DISQUS

shrrrr · 1 year ago

Who the hell really cares what bubbles up from the catholic swamp?

SouthernYankee · 1 year ago

As a catholic I am offended that Pope Benny buys expensive cloths and shoes. The church needs to help the people more. In fact all these church should help the working people. If good people would stop giving their hard earned money maybe they will all stop spending money foolishly.

vkobaya · 1 year ago

I love some aspects of the Catholic Church, but the extravagant lifestyle of the pope is sickening. The current pope aggravates it with his homophobia, misogyny and hate filled bigotry against other religions. It isn't just the Gucci and Prada labels, it is the gold lined vestments which were only appropriate in a relgious context as long as he kept his mouth shut and avoided the criticism of the extravagant living of others. The hypocrisy of this pope exceeds that of even his predecessor and John Paul II was sickening. My gut feeling is that while he is preaching about child abuse, this bastard is long overdue for a public personal confession and then surrendering to secular authorities. Don't forget his pope mobile. And I wonder if he flies commercial aircraft or private jets and whether he flies coach or first class.

There have also been stories about his love of very, very rich eating. And while the stories of the papal assassination squads have sound based on the bigotry against the Catholic Church when you consider other popes, with John Paul II and Ratman, they sound very plausible.

Ratman is one of the best examples of a man criticizing the splinter in someone else's eye while ignoring the log in his own eye. But goes beyond hypocrisy when he talks about child sexual abuse if what I sense about this vile man is true.

The man is the George Bush of the Catholic Church ... or maybe Bush is America's Pope Ratman. Both are an embarrassment to pond scum, rats and annelid worms.

Butch1 · 1 year ago

" Ah, Vanity, my favorite sin." Devil's Advocate

SouthernYankee · 1 year ago

So true, so true

vkobaya · 1 year ago

Ratman is also criticizing the shallowness and self-absorption of current culture. Sigh! Given his own blindness to the evil of his own my-religion-first point of view, he is one of the worst examples of shallowness and self-absorption.

sittenpretty · 1 year ago

another chapter in ...IVE GOT MINE...yall can STFU or pound sand

ndtovent · 1 year ago

What an a-hole. It's no wonder the catholic church is losing members every year, and has a severe shortfall of priests and nuns.

SouthernYankee · 1 year ago

Maybe so but I got news for you that the others churchs are so great either. They take advantage of their people also.

Butch1 · 1 year ago

There's no question about it. Perhaps, the Quakers and a few other Pagan denominations actually follow their beliefs but not many of the big corporation churches that dominate the world.

SouthernYankee · 1 year ago

I wonder sometimes about the Quakers. Just because we don't see anything wrong it doesn't men that there is nothing wrong. I bet there is some hanky panky even with them.

Butch1 · 1 year ago

I'm no theophile, but until these groups actually are caught in hypocrisy, I would give them the benefit of the doubt. One can not judge them on what one might think a person or one of these groups may or may not do, We all are human and certainly not perfect, but from what I've seen of these folks, they try and follow their beliefs.

SouthernYankee · 1 year ago

You are right. I guess for me sometimes when you see any group you admire
than something goes wrong with that group it leaves you so disappointed. I
guess am just looking through rose colored glasses.

SouthernYankee

kladinvt · 1 year ago

The Quakers don't have a clergy, so that's a big step in the right direction.

SouthernYankee · 1 year ago

Maybe not. But if its like some of these bible reading got the call preachers watch out. They don't have any special religious training. They interpret the bible to fit their church.

Butch1 · 1 year ago

Pot, meet kettle. This bigoted fool doesn't deserve to be listened to, let alone believed. Cardinal the Rat was a more fitting name for this man. He really hasn't gotten all the press that the previous Pope got when he traveled around the world. Perhaps, it's his ruby slippers that give him away.

coolcatdaddy · 1 year ago

Maybe it's just me, but this story reminded me of the Papal Fashion Show sequence in Fellini's "Roma"...

Busboy · 1 year ago

This Pope is just a transitional figure. Nostradamus incarnate will come next.....

AdmNaismith · 1 year ago

Until the Pope give up the guilded palace that is The Vatican (a tiny city-state of pure opulence built on the backs of the poor around the world), he has nothing to say to me about consumerism.
The Catholic Church is a shark-like corporation that needs to keep feeding or die. And since this organization continues to create more and more of the poor and the stupid, their tyranny is unlikely to end any time soon.

iggy · 1 year ago

I don't like much of the opulence, but the fact is that the Catholic Church is the largest charitable organization in the world, and those churches that are bare and plain are usually the ones who hardly give a CENT to charity. And there is something to be said about keeping and preserving great art down through the centuries.

Could they sell it? Sure. But the money would run out, and they would no longer have the art. And they would also no longer have all those tourists coming the St. Peter's to SEE that art and GIVING them money. The art in the Vatican is free to view AND generates a steady flow of income which is used for charity hospitals, homeless shelters, soup kitchens - more of those than ANYONE IN THE WORLD.

And what would happen to the art if it was sold? It would go to a some rich guy's private collection and be removed from the eyes of the public - unless they had to cash to see it. As it is, you can see it free.

The shoes and vestments turn me off. The art? They didn't BUY it. They've HAD it for a thousand years. And I'm damned glad someone is preserving it, and leaving it viewable for the public.

shrrrr · 1 year ago

Iggy: You are sadly mistaken regarding cash flowing from the vatican to, say, "charity hospitals, homeless shelters, soup kitchens" and the like. Not a dime passes hands from Rome to the streets. Read a book or, better yet, volunteer on the ground and find out for yourself.

SouthernYankee · 1 year ago

I agree with you. The catholic organizations do give the most charities. But as a catholic they need to move into the 21st century.

jr · 1 year ago

He does this so when he attacks gays and abortion doctors the media will say "he holds some liberal positions as well"

brian · 1 year ago

I bet the people on the right will ignore this message. They actually worship the dollar more than they worship the church.

mikeyDe · 1 year ago

Ratzinger was supposed to make that anti-consumerism comment in sackcloth and bare feet. Perhaps there was a costume malfunction. "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Except for me!"

Although entrance to the Basilica is free, most of the art in the Vatican can be seen only for a fee and some of it is totally off-limits to visitors. And much of it was stolen. A lot of art in Italy hangs from or sits in church structures whose maintenance has been heavily subsidized by the Italian government. Meanwhile in the States, parishes are being closed not because there's no money to maintain the real estate (Real Estate is King in most endeavors these days) but because there aren't enough men willing to maintain or feign celibacy.