivors pick their favorites.

Something seriously wrong happened when I read that sentence.

LouZiffer wrote:
dejanzie wrote:

Sex abuse survivors pick their favorites.

Something seriously wrong happened when I read that sentence.

As Archer would say, "phrasing!".

OG_slinger wrote:

Unfortunately, the Catholic Church really can't just sit back and relax because evangelical Christianity has exploded in those regions and its growth has largely come at the expense of the Church.

In Latin and South America, evangelicals went from a being virtually unheard of in the 70s to hundreds of millions of worshipers today. Mexico has gone from having virtually all its population identify as Catholic in 1970 to barely 80% today. Evangelicals are on track to be half of Brazil's population by the end of the decade.

And the story of rapid growth and expansion of evangelical Christianity--mostly at the expense of Catholicism--is the same in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The stodgy, tradition-bound Church is getting its ass kicked in the marketplace of ideas. The more it turns to the past, the more it resists change, the quicker it will cut its own throat. And all of this is happening alongside the seething story of rampant sexual abuse and unforgivable cover-ups that the Church somehow thinks will simply go away if they ignore it.

The next pope is either going to have to drag the Church kicking and screaming into the 21st century or get busy rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Unfortunately for whoever the next pope will be, implementing change in an organization with a 2,000 year old bureaucracy is going to be exceptionally difficult.

So, you're saying that history is repeating itself in those locales and the Catholic church is suffering from another Protestant Reformation?

Seriously, though, evangelical Christianity and Roman Catholicism hold a lot of the same core beliefs with regards to charged topics like abortion and homosexuality, so I'm not sure that changing Catholic doctrines in those areas is likely to appeal to people who have embraced evangelical Christianity. That tactic would appeal to people in first-world countries, but that's probably a bad audience for them to target given how many people in those countries are moving away from organized religion.

And changing doctrines isn't just a matter of snapping one's fingers when the Church holds that the Bible is the infallible word of God. Teachings on things like contraception may be entirely within the church's purview to change, but I don't see how the Church can distance itself from teachings in the Bible without losing credibility.

DSGamer wrote:
LouZiffer wrote:
dejanzie wrote:

Sex abuse survivors pick their favorites.

Something seriously wrong happened when I read that sentence.

As Archer would say, "phrasing!".

English is not my first language, and I'm not sure where I screwed up.

Should it read "Survivors of sex abuse pick their favorite candidates"?

Survivors of sex abuse pick their favorite papal candidates.

ANSA wrote:

Rome, March 7 - A group representing American survivors of sexual abuse by priests on Thursday named three cardinals they said were 'promising' candidates for pope because of their record on child sex-abuse claims.

The three lauded by the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) were Cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines and Christoph Schoenborn of Austria, and Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin.

[...]

The Vatican replied that it would not be swayed by the list.

dejanzie wrote:
DSGamer wrote:
LouZiffer wrote:
dejanzie wrote:

Sex abuse survivors pick their favorites.

Something seriously wrong happened when I read that sentence.

As Archer would say, "phrasing!".

English is not my first language, and I'm not sure where I screwed up.

Should it read "Survivors of sex abuse pick their favorite candidates"?

The sentence was fine. It can just be read a couple of different ways. It's not your fault. It's kind of the fault of the English language. But yes, adding the word "candidates" in there clarifies that they're picking their favorite candidates for Pope and not their favorite sexual predators.

DSGamer wrote:
dejanzie wrote:
DSGamer wrote:
LouZiffer wrote:
dejanzie wrote:

Sex abuse survivors pick their favorites.

Something seriously wrong happened when I read that sentence.

As Archer would say, "phrasing!".

English is not my first language, and I'm not sure where I screwed up.

Should it read "Survivors of sex abuse pick their favorite candidates"?

The sentence was fine. It can just be read a couple of different ways. It's not your fault. It's kind of the fault of the English language. But yes, adding the word "candidates" in there clarifies that they're picking their favorite candidates for Pope and not their favorite sexual predators.

Check, thanks for the feedback.