Pope Benedict is visiting the US. I’d like to offer him kudos for jetting all the way over here to apologize for decades of kiddy-diddlin’ by American priests. Sure, it’s six years late, but it’s never too late to say you’re sorry, right? Right. And we can rest assured that he had no ulterior motives. He just wanted to say “Sorry.” It’s merely coincidence that the RCC paid out over 2 billion dollars to thousands of sex abuse victims. And it’s further coincidence that, as a result of the scandals, American donors, both large and small, are no longer dropping coin on the collection plate.
The Pope’s visit is a PR push, plain and simple. He’s trying to drum up a little revenue in a stalled market. If it sounds like a lot of corporate jargon to describe the actions of an organized religion, that is no coincidence. I did a 12 year sentence in the Catholic education system. And while the educators and priests were committed to doing their jobs, there was always another presence. Was it the Holy Spirit? Was it the air of divinity? Nope. It was the Church administrators quietly whispering, “Pay up.” At the end of the day, the RCC is a business. You can’t be one of the richest landholders in the world, with properties on every continent excluding Antarctica, with your corporate headquarters located in its own country, and run it on prayers alone. The RCC has armies of accountants, lawyers, financial planners, and PR men—most of them men of the cloth. To these people, a decline in faith is bad only if it starts to hurt profits.
Another interesting Papal note: the Holy Father has added harming the environment to the list of Deadly Sins. (For those of you fortunate enough not to have been raised with this bullshit dogma, Deadly, or Mortal Sins, once committed, get you a ticket on the express train to Hell. The Church offers a way out, however. Confession and penance can absolve you of your sinful ways. It’s an ancient and sadistic rite that allows priests to hear all our nasty secrets and then mete out punishment accordingly. There’s also an ancient assertion that priests, in all likelihood, get off on hearing Confession.) Back to my point: it’s a sin to harm the environment. So, let’s see if we’ve got this straight: if harming the environment is a sin, and overpopulation (in places like India or China) harms the environment, wouldn’t birth control be a virtuous thing? In order to give this new doctrine the credence it deserves, shouldn’t the Church re-evaluate its position on birth control? Sadly, the Church has a knack for ignoring its inherent hypocrisies, so it’s doubtful they’ll roll over on contraception in order to present a consistent message.
And never one to forget the bitter with the sweet, Benedict has been quoted as saying, regarding Americans, that:
“Faith becomes a passive acceptance that certain things 'out there' are true, but without practical relevance for everyday life. The result is a growing separation of faith from life, living 'as if God did not exist.”
In essence, he’s saying that we are steadily becoming lazy in our commitment to matters of faith. Even though I no longer participate in an organized religion, I found this comment upsetting. I mean, how does the Pope know? How could he know? And even if this is true, then who’s to blame? The media? The educational system? Or perhaps the religious leaders who have undermined their own authority by giving their coffers and libidos greater priority than their congregations? Who’s to say? Certainly not some old German fart that doesn’t live here.
The Pope’s visit is a PR push, plain and simple. He’s trying to drum up a little revenue in a stalled market. If it sounds like a lot of corporate jargon to describe the actions of an organized religion, that is no coincidence. I did a 12 year sentence in the Catholic education system. And while the educators and priests were committed to doing their jobs, there was always another presence. Was it the Holy Spirit? Was it the air of divinity? Nope. It was the Church administrators quietly whispering, “Pay up.” At the end of the day, the RCC is a business. You can’t be one of the richest landholders in the world, with properties on every continent excluding Antarctica, with your corporate headquarters located in its own country, and run it on prayers alone. The RCC has armies of accountants, lawyers, financial planners, and PR men—most of them men of the cloth. To these people, a decline in faith is bad only if it starts to hurt profits.
Another interesting Papal note: the Holy Father has added harming the environment to the list of Deadly Sins. (For those of you fortunate enough not to have been raised with this bullshit dogma, Deadly, or Mortal Sins, once committed, get you a ticket on the express train to Hell. The Church offers a way out, however. Confession and penance can absolve you of your sinful ways. It’s an ancient and sadistic rite that allows priests to hear all our nasty secrets and then mete out punishment accordingly. There’s also an ancient assertion that priests, in all likelihood, get off on hearing Confession.) Back to my point: it’s a sin to harm the environment. So, let’s see if we’ve got this straight: if harming the environment is a sin, and overpopulation (in places like India or China) harms the environment, wouldn’t birth control be a virtuous thing? In order to give this new doctrine the credence it deserves, shouldn’t the Church re-evaluate its position on birth control? Sadly, the Church has a knack for ignoring its inherent hypocrisies, so it’s doubtful they’ll roll over on contraception in order to present a consistent message.
And never one to forget the bitter with the sweet, Benedict has been quoted as saying, regarding Americans, that:
“Faith becomes a passive acceptance that certain things 'out there' are true, but without practical relevance for everyday life. The result is a growing separation of faith from life, living 'as if God did not exist.”
In essence, he’s saying that we are steadily becoming lazy in our commitment to matters of faith. Even though I no longer participate in an organized religion, I found this comment upsetting. I mean, how does the Pope know? How could he know? And even if this is true, then who’s to blame? The media? The educational system? Or perhaps the religious leaders who have undermined their own authority by giving their coffers and libidos greater priority than their congregations? Who’s to say? Certainly not some old German fart that doesn’t live here.
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