The departure of Pope Benedict XVI, aka God’s rottweiler in red pumps, has been greeted with rejoicing. And with good reason: besides stoking the Vatican’s homophobic hellfires, Benedict presided over the moral meltdown of the Church in the face of its wholly inadequate (some might say intrinsically evil) response to the pedophile priests scandal.
So anyone else is bound to be an improvement, right?
Think again.
The Vatican is a lot more like a club than a corporation. In a corporation, when things go wrong, the CEO leaves and the new CEO comes in with a different or better management style to shake things up. But in the Catholic Church, all of the new papal wannabes owe their privileged status to the guy on the way out (and to John Paul II, his predecessor).
How about we take this to the next level?
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The cardinals got to be cardinals because they think like Benedict and follow the strict conservative line he’s been laying out for the Church ever since he became head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the Church’s doctrinal purity league) in 1981. In short, the cardinals are wholeheartedly behind Benedict’s philosophy.
They may think he wasn’t a great leader or administrator, something even his most ardent admirers admit. But they don’t think he was a failure. If they did, they’d have to admit they were failures, too.
So now the club elects a new president from within its own ranks. And, as any high-schooler can tell you, if you don’t fit in you’re not going to be the club president. In fact, you’re probably not in the club at all, because the members won’t let you in.
The sad thing is that for a brief moment in the 1960s and 1970s, the Catholic Church had a chance to embrace modernity and understand that applying its doctrines to a changing world didn’t degrade the faith. That’s what Pope John XXIII hoped when he opened the window of Vatican II to let some fresh air in. Unfortunately, the conservatives thought it was too drafty and quickly slammed the window shut. What we’re left with now is a Catholic Church hierarchy that is resistant to understanding the world in which we live and that fiercely denies anything that might challenge its ossified policies. In essence, the Republican party in church vestments—and with the same demographic problem.
Of course, individual clergy keep proving Catholicism can still spring from a real generosity of spirit. Unfortunately, those folks aren’t running the show. So when the white smoke goes up from the Vatican chimney, it will signal more than just the election of a new pope.
It will signal the burnt hopes of a lot of Catholics for a fresh start.
Photo: Sergey Gabdurakhmanov
2eo
It is not just intrinsically evil approach to paedophilia it is complete and active collusion at every single level of the organisation.
The catholic church has embarked on a massive campaign of physical attacks, phone calls and intimidation against families who have been abused by the THOUSANDS of paedophile catholics in every city, in every country of the world they are at it, and they still are now in 2013.
The fact catholic apologists refuse to acknowledge the enormous problem of kid fucking shows just how much they are worth to society, inferior intellectually and morally.
Chad Hunt
While it is true, most, if not all of these Cardinals and Bishops (basically same office) were appointed by JP2 or Benedict16 that does not mean they are not smart enough to try and cajole a man outside of their “club” into the office for a semblance of change. Let’s not forget, any Catholic who has reached the age of reason, and is not a heretic can become Pope. So if you look at it that way, being born, raised, baptized, and having taken my first communion, I could become Pope.
I think we should all take the time and right to the Vatican in expressing our interest in nominating me for POPE.
Chad Hunt
@Chad Hunt: right = write
Joetx
One of the best articles to ever come out of Queerty.
Nothing’s gonna change in the Catholic Church. There will be more regression, & more people will leave.
– Joetx, a cradle Catholic totally sick of the church he grew up in.
Harley
Wonder what was so horrendous that Ratzi the Nazi had to step down and cloister himself in a convent?