Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion
In a time of the spring, old paths are obscured and new growth begins.
Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit DiscussionIn a time of the spring, old paths are obscured and new growth begins.
There’s been a big deal made out of the Pope’s recent declaration that Roman Catholic churches would once again have the option to use the traditional Latin prayers, including a Good Friday prayer that urges God to compel “the Heretics”, “Schismatics”, “the Jews”, and “the Heathen” to submit to the authority of the Catholic Church and worship Jesus as the Pope tells them to.
A lot of people are shocked and offended at this move by the Pope. I can understand why people are offended at a call by the Pope for all Catholics to pray for a universal submission to the authority of one church. It’s a nasty, megalomaniacal, theocratic attitude that leads the Pope to insist upon such worldwide obedience.
I can’t understand, however, why anyone would be shocked at the Pope and his church issuing such a call. There’s a long history of Catholic arrogance and insane claims to power from the Pope.
Pope Benedict, or Mr. Ratzinger, or whatever his name is supposed to be these days, believes that he is the earthly representative of the omnipotent supernatural creator of the entire universe, after all. He claims to be absolutely infallible.
That kind of perspective would make anyone’s psychological train run off the tracks. So, the Catholic Church has gone and issued another edict in which the Pope stamps his foot and demands that he be everyone’s master. I’m not shocked. The Pope has always been out of touch and a bit crazy.
It beats me why anyone would follow the Pope, other than to satisfy some immature need to have someone in authority take care of all of the deep thinking required by adult life.
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July 15th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
i’m not shocked either, saddened yes but not shocked. some friends are afraid that the ‘old ways’ are making a comeback, and that the ‘reforms’ of vatican2 will be slowly be tossed.
well, they can always vote with the colletion plate, can’t they?
July 18th, 2007 at 11:25 am
If we can blame George Bush for an increase in the rhetoric and power of al Qaeda and other murderous Islamic groups, couldn’t this “nasty, megalomaniacal, theocratic attitude” be blamed on increased violence by Islamist groups intent on eliminating or subjugating and enslaving all “non-believers”?
But let’s not kid ourselves, that wouldn’t fit the views prescribed for us by the Great and Mighty Democrat… which, of course, certainly isn’t a group set on exploiting “some immature need to have someone in authority take care of all of the deep thinking required by adult life”.
In an unrelated comment, Communism and Socialism don’t work because they are still run by human beings. Presumably, anyone who believes in a utopian afterlife–Heaven, for instance–believes in Communism. However, there is considerable difference between theoretical Communism (and Socialism) and earthly versions of this type of social organization. The best examples of communist or socialist societies that actually worked are too small of population to count as effective examples for state governments; the large examples are run by disconnected ruling classes that simply leave everyone else in shit. Also, one of the greatest reasons these societies repeatedly fail is not because the United States refuses to trade with them (as you claim), it is (generally) because these societies do a poor job of supporting innovation.