I have to admit I sniggered upon hearing the news that Pope Ratzinger was on his way out the door. I won’t miss him. And I can hardly wait to see what the Catholic Church will inflict upon us next.
In the meantime, I figured we’d do a few quotes from Robert Ingersoll for the blessed occasion of the first retirement of a pope in 600 years. Two in two thousand years retiring rather than dying or being forced out means that Robert’s observation on ecclesiastical power remains pretty much spot-on:
You can hardly expect a bishop to leave his palace, or the pope to vacate the Vatican. As long as people want popes, plenty of hypocrites will be found to take the place. And as long as labor fatigues, there will be found a good many men willing to preach once a week, if other folks will work and give them bread. In other words, while the demand lasts, the supply will never fail.
If the people were a little more ignorant, astrology would flourish—if a little more enlightened, religion would perish!
Ah, for that great day….
As for the crimes of Pope Ratzinger, namely the crime of shuffling pedophiliac priests off to new pastures, where people weren’t aware that their spiritual head was all about raping children: if you’re surprised a man o’ god could be so evil, have a dose of reality.
Let it be remembered that the popes have committed every crime of which human nature is capable, and that not one of them was the friend of intellectual liberty—that not one of them ever shed one ray of light.
But this, of all, I believe is my favorite quote. I laugh every time I come across it, and it remains funny because it’s so damned true. Keeping in mind that “capable of” doesn’t mean “is in favor of” when it comes to the intellectual advancement stuff.
The Catholics have a pope. Protestants laugh at them, and yet the pope is capable of intellectual advancement. In addition to this, the pope is mortal, and the church cannot be afflicted with the same idiot forever.
Here’s looking forward to a new idiot as we wave goodbye to the old. Adios, Benny.
I think a slightly more modern quote is going to be applicable in this case:
“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”
According to The Most Trusted Source in the World, there have been five resignations among popes. I note this not because it moots your point, but because I have no life and trollishly nitpick when I can. [trollpoke] [trollpoke] [trollpoke]
Forgot the source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_resignation
Ech. Maybe someone younger to shut the whole thing down once and for all.
Would be nice.
/dreamingfeverishdreams
Maybe someone younger to shut the whole thing down once and for all.
Oh, that would be funny. An infallible ex-cathedra pronouncement: “disband the church.”
Excatly.
Here’s a thought for Catholics wrestling, with the state of the church……stop wrestling. You only need the church because you were taught from infancy that you can’t survive without it. Yes you can, the church lied. I know this from personal experience, as do many other people.
New idiot, same idiciocy?