hobbit-humanist
Humanism, atheism, some politics and lots of common sense.
Archive for the category “Pope”
More Of The Same
Same story, different day. That’s how I feel about the election of the new pope. Argentina’s Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio is now Pope Francis I. What a pope from outside of Italy? Not really, he’s a second generation Italian immigrant, talk about keep it in the family!
What we will get is more of the same prejudice and ignorance by a geriatric that is out of touch. How on earth people can wait outside the Vatican for the news is beyond me, and frankly I feel, quite sad.
When I saw footage from inside the Vatican yesterday and saw all the opulence or… maybe even decadence I thought … if Jesus ever existed is this what he would have wanted or been about?
The Catholic church and everything it stands for sickens me to the core.
Fawning
So Pope Benedict the XVI is gone and will hopefully soon be forgotten. I watched the tv earlier and saw cardinals lined up before him before prostrating themselves and kneeling at his feet, kissing his hands and fawning. Like a long line of scared corrupt generals before a dictator, it was pathetic to watch.
The fact that billions of Catholics look to a frail withered old man for guidance is quite frankly beyond comprehension. It’s been a papacy mired in scandal yet Catholics still revere him, his narrow minded views and his idiotic stances. What’s coming? Well pretty much more of the same I guess because religion refuses to move forward… well apart from the Pope getting a Twitter account.
Yep, Popes don’t do progress well really, as I sat reading today I stumbled across two great examples;
Pope Gregory I (The Great) (540-604 AD)
This guy made his name for getting the patrician of Constantinople burnt at the stake because he claimed the resurrection of the dead would be incorporeal, nice fella then. Anyway this is what he had to say;
“The bliss of the elect in heaven would not be perfect unless they were able to look across the abyss and enjoy the agonies of their brethren in eternal fire.”
If you think that is bad then check out this bad boy,
Pope Gregory VI (d. 1048 AD)
Yep, a few popes later and this guy purchased the papacy from his godson, pope Benedict IX because he wanted to abdicate and marry. Here’s what this one had to say;
“From the polluted fountain of that absurd and erroneous doctrine, or rather raving, which claims and defends liberty conscience for everyone … come, in a word, the worst plague of all – liberty of opinions and free speech.”
Religion and progess? Not a chance.
Hypocrite
Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the biggest head honcho in the catholic church in the UK is resigning amid claims of inappropriate behaviour. Yesterday I read he was going to take legal action over the claims yet today he’s resigning. Ironically this is the same Cardinal O’Brien that has spoken out in the past about same sex marriages.
I’m sure it will be hard to prove or disprove the allegations and they were committed some years ago however I suspect there must be something in them as they would have never surfaced and are by multiple people. This means our most prominent catholic won’t be able to cast a vote for the new pope, oh that’s a real shame.
As well as the above there’s all sorts of rumours surrounding the resignation of the pope such a this report here.
Seemingly everything that happens regarding the catholic church recently is mired in scandal and controversy. Would any rational person want to put their trust the men that run it?
Oh Those Pesky Popes!
If you thought the current Pope Benedict XVI who resigned on the 11th of this month was a bit questionable on some things then lets take a trip through history and have a look at some previous ones.
Pope Stephen VI (896-897).
Something of a nasty piece of work. He exhumed the previous Pope Formusus and put his rotting corpse on trial in January of 897. The corpse was propped up on a throne and a deacon had to answer for him. His crimes? Performing the duties of a bishop when he wasn’t one, among other chargers. After being found guilty the cadaver of Formusus was stripped of all sacred vestments and buried in a grave garbed as a layman with three fingers of the right hand (the so called blessing fingers) being cut off. That wasn’t enough though, the body was dug up again and thrown into the river Tiber. The events caused concern within the ruling powers of the day and Stephen was imprisoned and strangled.
Pope Sergius III (897-911)
Sergius was only pope known to have ordered the murder of another pope and the only pope known to have fathered an illegitimate son who later became pope; his pontificate has been described as “dismal and disgraceful”. The pontificate of Sergius III was remarkable for the rise of what papal historians call a “pornocracy,” or rule of the harlots, a reversal of the natural order as they saw it. A mistress of his gave birth to the later Pope John XI.
Pope John XII (955-964)
If you thought Benedict IX was having all the fun you’d be wrong, enter John XII. On 963, Holy Roman Emperor Otto I summoned a council, levelling charges that John had ordained a deacon in a stable, consecrated a 10-year-old boy as bishop of Todi, converted the Lateran Palace into a brothel (that place again!), raped female pilgrims in St. Peter’s, stolen church offerings, drank toasts to the devil, and invoked the aid of Jove, Venus, and other pagan gods when playing dice. He was deposed, but returned as pope when Otto left Rome, maiming and mutilating all who had opposed him. On 964, he was apparently beaten by the husband of a woman with which he was having an affair, dying three days later without receiving confession or the sacraments.
Pope Boniface (974, 984-5)
Known as an anti-pope, he’s alleged to have put pope Benedict the VI to death. He evidently wasn’t popular and when things went wrong and there were uprisings against him he fled with vast amounts of treasure to Constantinople but came back later to depose pope John XIV. Boniface is said to have died under suspicious circumstances, no kidding?!
Pope John XV (985-996)
The Pope’s venality and nepotism had made him very unpopular with the citizens, as he split the church’s finances among his relatives and was described as “covetous of filthy lucre and corrupt in all his acts”.
Pope Benedict the IX (1032-1044 then again in 1045, then again in 1047-48)
There’s no doubting Benedict IX was a bit of a character and one of my personal favourites. the only man to have served as Pope for three discontinuous periods, and one of the most controversial Popes of all time. Benedict gave up his papacy for the first time in exchange for a large sum of money in 1044. He returned in 1045 to depose his replacement and reigned for one month. after which he left again, possibly to marry, and sold the papacy for a second time, to his Godfather (possibly for over 650 kg /1450 lb of gold). Two years later, Benedict retook Rome and reigned for an additional one year, until 1048. Poppo of Brixen (later to become Pope Damascus II) eventually forced him out of Rome. Benedict’s place and date of death are unknown. It’s said he knew very little theological stuff but didn’t care because he was well connected. He’s often quoted as being the first homosexual pope and had orgies in the Lateran palace. The Catholic Encyclopaedia calls him “a disgrace to the Chair of Peter”, I call him a party animal. There’s so much more I could say on this one but I suspect you get the idea!
Pope Innocent IV (1243-1254)
Innocent by name but don’t be fooled. Mr Inquisition himself ordered the papal bull ‘Ad Extirpanda’ which basically authorised torture to get so called heretics to confess. One of the most famous people being tortured by inquisitors was of course Galileo or said that the earth revolved around the sun (and was right of course). He also issued papal bulls against the Mongol’s and asked them to stop killing christians (though it was alright for christians to kill fellow christians and none christians), they weren’t impressed and sent a letter back telling him to shove it where the sun don’t shine.
Pope Urban XI (1378-1389)
He was the first Pope of the Western Schism (which ultimately lead to three people claiming the Papal throne at the same time). I guess everyone wanted in on the orgies, torture and murder then? Launched a program of violence against those he thought to have been conspiring against him, imprisoning people at will and mistreating them brutally. Later historians have considered seriously that he might have been insane. He is said to have complained he did not hear enough screaming when cardinals were being tortured.
Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503)
He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized surname Borgia became a byword for libertinism and nepotism. Pope Alexander’s claims to fame were taking over much of Italy by force with the help of his son Cesare (yes, his son), a racy relationship with his daughter Lucrezia (some say her son was his), and his affinity for throwing large parties, bordering on orgies, that usually culminated with little naked boys jumping out of large cakes.
Pope Leo X (1513 to 1521)
Known mainly for the sale of indulgences (an alleged guaranteed ticket to heaven etc) which the profits were used to rebuild St Peters basilica and to challenge the upstart Martin Luther, evidently you needed cash to thwart rivals back then, having god in your corner wasn’t enough. His decadence pissed people off and an assassination attempt was tried but failed. Leo was no idiot and had the conspirators poisoned.
Pope Paul IV (1555-59?)
Pronounced the Jews condemned to slavery by god, created the ghetto of Rome and is quoted as saying “If my own father were a heretic I would personally gather the wood to burn him.”
Pope Pius XI (1922-1939)
Personally blessed Italian planes that went to bomb Ethiopian villages during the 1935 war of imperial conquest. Is quoted to have said “Mussolini is a wonderful man. Do you hear me, a wonderful man!”. Oh dear.
Pope Pius XII (1939-1948)
A professional fence sitter during world war two. Roman Catholics in Poland felt betrayed by him when Germany invaded and he didn’t condemn the deaths of around 1,800,000–1,900,000 Poles. Followed a policy of neutrality though he had many dodgy friendships with German hierarchy and people like Ante Pavelić. Ignored reports of the holocaust. Enough said. I wrote a blog on Pius XI & XII in more detail here).
And of course we have the outgoing one …. number 265th
Pope Benedict XVI (2005 – gone very soon)
Where do I start? Didn’t like cohabiting which he thought was “gravely sinful” and undermined society (March 2012). Didn’t like condoms “[AIDS is] a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems.”(March 2009). Didn’t like gay or lesbian people “Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered to an intrinsic moral evil, and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.” (1986). And of gay marriage “[It's] an offence against the truth of the human person, with serious harm to justice and peace.” (December 2012). If you happily married heterosexual couples think you got off lightly then think again, couples that opt for any birth control method outside of Rick Santorum’s questionable “Rhythm Method” (which successfully created eight children) are “negating the intimate truth of conjugal love.” (October 2008).
And sexual abuse revelations and countless claims within the catholic church? Let’s not even go there because my fingers would fall off with the typing needed!
Joke
I can’t blame the Pope for retiring … I’d quit too if my boss never showed up!
Retiring
So the Pope Benedict XVI is retiring and the media go into a frenzy about it. Yep he’s pulling out early, like a true catholic if you’ll pardon the pun!
I could say I hope the next pope is more in touch with today’s issues and concerns but my guess is he won’t be but then I don’t really give a damn about the catholic church. He won’t be remembered well in history, negative views against women priests and homosexuals haven’t done him any favours.
Part of me wants to have a rant but it’s late, I’m tired and in this case one ignorant religious man will replace another, it’s a given really.
Papal Particularization
The Pope and the Vatican seem to be dominating the news of late. A couple of days ago we had the Pope denouncing unregulated capitalism in a new years address he gave. I did try to find out how much wealth the Vatican has but there doesn’t seem to be any clear figures from articles, books and videos but the general opinion estimates it as being vast even if the extent is unknown. Historically you have to take into account Popes have been in business for a long time, though not too powerful initially the power gradually increases through the ages in line with the spread of Christianity. There’s countless stories of Vatican gold stored in various banks, treasures, historical works of art, and property including many buildings, hotels, tv stations, factories and so on. I could go on to mention stories on money laundering and deals but you get the point! The truth is the Vatican has thrived under capitalism and accumulated wealth through the ages.
The next story to catch my eye today was on RT news which ran a story on the Vatican introducing chipped swipe cards for employees. Is it because of the recent Vatileaks scandal and to ensure no more embarrassing information gets revealed, scrutinize employees more or beef up security? Your guess is as good as mine but I’ll go with all of the above. You’d think the Pope would know if someone was up to no good in the Vatican though because he has a direct line to God but ironically the Vatican is resorting to technology. The church is master of contradiction though and denounces technology when appropriate, for instance it wouldn’t approve of this blog but it would like technology that could remove this blog.
Whilst the Catholic church historically had periods of time where it literally ruled the roost and could send armies off to kill and colonise in the name of Jesus it often finds itself in situations where other powers arise. If that happens of course then it results to …. you guessed it – deals!
When Mussolini seized power in Italy the Vatican was quick to move towards a deal with him. The Lateran pact in 1929. The terms of the deal included that Catholicism became the only recognised state religion with monopoly powers over things such as birth, marriage, education and death (pretty much all the main stuff then). In return though the Catholic church would urge its followers to support Mussolini’s party and herald him as “The man sent by providence” as Pope Pius XI put it. All in all a very hand in glove relationship you might say.
The Catholic church either remained silent on Mussolini or fully supported him either way it got involved with many fascist regimes of the time including Spain, Portugal and Croatia. Pope Pius XI blessed Italian war planes off to bomb Ethiopia. In return Mussolini justified actions such as using poison gas by quoting Monophysitism and Pope Leo as some in the old Eastern Christian Empire (mainly Egypt, North Africa and Syria at the time) had rejected the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D and deserved punishing. whilst Mussolini was trying to recreate the Roman empire by attacking poorly armed Albanian patriots or Abyssinian tribesmen and often losing a much greater power was forming in the north.
When the German national socialists arose under Hitler alarm bells were ringing in the Vatican. Nazism was a sort of quasi-pagan phenomenon infused with Aryan races myths and glorification of old Germanic heroes and Nordic myths et al. One common interest though was Jew hatred and whilst the Catholic church was supporting ethnic cleansing in areas like Albania who didn’t have the ‘right sort of Christians’ Like the Nazi’s it didn’t like Jews either. Not all pulpits supported what was going on though and I guess there was some concern over the long lasting damage that may be caused by supporting such regimes. That said the Catholic Church has spent a lot of time post war trying to explain its passive stance during all the carnage and mass killing.
Back to Hitler and the Vatican. At the time of Hitler’s rise to power there were some 23 million Catholics in Germany, many of course not supporting what was going on, so it made sense to appease this part of the population. The very first accord undertaken by Hitler’s new government on July 8th 1933 was to sign a treaty with the Vatican. This treaty gave the Nazi’s more power and forced the Catholic centre party in Germany to disband and involved lots of abstentions in politics, re-education and re-unification so the Catholics and National socialists could be welded into a people with the same ideals. It comes as no shock then that Hitler saw these changes significant in the struggle against ‘International Jewry’.
Pope Pius XI wasn’t really fond of Hitler (though as mentioned liked Mussolini) and when Hitler first visited Rome he took himself to a papal retreat. The thing is though, old Pius XI was continually out manoeuvred by his secretary Euginio Pacelli who did meet Hitler and when Pius the XI croaked in 1939 it was Pacelli that became the new Pope Pius XII. On becoming the new pope he wrote a letter to Berlin enthusing about future Papal-Germanic relations. The rest many of you will know, Hitler waged war and built death camps and the Papacy turned a blind eye. It wasn’t until the Godless Red Army and the Allies came sweeping into Germany a few years later that the game was up, God it seems chooses his sides in mysterious ways! After the collapse of Third Reich the Papacy was on hand to help many high ranking German officers escape to similar regimes in South America. Catholics will argue that Pius XII did some good, indeed he did employ some Jews and did some good things but when you read about his period as pope during the war it doesn’t really read too well.
I don’t want to tar all religious people with the same brush during this period and many Christians of course helped people escape Hitler’s regime or opposed what he was doing, people such as Martin Niemöller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
So that’s all for Pope and Vatican for now, some recent news and some history to show what both are capable of, food for thought indeed.
Done And Dusted
So the big event is all over in good old England. It was fairly unremarkable for me really and seems to get duller every year. We really do make a silly big deal about Christmas here, it seems to start around late October and then goes through to the new year.
I will at this point make a confession, I did notice (and liked) on visiting Malta for the last two Christmas’s how very low key they are about it, for a small country that is 98% Roman Catholic. There’s less lights and decorations, less frippery and although you’ll know its Christmas it doesn’t feel constantly hammered home either in a religious sense or commercial one. From what I saw it was family centred, they do church, they have a meal and probably sink a few drinks and celebrate later. So I’ll tip my hat to Malta and say well done on that.
Everyone here, believers and none believers alike tend to go a bit mad over it all. Its a drawn out affair in which people lose sensibilities. We get the mandatory Queen’s speech and the pope makes the news too, though he’s still very down on the whole gay situation I read. I’m not sure the Queen even contemplates such subjects. I actually envy America in the fact they disposed of the need for a monarchy yet I also know many Americans envy our royal family as they seem to talk about it a lot. One American I talked to recently could only name London as a city in the UK and pretty much thought London was all palaces, coaches and a twee magical place. I did have to point out we do have other things going on here besides the royals, and other places of interest too!
I did draw some ire yesterday for a comment I put on Facebook regarding the Royals and the Pope but then some people do have a problem with critical thinking. Evidently for some its easier not to think critically or to question, the easier option is to follow, and blindly so. I did stumble upon this video by a London Taxi driver which did make me smile, though be wary it does contain bad language. The real Queens speech is here, I think at about 5 mins 2o seconds we get to old JC and that’s where I decide to stop watching but then the Queen would mention religion because she is the big cheese in the Church of England and thus has a vested interest in mentioning god and the prodigal son. I wonder if she ever gazes out of the window and ponders what’s really going on?
So that’s Christmas, largely done and dusted except for more eating and drinking before we all get back to reality.
200 Years Behind
An interesting breaking news story, Cardinal Carlo Martini who died Friday aged 85 remarked in his last interview that the catholic church was 200 years behind the times. He also said in his last interview;
The Church is tired… our prayer rooms are empty.
Apparently Martini once tipped as a future pope, urged the Church to recognise its errors and to embark on a radical path of change, beginning with the Pope.
All I have to say is only 200 years? As someone mentioned on a forum I am a member of, that puts it at 1812, a good deal after the Enlightenment period. The truth is Christianity and Islam haven’t aged very well at all and have very little relevance to society and issues in the world today. I’ll admit, there’s the odd nugget of wisdom (the golden rule as its termed) but little more. How can religions change when they constantly hold on to fables and stories of the past? The only way I can foresee any change is if they readily admit most of it is pure folklore and fiction and steer it towards more of a philosophical path so to speak. If religion was less controlling and more contemporary then I’m sure it would have more appeal. To me, something like helping an old lady across the road is what I’d term a christian act and I don’t need to obey gods to do that because doing good things doesn’t require religion.
Stay positive people !
