Pope says Canadian same-sex marriage law is "the exclusion of God"

[varun]

Pope wants a theocracy...someone tell him how democracy works.

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid36342.asp

Pope Benedict XVI lashed out Friday at Canada's laws allowing same-sex marriage and abortion, saying they result from Catholic politicians ignoring the values of their religion. "In the name of 'tolerance,' your country has had to endure the folly of the redefinition of spouse, and in the name of 'freedom of choice,' it is confronted with the daily destruction of unborn children," the pope told a group of bishops visiting the Vatican from Ontario.

Such laws, he said, are the result of "the exclusion of God from the public sphere." He lamented that Catholic politicians yielded to "ephemeral social trends and the spurious demands of opinion polls." ...

[Divine Discontent]

1. (Let's get this on greatest page GLBT & friends!)

the current pope is an affront to Christ's Peace.


I am disgusted with the preaching of hate...

see my post in general discussion about the preaching of hate going on right now on TV.

[Ian David]

4. Pope Ratso needs to get caught with a dead woman or live boy in his bed

My money would be on live boy.

[Divine Discontent]

14. without a doubt

he'll be about 11 and thinking he's serving the church and excited of the beautiful ring he is given...

I say that, and it's darkly satiric, but goodness, I wouldn't be shocked if it was in the news tomorrow.. now how f'd up is that church if I feel that!

[Ian David]

19. How do you translate "After Eight is too late" into Latin? n/t

[Ian David]

2. Pope Ratso wants Catholic Politicians to vote the way he tells them to...

Maybe it's time to purge Catholics from public office again until such time as The Poop stops interfering in the secular affairs of other nations?

[pnwmom]

27. I hope that's not a serious suggestion.

Because if it is, you've crossed the line.

Many religious leaders speak out about the secular affairs of nations. The Archbishop of Canterbury, for example. Should we ban all Episcopalians from office?

[YDogg]

3. Pope's view on Canadian same-sex marriage law is "the exclusion of God"

'nuff said.

[Warpy]

5. That's the problem with his god, really

He thinks it's the only god, the only true concept of how the universe works, all centered on a small planet in the outer arm of a very middle of the road galaxy. He really can't bring himself to acknowledge even a possibility that other interpretations might be valid.

And he doesn't care who he hurts over it.

[knowbody0]

6. I so wish these freaks would concentrate less

on genitals and more on peace.

Hideous!

[papau]

7. I like the Pope - but he is so wrong on both counts - his "values of

religion" in that paragraph is just not a correct reading of Jesus and the Bible.

[kenny blankenship]

8. Drop dead, Ratfinger.

[tuvor]

9. Remove your plank of pedophilia before you criticize others' specks, pope.

[Benhurst]

10. I always thought marriage was a couples thing, not a threesome.

hmm.

[Tyo]

11. Since when would a pope know anything about God? n/t

[msongs]

12. you referring to the Hitler Youth Pope? nt

[LostInAnomie]

13. Nazis were for the exclusion of Jews.

Ring a bell Ratzi.

[Meeker Morgan]

15. Pope wants a theocracy...

You: Pope wants a theocracy...someone tell him how democracy works.

Me: The Pope already has a theocracy. It's called the Roman Catholic Church, and he is the CEO. He's an educated man who knows how democracy works. He just doesn't like it.

[davidinalameda]

16. keep on talking

and more and more people will end up leaving the Catholic Church

[Siyahamba]

17. Even the majority of Canadian Catholics support marriage equality.

It was supported by a Catholic Prime Minister with a mostly-Catholic government.

His own church doesn't even care what he has to say.

[davidinalameda]

18. and that's why I want him to keep talking!

the homophobic old guard will so learn that people are taking Jesus' command to love your neighbor to heart

[and-justice-for-all]

20. Fuck the Pope...who in the hell does he think he is??

Why do people give a shit what this smuck has to say about anything?

[mitchtv]

21. the exclusion of God"

That makes Canada just like the Catholic Church

[pnwmom]

23. You've crossed the line here into religious bigotry yourself.

There are hundreds of millions of Catholics around the world. Ratzinger is the Pope right now, but he speaks for few of us.

[mitchtv]

25. you got me

born and raised a RC; 12 yrs schooling. I am gay and have been directly injured by the Church's teachings and policies . In my opinion , they are treading Satan's turf of hate and evil. The pope speaks for all catholics on faith and morals (ex cathedra)If you deny, you are a heretic,apostate, or schismatic. Unless the Baltimore catechism has been revised

[pnwmom]

26. You're speaking from the point of view of the fundie-Catholics.

They ARE trying to take over the Church, but they will have to climb over a lot of dead bodies to do so.

The Popes have only spoken "ex cathedra" three times in all of history. (On the Assumption, the virgin birth, and . . . I forget.) The rest is ultimately up to the (informed) individual conscience.

I am the daughter of a gay man and have also been directly injured by actions of individuals in the Church. But again, there are hundreds of millions of Catholics around the world and I don't blame them all for the actions of some.

The Baltimore catechism, by the way, hasn't been revised, it's been replaced. It was written pre-Vatican 2.

[mitchtv]

28. Fundie?

I thought I was raised plain ol catholic

[TaleWgnDg]

22. Hhhhmm, "the exclusion of God from the public sphere" . . .

.

The Roman Catholic Pope asserts that his view of detrimental laws are the result of "the exclusion of God from the public sphere."

Such spurious, despotic and theocratic statements made by Pope Benedict XVI (uberconservative Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) reminds me of American constitutional law while in law school years ago as well as quotes of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams defining and applying America's federal constitution:

"We may safely affirm that Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the (American) common law."
-- Thomas Jefferson, February 10, 1814

"Oh! Lord!" Adams complained in 1817 to his old friend and rival Jefferson. "Do you think that a Protestant Popedom is annihilated in America? Do you recollect, or have you ever attended to the ecclesiastical Strifes in Maryland, Pensilvania, New York, and every part of New England? What a mercy it is that these People cannot whip and crop, and pillory and roast, as yet in the U.S.! If they could they would."
-- John Adams, 1817, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson (spelling is correct as of the era of writing)

"Say nothing of my religion. It is known to my god and myself alone."
-- Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to John Adams, 11 January 1817

"And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions . . . error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. . . . I deem the essential principles of our government. . . . Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; . . . freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected."
-- Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

"Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state,' therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.
We have solved . . . the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries."
-- Thomas Jefferson, to the Virginia Baptists (1808). This is his second use of the term "wall of separation," here quoting his own use in the Danbury Baptist letter. This wording was several times upheld by the Supreme Court as an accurate description of the Establishment Clause: Reynolds 98 US at 164, 1879; Everson 330 US at 59, 1947; McCollum 333 US at 232, 1948.

boldface type added by TaleWgnDg

Needless to say that Pope Benedict is the highest office holder in a theocratic sovereign country entitled "The Holy See" aka The Vatican or more simply but incorrectly "Rome." For this man to espouse what another country's laws should or should not be as to entanglement of religion and state . . . is not only arrogant but unseemly to citizens of Canada and other countries, particularly in light of the many centuries of war caused by such entanglement of government and religion in Europe and beyond! Ratzinger's religion was the cause of these "cleansing" wars! Ratzinger's "ephemeral social trends" caused many deaths, maimings, deprivations of millions for centuries! How dare Ratzinger pompously attempt to (once again) push his own social agenda onto the world!

Ratzinger should attempt a history lesson, recalling the rationale for the initial emigration from Europe to the shores of North America. Hey, Ratzinger, it was to escape despotism and theocracies such as you espouse today upon the world once again. No, we here in the Americas have been there and done that, no, thank you. We've learned our history lesson well and do not care to repeat history! I'll take our free societies in North America over Ratzinger's despotic theocracy and history of religious wars any day.








.

[BR_Parkway]

24. Still waiting for the smiting to happen to Canada (and Mass, Spain, GB)

You know, you'd think with all the doom and gloom "they're going to destroy marriage, God'll get them for this" BS, shouldn't someone have been smoten (smoted? smited? smitten? WTF is the proper word here?) by now?

[sui generis]

29. either you is or you is ain't

Isn't it odd that the "official leadership" of the catholic church is basically saying that the pope and his decrees should override the law of the land? Sounds almost like some of the crap spewing out of Iran these days.

If I were to declare myself a radical islamist, AND I said we didn't have enough radical islamists secretly fashioning policy in the U.S. government, I wonder if maybe the U.S. gummint might wake up and take notice. I don't know how these kinds of declarations are essentially ignored, and particularly when the RC church seems to be quite overt about involving itself directly in the U.S. political process.

This is a declaration of war on the U.S. political system by a religious oligarchy. For some reason Ratzinger thinks that if they make laws about gays that we're going to just put up with it out of fear of burning in hell. Ratzinger, fasten your seatbelt AND make sure your airbag is on. You don't belong here. You belong in the 14th century.

If I were truly evil, in a theoretical world, I would welcome religion in government, because ultimately it would lead to civil unrest and civil war, and after a few centuries, like Europe, we'd finally be fucking done with it as anything more than a historical and philosophical exercise, plus a few people left in hiding and some churches who finally paid taxes, just like Europe.

But I'm not evil, and fortunately, the Pope is not relevant.

I just think that if the lifetime leadership of a church says the church is one way, i.e., bigoted and seditious, then it is pretty hard to justify a claim to a buffet style form of affiliation, and most particularly an affiliation to the church in Rome.

[pro_blue_guy]

30. But I'm sure most Canadians could care less about what the pope has to say

[zcflint09]

31. Did they teach him that in the Hitler Jugend?

What an unbelievable prick. Wouldn't shock me if "Da Popa" was caught molesting some poor little 11 year old altar boy.