Our German Shepard

Yes, being about 75% German myself, I was trying to put the best face on this new pope. Let's give him a chance, I said. Maybe he will grow into the job.

As the linked article (above) clearly shows, this guy is much worse than first thought. Banning gays from the priesthood??? That's like banning women from being nurses. It's just the way it has always been.

I grew up in a strict Lutheran household, so I don't have too much invested in the Catholic church. Except that there are over a billion people professing the faith, which makes it kind of important to all of us. If you ignore them, they won't just go away.

We all know why this is being done. The church has never really addressed their child abuse scandal. So now they figure they can blame it on the gays. It wasn't the churches fault that they (the church) kept covering up for all these perverts, transferring them around the country just to get them out of the way. Never calling the police to report what unspeakable acts had been performed with these kids. No, they don't want to talk about how they dealt with the problem. How they could have stopped much of the abuse by booting these guys out right away.

Most Americans often equate gays with pederasts, but gays are far less likely to molest children than straights are. I am not even sure if you can use the term gay and straight for a pederast. I think it is just a predilection for children. The power over them, not having to deal with an equal in a relationship, etc. I think the church is counting on most American's misconceptions.

The other thing the Pope's minions will be doing here is ferreting out dissidents in all of our seminaries. Gay, straight, it doesn't matter, if they speak (at all) against the teachings of the church, they are out! It's like we just went back 500 years.

When Galileo was hauled before the Pope's rep, he was told that the earth could not possibly revolve around the sun. He ended up backing down, but that did not change the facts. It wasn't until the late 20th century that the church finally apologized for what they had done. How long will we have to wait for any apology for this Pope's behavior? When I think of all the needy people on this planet who could use the church's help, just to live, and the church is spending its energy rooting out gays and dissidents.

What I don't understand is why American Catholics don't break from Rome and just have their own church? Most Americans don't agree with the Pope on birth control, divorce, artificial insemination, celibacy, the list is endless. So why don't they just break off and go in a more forward direction? We can call it The Great Schism of 2005.

I think we need to have a bitch-slap the Pope day. I would really like to get my hands on that twit. The worst part is, he is probably a closet case himself.