Before he wore The Best Frock, Joseph Ratzinger’s job was to investigate the child abuse scandal that has plagued the Catholic church for decades. In May 2001 he wrote a confidential letter to Catholic bishops, ordering them not to notify the police, or anyone else about the allegations, on pain of excommunication (which for Catholics, involves eternal hellfire and damnation). He wanted any investigations handled in secret.
Ratzinger has spoken (or released statements) stating that he believes the Catholic church has been the victim of a ‘planned’ media campaign. He instructed that prayers be said in perpetuity for the victims along with an insistence that men ‘with deep-seated homosexual tendencies’ do not enter the priesthood, thereby turning all responsibility for the scandal onto the (presumably evil) gays.
Ratzinger presides over a church that calls homosexuality ‘a deviation, an irregularity, a wound’. In 1986 letter, he complained that, ‘even within the Church, [people] are bringing enormous pressure to bear . . . to accept the homosexual condition as though it were not disordered’. He added that homosexuality is ‘an intrinsic moral evil’.
Ratzinger opposes women priests, and demands the criminilisation of abortion even for women who have been raped. His friend, the theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg, has said that Ratzinger sees the push for female priests as driven by ‘spokeswomen for radical feminists, especially lesbians’.
Aids, Ratzinger says, ‘cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems’. There are more than 12 million Aids orphans in Africa. Twenty-two million Africans have Aids and the UN fears that eventually 90 million could die.
This is the chap who is coming to England to lecture us about morality.
Please make him feel welcome.
‘Religion is the opiate of the masses’ ~ Karl Marx
It’s OK, I’m already poised with rotten tomatoes ready to hurl at him ;)
I never had much time for Ratzinger, his weekly spews while resided in Munich (and I resided there too) were too much that anyone can handle. One of my Irish friends has an older sister who was taken to one of those laundries because she fell pregnant when she was 18. Cruel beyond belief.
Yes, the hypocrisy of it is beyond belief. Does he also believe that AIDS is God’s way to get rid of gays? I’ve heard that preposterous claim more than once. Very provocative and truthful post, sas. Thank you for speaking out.
All we need to do is work out how to bring back Lizzy 1…
For just long enough, then put Dawkins in charge
IF you want opulant excess, go to the vatican. It SCREAMS “we have all the money, and we stole if from all of your stupid suckers”
loudly.
:)
His holy excuse for a human being will be in Glasgow on Thu. I will be visiting my folks in Edinburgh that day for fear I may be arrested for hurling insults or rotten veg at the popemobile.
Not being anywhere near him and/or the people that treat him like a saint/god/rockstar will help me keep myself zen anyway.
i really really want someone to throw eggs.
just for the ‘eggs benedict’ daily hell headline.
I wonder how much Aid the Vatican gives to Africa?
The fact that this man has been welcomed in this country makes me shake with rage.