On the 19th of April 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected as the 256th Pope, head of the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics. Although there have been eight German Popes, only three have been from the territory of present day Germany. The last German Pope was Pope Victor II (1055 – 1057). Ratzinger was the oldest Pope to have been elected since Clement XII in 1730. He took the name Benedict, meaning ‘Blessing’.
For more than 20 years Ratzinger was head of the congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican – the Vatican’s guardian of orthodoxy, that was once called the Inquisition. It has been suggested that his denunciation of all deviations from traditional church teachings as ‘trickery and error’ may have been the decisive factor in his winning the Papacy.
The Cardinal was one of the previous Pope’s closest friends, and, as such, was seen as being a man who would continue his predecessor’s policies of opposing birth control, the ordination of women, and the use of condoms to counteract AIDs – and, most notably, of affirming the celibacy of the clergy.
Yet, Ratzinger’s predecessor, Jean Paul I, was well aware that ‘the celibacy of the clergy’ was a myth and left the legacy of a massive cover-up of, not only world-wide child abuse, but the scandalous treatment of women who fell pregnant to Catholic priests in the West and the sexual abuse and rape of nuns by Catholic clergy in the Third World .
I wonder whether the Cardinal, on this the fifth anniversary of his election, now thinks that attaining the Papacy was such a ‘Blessing’ .
Boadicea's Chariot 
‘The church’s combination of temporal authority, spiritual control and a closed, internal hierarchy created the power that corrupted it. The backlash of the past few weeks has merely confirmed what was already overwhelmingly likely: that Benedict is entirely incapable of grasping this reality, let alone altering it. He has spent much of his career crushing dissent and rolling back the anti-hierarchical spirit of Vatican 2. His solution, as he suggested in his pastoral letter, is more of the same – more obedience, more authority, more resistance to secular modernity.’
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0417/1224268525176.html
I would call it a poisoned chalice. His background in the Wehrmacht combined with his dubious inheritance is not auspicious.
You make him sound just like Gordon Brown!
If slightly less authoritarian
Brendano The information in the two articles I linked was included the book on Jean Paul, and I still haven’t managed to find either the title or the author. The article in the Irish Times is right – it is about Power. What the C. Church still has not accepted is that its real problem is that, unlike any other Institution, it claims a high moral authority.
zenrules It was a poisoned chalice – but they all thought that the ‘faithful’ would keep quiet…
Boadicea, there are several biographies of JPII, as you know … perhaps the one in question is David Yallop’s.
On clerical child abuse, I think this sentence from the Irish Times article is very true: ‘The church leadership has now adopted a three-fold strategy: blame the victims; invoke anti-Catholic persecution; and identify modernity as the root of the problem.’
The awful ‘Fr James’ on MyT did at least the second and third of these, and of course his distortions were lapped up by some there.
I agree with brendano’s quote.
It was somewhat unrealistic to think that the head repressor and keeper of secrets would be able to become an arch-communicator, which is actually what is required for the job, at least nowadays.
I expect they are waiting for him to fall off his twig with a degree of relish.
Why they will keep voting in total geriatrics is quite beyond me, when, in the modern day they need someone with a much more active engaging style. Like it or not they have to communicate in the 21st century.
Hi
Good evening madeoforleans, welcome, your comments are now auto approved, writing a post requires authorship, which takes a little longer.
Good evening soutie. i don’t doubt that my opinions are unwelcome on this forum so i will keep them to myself and the many many people of my country who have similar opinions.
The catholic church has its faults like all organisations but it is a key part of the wonderful culture that we have here in continental europe and which can be favourably contrasted with other parts of the world that rejected the Catholic doctrines.
All opinions are welcome here, expect them to be challenged but none are unwelcome (as long as they comply with the WordPress T$C’s)
I agree about the heritage and culture that the Church have provided.(I would however include all Churches.)
A play on words?
8 German Popes? The word pope in latin meaning “Tutor” meaning “Rector” in German
Rector meaning “RULER” or King
5 kings have fallen and one is and one is yet to come and when he does, even he is the “Eighth” and he is SATAN.
You guys should read the Bible a bit more 🙂
It is time the catholic faith moved with the times. A lot of their rules and regs were put in place by control freaks and had nothing to do with religion or the bible.
If you believe that IS, it confirms that you are just a barking as I have always thought.
It could well be David Yollop, Brendano.
In a way ‘modernity’ is behind some of the criticism now being levelled at the Catholic Church. For centuries their clergy have not followed their own doctrines. Priests, Cardinals, and Popes have paid lip-service to celibacy and disregarded their vows… and, hypocritically, demanded a higher level of morality from the ‘faithful’. They’ve managed to do that by instilling in their followers the belief that to criticise the Church is to criticise the faith – heresy.
The Protestant Churches long ago stopped believing that the ‘office’ was more important than the man, and refused to allow that sort of hypocrisy – a ‘bad’ man was a ‘bad’ priest. Catholics are, at last, beginning to agree and to question the morality of their leaders.
Christina, the Cardinals don’t want a young, energetic man who might upset the apple-cart by promoting reform – power is the name of the game.
MoO (are you really sure you want to be abbreviated to this!) Reasoned comments are welcome, rants are not. I agree that the Catholic Church has left a rich heritage of beautiful artefacts, but that is not what the Originator set out to do. I chose my picture with care – a man in cloth of gold representing a Jewish carpenter? To me, that is symbolic of how far the original message has been changed.
IS. Pope is from Papa – father, rector is also from the Latin – a guide, ruler. You refer, no doubt, to the Book of Revelations and the Malachy Prophesy – which states that this Pope is the penultimate Pontiff? I’m inclined to believe we’ve already had the ‘Satan Pope’ – Jean Paul who condemned so many to die from AIDS, and hid the sexual abuses that are now surfacing. Darn good thing if the Catholic Church implodes during the next Papacy – can’t come soon enough in my view.
I agree completely
Zen – forgot to say thanks for the Lehrer – one of my favourites. 🙂
Why are the catholic priest celibate? (or meant to be).
The Jewish Rabiis are married, Greek Orthodox have to be married with 2 kids, protestant can be what they like. Yet the catholics want to be un-natural and stay celibate. Nothing in the bible says this must be so, and the first catholics certainly were not celibate.
It’s to do with chastity preserving the soul, I think.
Claire that means it is a man made rule and not a divine rule.
On that my bed summons me.
Night night.
Coffee is not as necessary to ministers of the reformed faith as to Catholic priests. The latter are not allowed to marry and coffee is said to induce chastity.
Charlotte-Elisabeth, Duchesse d’Orleans, 1652-1722, Letters.
Love it. Make mine a double expresso. 🙂
No it isn’t, Claire. It was to preserve Church funds. Ask Boadicea, she’ll give you chapter and verse.
Bearsy; ok! I bow to your superior knowledge on that one. 😉
Rick; a Claire made rule, then. Night 😉
Definitely a man made rule, Rick and Claire.
People donated land to the Church, and if a priest married there was a strong probability that his children would inherit or at least claim Church lands – to the loss of the Church. Illegitimate children had no rights of inheritance and, therefore, could not claim lands – so a blind eye was turned to priests having ‘housekeepers’ and children – but not to them having wives and children.
There was a concerted effort in the 11th C to ensure that priests did not marry. William the Conqueror received Papal Blessing for his conquest of England partly in exchange for William’s promise to enforce clerical celibacy of the English clergy.
Bo yr no 25 v interesting, didn’t know that, explains a lot re UK history.
Boadicea – Excellent post and comments.
Christina. Church lands were a troublesome matter. There was much conflict between Church and Crown over the fact that, since the Church never died it never paid inheritance dues, and its property was, theoretically, not liable for tax or any other feudal services.
Two Statutes of Mortmain (literally Dead Hand!) were passed (1279 and 1290) to try to limit donations of land to the Church, which was often used as a way for people to dodge tax and dues. Magna Carta notes:
Tax ‘evasion’ 13th C style!
I’m not quite sure when exactly but certainly by the end of the 1300s, some Church lands were deemed liable for secular taxation. I suspect that the Church accepted that as a reasonable price to pay for later donations of property.
You can criticize the celibacy rule and other things too.
What you can’t criticize is that the areas of roman catholic strength, Latin Europe, are cultures of forgiveness, family, inclusivenes, civilisation and community.
Compare that with the culture of Britain and America which opted out and where the driving force is greed due to the protestant ethic of wealth accumulation. So a balanced opinion has to look at things on the one hand and the other hand. if you do that in an objective manner RC has been probably the second most important factor in creating a reasonable life for us here on earth, warts and all.I would put the continuum between Greek philosphers and the enlightenment in first place.
I most certainly can criticise the role of the Catholic Church in Latin Europe: the suppression of women, the rejection of scientific knowledge, and the fact that virtually every single Catholic country in Europe had to have a civil war and reduce the power of the Catholic Church before the general population attained a standard of living and a political freedom comparable to those in Protestant countries.
You seem somewhat lacking in your understanding of what Protestantism is, and might I remind you that Protestantism was not confined to Britain or the US.
As to what Catholicism may or may not have done in the past – it is today that matters. Defending the Catholic Church by citing its past achievements is a bit like Hitler standing in the dock at the Nuremberg trials and claiming immunity from prosecution for the Holocaust because he managed to get the trains to run on time.
I do trust you have thoroughly read the rules of this site – you will find them very different from MyT…
Boadicea, I have no problem with criticism of the Catholic Church (or any other organization) … as a lapsed Catholic, I criticize it myself. It strikes me, though, that some people combine their distaste for the Catholic Church with a distaste for Catholics. I’m not suggesting for a moment that you do this, but it is sectarian and a thoroughly bad thing, in my view (like all such prejudices).
“I do trust you have thoroughly read the rules of this site – you will find them very different from MyT…”
The harassment of those that don’t subscribe to the AS paradigm that the AS are superior to others in achievements, culture, civilisation etc etc seems to be rather similar.
You must look at Catholicism in persepective. Picking out individual negative items is unfair. Celibacy is not all bad. The idea that individuals would devote themselves to God’s work to the exclusion of all else, ie to moral values in society, has merit. Compare that with the average CoE vicar living in a two up and two down semi, employed by the state, a thoroughly bourgois existance.
Yes I agree with Brendano there is unbalanced criticism of the work of the Catholics.I have great respect for what they have achieved and I believe some compassion, as they confront the ambiguities of modeern society, would not go amiss. But then that is a rather Catholic merit isn’t it?
Boa; thank you for your information on this last night; it was most interesting and enlightening. It got me thinking this morning on the school run. I was raised a Catholic and I do think that there are many within the church who believe that carnal pleasures and sex are an obstacle to devotion in its purest sense. Although I don’t recall chastity itself being mentioned in the gospels, the principle of self sacrifice and denial is; you could then say that some in the Catholic church have taken this to the extreme, like all fundamentalists.
Having said that, your comment has shed an entirely different light on my rather emotional perspective on this one. There are many who have interpreted the gospel for purely mercenary reasons; you have made me realise that religion and politics are far more intertwined than I previously thought.
Claire – religion and politics were so thoroughly intertwined for centuries, that they could hardly be separated. (Boadicea is cooking dinner)
… and they still are in contemporary Australia!
Bearsy – yes, but I think a lot of people don’t realise how far, or choose not to, perhaps.
The Catholic Church has always been anti-sex and anti-women … it associates women with sex. Hence the male priesthood and part of the reason for celibacy (property matters being another part, as has been pointed out). As I understand it, it’s not very long since pregnant women were not welcome at mass (notwithstanding the compulsarity of Sunday mass) and had to be ritually ‘cleansed’ after childbirth before being welcomed back to the fold. Wome were seen not as full people but more as an occasion of sin and temptation to men.
This psychologically unbalanced church does have a lot to answer for. The feminine principle was properly represented in its predecessors, and ought not to have been done down and diminished.
Brendano. I don’t think anyone on this post has even hinted at having a distaste for Catholics – only the Catholic Church – so I’m not at all sure why you are raising this issue.
However it is true to say that “The awful ‘Fr James’ on MyT” and others who try to defend, protect and offer the arguments outlined in your #4 in support of the Catholic Church are not enhancing the reputation of individual Catholics. It is, unfortunately, a truism that a few rotten apples, and ‘Fr James’ is one, will tarnish the image of the rest. Some people will use their behaviour as an excuse to revive old prejudices against individuals.
I’m trying to answer people while cooking dinner – bit difficult! I’ll be back!
An Aside for R/MoO
Let me make it quite clear that no one has an inalienable right to post here. Undesirables are not welcome. From the Site Policy
You have Author status courtesy of me. I recalled some interesting and amusing discussions and thought that you should have the opportunity to post here sensibly. However, in the light of your comments here, I suggest that you examine your motives for wanting to join this site. If you want to partake in debates that is fine. However, if you intend to splatter this site with your racial comments about Anglo-Saxons, I suggest that you leave quietly before you are shown the door.
It is deemed exceedingly bad manners in any society to insult a host. I will remind you that on this post, I am the host – and I will not permit you to insult me here… any further derogatory comments about my race or culture will be removed.
Claire
I don’t think that one can study any society without understanding the prevailing beliefs – and for that reason I read in some depth about Christianity, especially the early stuff. One of the things that fascinated me was why the Church adopted some doctrines and not others… I suppose, being something of a contrary person, I got particularly interested in the early ‘heresies’. It’s a long time ago, and I’d have to go digging for examples, but it would be true to say that a lot of the decisions about what would be deemed ‘orthodox’ and what would be called ‘heresy’ depended on what the ruler at the time believed. Try reading a political history of Christianity, especially of the Papacy – you’ll find it fascinating!
Brendano
One should be grateful that the early Christians wanted to encourage the women of Rome, who had many more rights than women in Judaism, to join the religion. Orthodox Judaism is every bit as restrictive of women as Islam – there really isn’t too much to choose between them! It could have been a lot worse.
By the way, it wasn’t only the Catholic Church who required women to be ‘churched’ after child-birth…
Boadicea, I didn’t know that re ‘churching’.
I was thinking more of pagan religions, with their goddesses, than Judaism (i.e. Christianity’s predecessors in this part of the world).
OK sensitivities noted. But it is really difficult trying to debate without letting one’s opinion out of the bag.
It is a fine distinction between “Catholics ” and the “Catholic Church”. Are not Catholics to some extent responsible for the Catholic Church?
Yes catholicism has been misogynist,and still is but so has all human society. In many cases far more so than the cultures of Catholicism. Is the Catholic church responsible for what is a human attribute?
Can one, within site rules, comment that one in nine American blacks are in gaol for often non violent crimes which would not entail imprisonement in France, Italy and Spain. The consequence of this policy is devastaing on American society.Is one not entitled to say that the healthier situation in Continental Europe is the consequence of a more forgiving culture and give credit to the Catholic Church?
Madeoforleans
You can say what you like within the WordPress Terms of Service.
It is not your opinion that matters, it is the way you express it, as well you know. If Boadicea feels you are being rude to her, she will delete your comments. Other authors may not. Read the Site Policy.
If you make a nuisance of yourself, you will be barred. If I had my way you would have never been let in because you are a known troublemaker, racist and rude, but Boadicea is soft-hearted and pleaded for you. I shall be delighted if you prove me right.
BASM
Boadicea has retired to bed for the night and I shall follow her shortly as it’s midnight in Queensland.
Boa; sorry missed your coment, but thanks for that; it is very interesting, as are all your posts. 😉