'Gratz to the new Pope.

The Neko · Post by **The Neko** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 11:17 pm

I find that people seem to be worshipping the man rather than the God in the Catholic church. Seems like a stark contrast from the "idol worship" laws...

I think if I was going to go for a Judeo-Christian religion, I'd be Jewish. None of that Satan or Hell crap, which was created to persecute everyone else. That and if prophecy was considered true (that God was really talking to people), that means all the truth ends at the end of the Old Testament, and the New Testament is full of people making stuff up as they go along.

Revelations also doesn't help matters. All of the metaphors and issues being discussed are so out-of-date that they don't even make sense or apply to the modern world anymore. It's like trying to build a bicycle from a lasagna cookbook.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 1:31 am

I'm just tickled pink that George Pell, our little Aussie cardinal, had odds of 20 to 1 to make Pope!

Yes, we tend to think of things in this way. We hold jockeys in high esteem.

Col · Post by **Col** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 4:28 am

I just learned the major difference between the Catholic church and Protestant (sp?) churches over the weekend. In brief, the Catholic church believes that God gave man the ability to forgive others of their sins through the pope, cardinals, and priests in the church. That's why they have confessionals. This stems from a moment in the Bible where Jesus tells someone (my memory's not that good) to build a church on this rock, which the Catholics took to mean the person he was speaking to because he was known as the Rock. But this goes against many other points in the Bible dealing with the fact that Jesus died for our sins, thereby making it possible for anyone to go to Heaven so long as they believe in God and worship and serve him throughout their lives.

...or something like that. I dunno, work off of that and find some actual facts somewhere. I'm just going off my limited brain power, which hasn't been as much up to speed lately, and something I just found out from a friend a few days ago. So don't quote me on this.

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 6:13 am

I don't much care what this guy did as a teenager. I really don't. People change with time. This is not a guy who went around stabbing children with pitchforks and pushing Jews into gas chambers. This is a guy who was a young man while his country was at war and got effectively drafted, twice - once for Hitler Youth and once for the Army. When he was captured by the Americans, he had deserted the german army.

I do care that he is seen as a defender of church doctrine and resistant to change. It's thought that he'll only tacitly support modernization efforts John Paul II introduced. I suppose time will tell.

Why am I interested as a pagan and utter non-believer of Christianity? Because the Pope is one of the most powerful people on the planet, and his actions will ripple through our society. A "good" pope can really help to make the world a better place for all people by standing by reforms that are good for society or humanity as a whole. A "bad" pope might mainly concentrate on issues of Catholicism and the church, ignoring to some extent the greater world population.

Anyhow, off my soapbox.

Luprand · Post by **Luprand** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 7:09 pm

Col wrote:This stems from a moment in the Bible where Jesus tells someone (my memory's not that good) to build a church on this rock, which the Catholics took to mean the person he was speaking to because he was known as the Rock.

I think that's Matthew 15 (could be 16; already I'm forgetting stuff). In essence, Jesus was making a pun off of Simon Peter's name (Petros = small stone, while petras = bedrock). Ah, that good ol' jokester Jesus.

--Sij

JPSloan · Post by **JPSloan** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 6:05 am

Luprand wrote:
Col wrote:This stems from a moment in the Bible where Jesus tells someone (my memory's not that good) to build a church on this rock, which the Catholics took to mean the person he was speaking to because he was known as the Rock.
I think that's Matthew 15 (could be 16; already I'm forgetting stuff). In essence, Jesus was making a pun off of Simon Peter's name (Petros = small stone, while petras = bedrock). Ah, that good ol' jokester Jesus.

--Sij

He had a better sense of humor than his disciples, who probably never caught most of his entendre. I'll bet in their off-time, he told several pun-related jokes (when he was being serious, they called them parables), which probably sailed directly over their heads.

Of course, he had a greater educational background than most of the disciples, who were basically blue collar.

I don't know... anyone happen to know who the most educated of the 12 disciples were, and how they compared to Christ's education? Research project!

IVstudios · Post by **IVstudios** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 7:00 am

The Neko wrote:I think if I was going to go for a Judeo-Christian religion, I'd be Jewish.

Thus making you that much more like John Stewart.

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 7:20 am

On a tangent,

I heard that the only name the Pope has never taken is 'Peter' because they don't want to compare themselves to the original Pope and disciple.

That got me to thinking... they can use their own name, take a previous name and increment it, or come up with a new name.

I think it would be really cool if a Pope would call himself 'Phil'. Or 'Artey'. Or 'Bill'. "Hey, that's pope William!" "Uh, no. The pope prefers to be called 'Bill'."

So anyway, I'm in a strange mood today...

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 8:50 am

Was there a Pope Jesus?

TheGoobla · Post by **TheGoobla** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 8:59 am

Of course not! Catholics don't name their popes after Jews.

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 9:05 am

Mail the pope!

benedictxvi@vatican.va

And According to this List there hasn't been a Pope Jesus yet...

Nilbogymbarg · Post by **Nilbogymbarg** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 9:12 am

has anone made ath eggs Bensedict the 15th joke yet?

Faub · Post by **Faub** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 9:41 am

http://www.catholicplanet.com/articles/article41.htm

the article wrote:About the year A.D. 1139, Saint Malachy O'Morgair, Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland, wrote down a list of Popes. He listed 112 future Popes, each described by a phrase in Latin.

I remember this list from an early 90s miniseries building up the whole year 2000/end of the world thing. According to this article and the series, this list says there will only be one pope after this one and that pope will preside over Armaggedon. Given that this pope is ~80, I'll be able to see the end of the world in my lifetime! YAY! 8)

What this does give us is a chance to compare prophecy with real life. It's a good way to pass the time.

TheSuburbanLetdown · Post by **TheSuburbanLetdown** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 9:47 am

I actually secretly hoped the world would end when we hit the year 2000, but it didn't. What happened instead was that my microwave and garage door opener broke.

IVstudios · Post by **IVstudios** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 11:02 am

Why do people always assume the world will end whenever there are a bunch of zeroes at the end of the date? Like the destructive forces of the universe really give a crap about the abstract concept of what numbers we give our years.

If everyone was so afraid that the world would end in 2000, they should have just skipped it and gone straight to 2001. Then it would now be 2006 and I would be old enough to drink.

Nyke · Post by **Nyke** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 11:05 am

Besides, the Chinese already dealt with Y4K 702 years ago.

Toxic · Post by **Toxic** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 11:15 am

rkolter wrote:Mail the pope!

benedictxvi@vatican.va

What the heck?

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 11:21 am

Toxic wrote:
rkolter wrote:Mail the pope!

benedictxvi@vatican.va
What the heck?

TheGoobla · Post by **TheGoobla** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 12:18 pm

rkolter wrote:
Toxic wrote:
rkolter wrote:Mail the pope!

benedictxvi@vatican.va
What the heck?

What the amorphous blob said.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 1:12 pm

Apparently the tradition of each Pope choosing his own papal name comes from about 562 (I think) when that Pope (can't remember what he chose for himself) decided that he didn't think his original name of Mercury was quite acceptable.

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'Gratz to the new Pope.

geh