To say that Pope Benedict XVI’s first official state visit to his homeland Germany has not gone well is a bit like saying that the Vatican is a bit behind the times. Both statements are true, but what matters is the order of magnitude. (For the record, the Vatican is multiple centuries behind the times.) What should have been a triumphant return as Germany’s first pontiff in nearly 500 years has turned into a series of protests, awkward moments and political scuffles. The pope ranks low in the opinion of most Germans, and the response to his visit underscores just how low.Thousands turned out on Thursday for a protest march organized by the Lesbian and Gay Association of Brandenburg-Berlin.Jörg Steinert, manager of the LSVD, told a German newspaper that the 9,000 people representing the 68 organizations who participated in the protest “are demonstrating against the discrimination and persecution of homosexuals, against the unfair treatment of women, against the condom policy and other kinds of degradation due to the pope.”
Which just about sums up all of Church policy.
The awkward moments included the Pope meeting with Klaus Wowereit, who was just elected to his third term as Berlin’s mayor and who is openly gay. Wowereit, who may have aspirations to become the nation’s chancellor, expressed understanding of the protesters. Benedict also meet with German President Christian Wulff, a practicing Catholic who is divorced and remarried, a sin the Church considers only slightly less heinous than being gay.
The political scuffles surrounded the Pope’s address to the German parliament. Dozens of politicians boycotted the address to protest…well, see above. The Pope still has three more days to go before he returns to the relatively safe confines of the Vatican.
He probably already knows now that you can’t go home again.
Photo via Catholic Westminster
Shannon1981
Considering that this is the man who wrote a letter while he was as Bill Maher so eloquently puts it, John Paul’s Dick Cheney, telling people to keep quiet about the molestation in the church until the statute of limitations ran out, whatever animosity he gets from his homeland or anywhere else is more than well deserved. The Catholic Church is nothing but an abominable institution of corruption, oppression, homophobia, misogyny…need I go on? It should be legally dismantled, and the Pope and his crones brought up on all kinds of charges of child abuse and crimes against humanity. May he and the others rot in a hell of their own making.
pedro
As a Catholic, let me just say that I never wanted this man as Pope….I don’t have a great amount of respect for him. It was definitely a downgrade from John Paul.
the crustybastard
The Holy See — in its current incarnation — was established by Italy’s fascists.
Which explains a lot.
christopher di spirito
Pope RatNAZI is a horrible figure.
From his early days as a member of ‘Hitler’s Youth,” to his annual edicts eviscerating LGBT rights, to his role in covering up priest rapists, this is a man with no soul. He has dead eyes and he seems strangely out of touch with the world around him. Like a throwback to the 15th century.
mike128
I’m glad that politicians in Germany have the guts to stand against this religious “leader”. Politicians in the United States would never say anything that might offend or question a religious authority – no matter how hateful or negative the impact of that person’s actions – and that’s part of our problem here.
comus
Germany consistently proves it is one of the most socially advanced countries in the world, far more so than the U.S.
Jim Hlavac
Never trust a man who wears the same dress everyday.
Of course, the Germans were protesting the pope as far back as 1517; for the creep of that day was creepy too. Now, we Czechs; we told the pope of the day to take a hike in 1415 — and haven’t like a pope since; this one ain’t no different. Interestingly too, in the 1490s Pope Alexander VI, Mr. Borgia of murderous fame, had to constantly tell the bishops, priests and monks — “leave those boys alone.”
The man should give away the churches billions to the hospitals the church runs rather well, and go into the shoe business.
BigWoody
Love the professionalism and correctness of John Gallagher’s posts. Much better that the snarky, typo and grammar ridden ignorant blather posted by the Perez Hilton wannabe Daniel Villarreal. Daniel does sometimes have good posts but others want to make me bitch slap the vapidness out of him.
ewe
EVIL!
Queer Supremacist
This is not the Germany he knew and loved; that ceased to exist in 1945.
Kill the breeder kraut bastard and nuke the Vatican. Hell, the way they terrorize little boys alone should be enough of a casus belli. At least Iran is more honest about its intentions.
Patrick OMalley
Pope Benedict runs the world’s largest pedophile protection program. Thousands of priests raped tens of thousands of children, and Catholic bishops all hid it, consistently, world-wide. Now the ICC is suing them, as they should, for international crimes against children. Benedict was in charge of the cover-up since the 1980s, when he handled that specific duty for John Paul II.
He should be imprisoned for the rest of his life. Imagine if he were CEO of a Chucky Cheese Restaurant, and employees were raping thousands of children worldwide, and the management knew about it. Management hid it, and that knowledge went all the way up to the CEO, and he concealed the truth about it and moved those pedophiles around to rape others.
Customers would boycott Chucky Cheese and have every manager thrown in jail.
We can’t expect the Catholic church to rise to the standards of Chucky Cheese, but they should at least have to follow the basic laws of humanity and the laws of the land.
Catholic protect Pope Benedict because they think he promises them a free ticket to heaven. Think God approves of someone who concealed 100,000+ child rapes in His church?
doug105
@queer Suupremacist
atleast raid the vaults before you send them on to hell or nothingness, you could likely feed half the planet
UWSguy
Pope Rat will burn in hell
Kev C
Pope Ratzo is the best thing to happen to the catholic church in modern times. More people have left catholicism now than ever before. Pope John Paul was an idiot, a total numbskull. Which is why he was loved and adored by stupid people. But Pope Benedict is hated .. and that’s a good thing.
Chad
@Patrick OMalley: He shouldn’t go to jail. He should be dragged into St. Peters Square and beheaded, for his (the church’s) crimes against children and humanity.
Try to see clearly
Perhaps the two most premier newspapers in the U.S. and Germany are the New York Times and Der Spiegel, respectively. Yesterday, the first day of Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to Germany, the Times’ story focused on the pope’s protesters, mentioning such issues as celibacy, sexual abuse, gay rights, divorce, and the role of women. In the 1144-word story, there was one sentence on the message the pope hoped to deliver. By contrast, Der Spiegel’s headline read, “Financial Crisis, Religion and a Bit of Protest.” Most of the story was on the pope’s message.
In today’s Times, the first three paragraphs are mostly devoted to the protesters, and five of the first six paragraphs reflect negatively on the Church. Of the 20 paragraphs in the news story, four mention the pope’s message. Der Spiegel has two news stories today, and the way they begin is striking. One says of the pope, “His bluntness has surprised many—and could transform the visit into a rousing success.” The other says, “The pope’s highly anticipated speech in Germany’s parliament Thursday was met with a standing ovation by politicians….” The standing ovation was not mentioned by the Times, but twice it said “dozens” of members of Parliament boycotted the speech.
None of this is by chance. The Times entertains the most radical views on abortion, feminism and gay rights of any major newspaper in the nation. Moreover, its secularist orientation is pronounced.
Der Spiegel did not give the pope a pass (nor should it), but it nonetheless treated him fairly. The New York Times, by contrast, focused more on the pope’s critics, as well as those Church teachings its critics loathe. Are they blind to their bias?
Steve
While Pope Benedict was a Cardinal, Cardinal Ratzinger (his name at the time) wrote a letter to the Archbiships and Bishops, ordering them to keep quiet about the molestation of children by the church until the statute of limitations ran out. That is the classical definition of “obstruction of justice”. The man is a “criminal”, and fully deserves to be in prison for the rest of his life.
It is very odd. When an ordinary man molests one child, he is sent to prison for a very long time. When a powerful man molests hundreds or thousands of children, nothing happens.
Mike in Asheville
Certainly this Pope is a vile, amoral, sack of shit.
A better question, though, is he the most hated pope in God’s eyes? Probably not; there are popes whose villainy greatly surpasses this ex-Nazi: the popes who presided, century after century, over the murder, rape, pillaging and enslaving of millions of non-believers, Jews, and new-worlders. This frightful cult is no less evil and vile as orthodox Islam.
A God that creates a universe from a single spark of energy into several hundred billion galaxies each with several hundred billion stars, is hardly going to be fooled by the cultish mumble jumble words of man for the forgiveness of these awful sins. I, for one, do not wish ANY mercy on their souls — my hope is that each of these vile popes (and all other so-called men-of-God) account, pain for pain, each and every moment of pain their sins caused their victims and the victim’s loved ones. There isn’t a pope yet to crawl out of even the first deepest level of purgatory and will endure eon after eon before getting even a glance at the Pearly Gates.
Lefty
@Try to see clearly: Criticising someone for heinous crimes is hardly bias – worry about the scant fairness shown to the victims of the crimes this Pope tried his best to cover up.
I rather think it’s you who is not seeing clearly here.
“The Times entertains the most radical views on abortion, feminism and gay rights of any major newspaper in the nation. Moreover, its secularist orientation is pronounced.”
No!? Shocking!
Little Kiwi
oh, please. The Pope believes that Ann Frank is burning in Hell for all eternity next to Gandhi.
Therefore he’s a fucking asshole who should be ignored.
Michael
The Pope is evil incarnate once again this is no big shocker. Goddamn he looks like Freddy Kruegers inbred brother also.AHH!
Robert in NYC
Catholicism should be banned, in fact, all cults that oppress humanity of which it knows NOTHING!
Robert in NYC
Catholicism should be banned, in fact, all cults that oppress humanity of which they knows NOTHING!
Robert in NYC
Catholicism should be banned, in fact, all cults that oppress humanity of which they know NOTHING!
Timothy
@Shannon1981: Hi , I am a practicing catholic and gay , I know it is a sin and will eventually have to chose between spiritual well being and being true to myself , if ever it will be insanely hard to cone to terms with but currently I would like to ask of any if you who opose the catholic church for resons that. You don’t understand fully , do Not criticize honestly I would ask you if you say there is no god then let me pose a question . If I cut your heart do I find your love or if I cut your brain will I see your interlect . NO , if it is not seen that does not mean that it is not there.
MikeE
@Timothy: I want to encourage you to NOT feel that you are committing a sin. I can assure you that the Bible has absolutely no words that say this. Only man’s sad and dishonest misinterpretation of the Bible says so.
The Roman catholic hierarchy ash been lying to its members for hundreds of years. No mention homosexuality is present in any of the original texts of the Bible. But for their own evil ends, the church hierarchy allowed passages that refer to rape and ritual sexual behaviour (pagan ritual sexual practices… which have nothing to do with actual homosexuality) to be MIStranslated from Aramaic and Greek into various languages as “homosexuality”.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
While the church hierarchy chooses to allow some of the most blatantly savage and uncivilized passages from the Books to be relegated to the “these were primitive people, we have to understand the context of the era” interpretation, they lie to you and continue to MISinterpret ALL the passages that they say refer to homosexuality completely out of context, without taking ANY of the historical context into account, and ALSO, allowing completely DISHONEST and FALSE translations to continue to be printed in Bibles.
There is not ONE SINGLE MENTION of homosexuality ANYWHERE in the Bible.
The Pope is a liar, and in the final analysis WILL be found to also be a war criminal.
The Pope eats pork.
The Pope wears clothes of mixed fabric.
The Pope cuts his hair.
The Pope says nothing about farmers who grow two types of crop in close proximity.
All of the above are “ABOMINATIONS”, in the same chapter as “thou shalt not lie with a man as though wouldst with a woman, for it is an abomination”.
If the former are no longer abominations, then why is the latter?
Because the Pope is a liar.
Because the Church hierarchy has been lying to all Catholics for hundreds of years.
By the way, think about it: When you “lie with a man”, are you doing it as you would with a woman? I certainly am not. I am lying with a man as only two men can lay together. I would not lie with a woman at all. Because God made me this way, it is good.
You are NOT a sinner, of this I can assure you.
God would not make you the way you are, only to toss you away through no fault of yours.
hf2hvit
“CAN I PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE BE PART OF A CLUB THAT HATES ME AND WANTS ME DEAD?!?!?”
Works for idiots that want o be part of all this as well as the idiots from GOProud…
Michael
@Timothy:
You are not a sinner my dear. You are a human being who sadly thinks what you are is a sinner.Sinner is a ridiculous word that has been used for centuries in this world.It does not mean anything .Do not listen to those who condemn you for what you are listen to those who love and accept you for what you are as a human being.Many huggles with love.
.
Pope Benedict XVI was greeted by tens of thousands in the southwestern city of Freiburg on the third day of his German trip. The pontiff reiterated his support for traditional values and spoke out against gay marriage.
The pope remained unshaken by a minor security scare in Erfurt on Saturday as he addressed welcoming crowds in the city of Freiburg, in Germany’s Catholic heartland.
More than 25,000 people took to the streets to welcome the pontiff back to his native country. As he stood before the southwestern German city’s 800-year-old Cathedral, Pope Benedict VXI spoke of his “great joy” and the “wonderful meetings that took place in Berlin and Erfurt.”
Although some 9,000 people turned out in Berlin to denounce the Vatican’s views on issues such as homosexuality and contraception, the pope’s Freiburg visit remained free of conflict.
Mike in Asheville
@Timothy: What we cannot see does not mean it does not exist.
My challenge to you, as you yourself present your challenge to understand the dichotomy between being gay and Catholic, is to challenge the the dichotomy of understanding of Creation and evolution.
In your understanding of Creation, God is the Creator. Fine by me, I believe this is true. Thus, as the Creator, God, not Charles Darwin, created evolution. Charles Darwin used his God given brain to understand, observe, and teach us all about the miraculous of miracles, evolution. Creation tells us that, out of nothingness and void, there was light. Evolutionary astronomy tells us the exact same thing: Big Bang and Cosmic Inflation. From nothingness and void, a first spark, so small that even today we do not comprehend just how small, but by logic, it must be smaller than the smallest subatomic particle yet discovered. And in a millionth of a billionth of a second, that particle expanded to a size that would have engulf our solar system, expanding at millions of time faster than the speed of light. Talk about a first miracle.
As cosmic and biological evolution continued over billions of years, the begins life on a planet we call Earth. God created a universe that is beyond human comprehension of its size. We can hardly imagine that in our galaxy there are hundreds of billions of solar systems. Try to imagine how much energy it takes for us to see a star whose 1 beam of light from an orb we can see that take 20, 100, 500 years to travel to us? That is what God did.
And on the micro level, the opportunity that carbon can become animate, can combine to become cells, that can combine to become parts and subpart, that can become systems, that can combine to become organs, that can combine to become organisms, that can become life: trees and flowers, animals and humans. That is some miracle; that is what God has done.
Man, though, has created religion that wants us to believe that God is akin to a sorcerer judging right from wrong, inflicting vengeance and rewarding obedience. It is funny to me that there are so many who think that their book of God is Holy: the scores of versions of the Bible, the Torah, the Quran. A God who creates a universe sits down and types out his history and beliefs? Really?
The universe leads by example: stars become star dust; life grows from death, etc. The laws of physics are laws that explain how things work. When Einstein observed that energy and mass are related by a ration of the speed of light times the speed of light, he did not create Relativity, he observed the way God’s universe works on the atomic and greater scale. That is what God did; what man did is to invent atomic/nuclear bombs, radiation therapy, laser weapons and laser medical tools.
God’s rules apply to how nature works; man’s rules, through the self-proclaimed authority of God, apply to the vision of man seen by the authority who controls.
Men who want to control the lives of their followers so they can continue to enjoy power have written the so-called holy words of God.
Your choice is whether to believe what you see God has created all around you: billions of humans, each one unique, some born blind and some with perfect vision their whole life, some born deaf and others with perfect pitch, most right-handed and some left-handed while a few with both, some very tall to some very short, some with mental retardation to a few geniuses, and on and on. You accept all of that, yet you are hung-up on the idea that everyone must be or live as heterosexual? When, in fact, while most are, many of us, though a minority, are gay, some bi, some trans, and a few asexual. We exist because the universe allows us to exist. It is only man and man-made rules that say otherwise.
No loving God who undertakes the direct involvement in the affairs of man would permit pious men-of-God to abuse and rape children, century after century, would permit ovens/gas chambers, to exterminate, match one group of God in war against another group of God. Those are the actions of man.
If you want to celebrate what God has given you, celebrate your life and live it to the fullest. Embrace what God has given you — a life to live, no more and no less.
**************
Did you know that, at the moment of Big Bang, all the energy of the universe there at that first moment of time is the exact amount of energy that exists in the universe today?
I believe in a different from the Bible afterlife. The energy of my soul is energy taken from the universe that never diminishes. And the same for all. Forever and ever, that energy will be accounting for my failures to be a better person before my store of energy become a direct part of the whole. The tears and pain, those that hurt a child for an entire lifetime, must be accounted by the priest who rapes and abuses. A few man-made words will not magically dissolve those wrongs. A loving God will want those who caused pain to understand that before embracing them. Do you really think that priests and bishops believe in God? I hardly believe so — if they did, they would not abuse nor enable others to abuse. The bishops, not all but very many, cannot possibly embrace God and act as they have. Can they?
If they cannot reconcile their conduct to their stated beliefs, question the legitimacy of the beliefs. Believe God mad you in his image just as you are, love yourself, and spread love to others. Or, be another minion, violating the very nature of a loving God.
I hope you choose living life as God made you — yes lots of trials and tribulations, and lots of true love too.
the crustybastard
@.:
Yes, you’ve mentioned you’re a Catholic; thus, a congregant of an antigay hate church. What do you hope to accomplish by visiting a gay blog to advocate on behalf of a church that loathes and unjustly vilifies us? Seriously, what is your purpose?
If you’re posting to express surprise that some angry gay person hasn’t yet murdered the pope, you haven’t quite caught on to the fact that gay people are surpassingly patient and nonviolent. We only wish Catholics could be the same.
Finally, quoting a news article without attribution is plagiarism; a combination of stealing and lying.
Michael
@Timothy:
I wanted to give you some friendly advice.There are places that are far more accepting and compassionate towards people who are gay then the Catholic church.For instance the Unitarian Universalist Church just to name one.Im having trouble remembering the other ones at the moment im afraid.
Little Kiwi
as i like to say “The United Church of Canada – Not Fucking Your Children, Since 1925”