Upping the Ante: Catholic Bishop Bans Rep. Patrick Kennedy From Communion
By Susie Madrak Sunday Nov 22, 2009 6:00pmYou know, the Catholic Church certainly gets to enforce whatever rules they make - but this wouldn't bother me so much if they were consistent. After all, when was the last time a bishop singled out someone for supporting what the Church itself labeled an "unjust war" or for voting in support of the death penalty?
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin has banned Rep. Patrick Kennedy from receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, in Rhode Island because of the congressman's support for abortion rights, Kennedy said in a newspaper interview published Sunday.
The decision by the outspoken prelate, reported on The Providence Journal's Web site, significantly escalates a bitter dispute between Tobin, an ultra orthodox bishop, and Kennedy, a son of the nation's most famous Roman Catholic family.
"The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion," Kennedy told the paper in an interview conducted Friday.
Kennedy said the bishop had explained the penalty by telling him "that I am not a good practicing Catholic because of the positions that I've taken as a public official," particularly on abortion.
Login or Register to post comments.
Time to find a new cult? Maybe Kennedy would be better off without one.
http://www.americanprogress.org/cartoons/2009...
do we hear alleged pedophilia from this bishop?
our experience in America is the catholic church
hides most of their transgressions or just moves
the transgressor to another parish....oops
Tax Time!
The Church has entered into politics. It's time to levy & collect federal, state and local taxes upon all of its property and income.
Call the IRS. This certainly violates the 1st amendment.
...so start Taxing the hypocritical child-molesters.
Since the church insists on inserting itself into politics, does this mean we can start taxing them like any other business? When you start laying down penalties for personal beliefs, you have pretty much stepped way over the seperation of church and state as you can get.
I am thinking the states would love to have the revenue right about now, especially California. Shoot, just pass a law that says all tax revenue from churches will go only to education, medical care and food programs which is what the church claims they do with their money anyway.
until someone wants to recognize or allow gay marriage!
the evangelists, the catholics and the mormons
should have their tax exemptions taken away...
they have been in politics for many years now..
....be the time that Irish Americans give the Roman Imperialist Invaders the heave-ho?
The RCC was the only voice of the Irish under British Rule until Collins,DeVilero(sp) etal took matters into their own hands and forced a compromise.
*
it will make electing Catholics more difficult if the public believes that Catholics will be under the direct control of the Catholic Church.
the church get in the way of how they choose to vote.
won't let the church get in the way of his vote. After all, he doesn't only represent Catholics, so how can he vote in a way that fails to represent his other constituents?
BTW, after years of relying on the Catholic (i.e. anti-abortion) vote, neocons are now throwing the Catholic Church under the bus for its "socialist" stand on healthcare (some gratitude):
http://www.usasurvival.org/ck11.22.09.html
that throwing under of the bus. While I think they've been great on many issues of social justice, caring for the poor, etc., I hate that they are so inconsiderate of the totality of women and girls' health issues.
-especially in the 3rd world- with their stupid and malicious forbidding of birth control of any kind. How can an institution that claims its leader, the pope is God on Earth, when this same leader covered up horrific crimes by the church's members, is helpful about 'social problems'? Bah.
I was refering to the handing out of food to the American poor, but my brain flatlined and I forgot about the people in the developing world and the birth control issue. I think that's sick too...
until legislation is passed legalizing gay marriage/civil unions. Then they threaten letting the poor starve unless they get their way.
It's just I grew up knowing the Catholic influence on the United Farm Workers, so I'm not always angry with the church...
But point taken, of course.
-is bad. Probably the majority mean well. It's the institution which is a petrified monstrosity.
*
My mom kept having children (7) until she literally went crazy. My dad was abusive, but when she went to the priest for help, he told her to pray!
A friend of mine had some sort of breakdown where she thought the devil was trying to choke her (sounded like a panic attack to me- she'd had a string of emotional blows). She also called her priest, and guess what he advised her to do? Pray the Rosary. When she called him again, he referred her to an exorcist! Who advised prayer.
True stories.
it was like for me as an evangelical, mainly your friend's story.
prayer treatment will be covered in the healthcare reform bill. So never fear, more money for the church for a practice that needs no monetary input to accomplish (unless there is a prayer machine that can be purchased to focus the prayer 'beam' that would need to be bought and up kept).
This was a great move! Those ties should be held up to daylight for voters to see! "My, that's a controlling, paternalistic religion you have there, candidate. What's up with THAT?!"
About time we see this in the dialog.
in a womans right to choose, he is denied communion. Well, hell, if he only raped little boys he would be good to go, right?
Church bully the politicians in their midst to get them to curtail women's rights. And then they and other Christian churches want women to trust them to take "care" of us.
answer: none.
the catholick cultists are amongst the largest liars in the world....
why do you think they call it Semin-arys.
almost as bad as glenn beckinsteins LDS church.... in fact all religion should be dissolved....
we should know better by now the pie in the sky when u die is a lie....
to the 'LSD' church - ergo his strange ranting behavior..!
Nixon & Herbert Hoover were Quakers. Paul Bunyon was an atheist. Lassie was a Collie. Trigger was a Palomino. Jello rhymes with Hello. None of this did I know until I read the ghost written book about Sarah Palin, "Dances With Crazies."
Does he have to bugger ten alterboys?
SOD the effin' KKKatholic bloody church and their effin' brocade dresses.
I've just started a book (for the second time) called "Vicars of Christ : The Dark Side of the Papacy" by Peter DeRosa.
You think that the Manson family was bad?!? The Roman Catholic Church is even worse than the LDS - not that the Mor(m)ons haven't tried...
The bigoted bishops don't give a damn about Rethug murderers who start immoral wars; they don't care about letting the sick perish because the government doesn't do a damned thing about reforming health care; they let the mentally retarded be put out on the street while the sinfully rich complain about the pittance they pay in taxws. The only thing that matters to these overdressed Italianate whores is what happens between the sheets, and that is because they are all repressed sexually. As an ex-Catholic boy who was pressed to give his priest a naked massage at Catholic camp, let me tell you, it is all true.
May you find peace.
must have been like. I'm with Piobr, I hope you find peace. You deserve it after what you've been through.
I feel sorry for them. They never should have been asked to do something as aberrant as celibacy. I have peace. I have a committed gay relationship of 20 years. Many of those poor souls are still trying to find comfort by suppressing what is normal and trying to control other peoples' sex lives.
compassion for them too, of course.
You win!
Keep risin'.
But John Paul II absolutely told GW Bush that the US should not invade Iraq. That pope did "give a damn," as you put it. Bush went ahead and did so anyway. As for the profoundly retarded, I know of an excellent place run by Catholic nuns where the residents are treated with dignity and cared for when their relatives are nowhere in sight. They are not out on the streets.
out of the year - but takes you to Disneeland on the twelfth month, that makes him an okay guy?!?
Those who truly use their positions in the RC Curch to do good for humankind - they would have done so anyway.
They are to be honored and cherished.
But most of us know the atrocities commited by "The True Church" over the millenia.
Brazil who fell pregnant with twins after her step-father raped her. The church excommunicated her, and everyone associated with her abortion, but said the step-father was still welcome, as saving the little girl's life was a bigger sin than child rape...
Did they threaten excommunication? Did they even wityhhold communion from the warmongers? No. Nothing. Nada. They didn't even send the bishops out to march. They sat in their little throne rooms when America went off to war and worried about gay marriage, and the abortion pill. BS
Warmongers come and go. Just roll over and keep on rolling over. At least it'll keep you busy.
AND The Inquisition. And the looting of the "New World".
And the Catholic Church did what about the policies you mentioned? I do not recall any nonsense about excommunication, withheld communions, etc. I do not even recall a sternly worded memo.
That was quite the false equivalency you posted there.
Guess they never heard of "judge not, lest ye be judged"--why, that might get in the way of their singleminded political agenda.
What a joke of a church.
HELLO! Separation of Church and State anyone?
Fuck the churches, fuck the churches, fuck the churches!
Tax them into oblivion!
one participates in is with Jesus Christ - not the Catholic Church.
So, if Kennedy is a pious man and wants to solidify his connection with the risen Savior, he can find a quiet place to meditate/pray, and create his own rite with his own cracker.
As I was 'raised' in the Lutheran church, I'd suggest a smidge of wine to go along can't hurt &;)
Why is it that the Catholic Bishops and Priests in the United States only single out Democrats for rebuke? How come they don't go after the Republicans?
I would say that the Catholic administration condoning a certain "hobby" that family value Republican politicians tend to get caught for might have something to do with their chumminess.
Though Ratzinger having actually fought on behalf of the Nazis might have helped.
But I'm sure they allowed all those kiddie fiddlers they were moving around and hiding to partake in the sacrament, as long as they made a confession, said 3 Hail Marys and one Our Father.
Screw 'em Patrick. No one needs the church to validate their faith. It's a load of fake bullshit, run by the power mad.
I don't remember a single bishop saying that the priests who molested children should not GIVE the communion.........wonder why that never presented a problem?.....I wouldn't want their damn hands close to my mouth!!
because they are not buggering an alter boy at the time, being only a periodic sinners, while Patrick, in his women's rights support is in constant sin
While they may confess each fiddle and manage to hold off on the physical act between Saturday's confession and Sunday's Mass, the repetition of the sin certainly indicates they had no intention to 'sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin,' as they promise God through their confessor.
Also it's a sin of impure thought, which, if boys are a particular priest's thing, and he's fiddled the young man with the candle stick off to the right, or he like young girls, and he administers to one he's been fancying or had contact with...you can't tell me the guy ISN'T thinking about it...
Help me at YouTube. You'll know who I am by my posts.
You've got a Catholic friend who's getting married and you get invited to the wedding. Once there, they have a ceremonial and sacramental meal, called "communion". The priest makes some comment, that because Protestants etc. aren't "real" Christians, they should just sit on their hands during this time, so as not to get their Protestant Stank on the Host. In gratitude for remaining in the pews, you receive a "blessing" while the bride and groom stop to make a sacrifice at the alter of whatever local god or goddess is honored at that particular congregation.
One of these days, I'm gonna invite my Catholic friends over for dinner. I'm gonna prepare a nice meal. And then I'm gonna eat it in front of them while offering them a "blessing". Pricks.
Of course, first I gotta get some Catholic friends. For some reason, I don't have any.
I'm a bad person. Kiss my ass, Benny the Rat.
pre-evangelical self, and my then devout Mormon cousin went up and got the blessing, but what weirded me out is that, to indicate you weren't Catholic and just wanted the blessing, you had to walk up with your arms folded across your torso, like Egyptian mummies...
told my cousin and I when we were just teens, that you can have your relationship with God in any way you wanted, at any time, anywhere. I hardly go to "church" cause anywhere is my church and I just don't feel right about supporting the Catholic Church while it continues to be hypocritical
*
Back in the '60s, a lot of priests were pioneers. They were fighting the Church's traditional types. I met Father Daniel Berrigan a few times, and he impressed me. He later broke into a draft board and threw blood on the draft records. Now, that's a guy who's doing God's duty.
They should pay taxes or shut up.
Too bad about that tax-exempt status. Shouldn't have gotten involved in politics. What's that whole "separation of church and state" thing again?
Bet they rue the day they let this one slip by the editors.
I say we send a team of IRS auditors to the diocese.
My understanding of the pedophile cases is that the catlick church has a long standing policy of considering religious rites and observances by bad priests to be considered valid.
After having confessed and promised to 'sin no more' they are considered perfectly OK, purified or whatever. That's why Kennedy can't take communion- it means he's been absolved of sin. The horrifying sin of speaking up for women's rights. Of course women's right are antithetical to the catholic church.
But they don't even have to have couples remarried, or converts and babies rebaptized, or even last rites and confessions redone, even if such rites were performed before the priest promised to sin no more, or even before he was caught and still active doing wrong.
The insurance industry has positioned itself as the middleman between Patient and Doctor, as The Church positioned itself as a middleman between The Faithful and God.
What do the two have in common? Both cost too much and are entirely unnecessary.
The Vatican also came out against the Iraq war, along with the Church of Canterbury and the WCC with over 300 Protestant congregations within it.
Has any priest withheld communion from pro-war politicians?
the Newt Gingrich just converted, that devil-ridden Glen Beck claims to be catholic. I'd hate to hear their confessions. I tell them "Go strangle yourself with the rosary!... and sin no more."
There are many things the matter with the Catholic Church, many of them enumerated on this blog. However, Glenn Beck left the Catholic Church to become a Mormon. It's just about the best news Catholics have had in a while. Newt Gingrich is an abomination on any church.
So much for Freedom of Religion
Patrick should say OK I won't take communion if the bishop stops having sex with little boys.
Tax the "church"!
Now!
The moment a church takes a PURELY POLITICAL STAND, they lose their exemption. The moral imperative of safe and legal access has ALREADY been proven. The priests and bishops [all men, many misogynists] want to go back to the dark days of butchered young women. Far as I can tell, they've been slacking off on their primary duty of helping the poor. Instead, they close churches and schools in poor neighborhoods because they don't make the haul they'd like in Sunday collections there.
Awww, he won't get to eat the little cracker. What a fate worse than death. Oh noooooes.
TAX THE CHURCH!!!!!
TAX THE CHURCH!!!!!
TAX THE CHURCH!!!!!
TAX THE CHURCH!!!!!
TAX THE CHURCH!!!!!
TAX THE CHURCH!!!!!
This is exactly why we have separation of Church and State.
remove their tax exemption.
No Separation of Church and State? Taxin' Time!
can find someone to go cannibal on. Savior-y cracker or no.
Where can we sign the note to the IRS asking them to look at the Catholic church?
Pardon anyone whom may disagree with me, I respect your right to whatever religion you inflict upon yourself.
But I cannot accept religion as anything other than a total fraud, perpetuated for the sole purpose of terroizing the mind and inflicting horrors throughout the ages.
Question #1: How many women who were burned or hanged or otherwise execute were REAL Witches, responsible for disease, bad luck, or freak weather?
Answer: Zero.
What possible justification is there for this abhorrent institution even remotely having any political power in this country.
Disgusting and revolting.
A large majority has a lot more issue with the many horrible things the Church administration has done (and continue to do) as opposed to their doctrine.
Here is the answer to your question, Ms. Madrak. Since when has anything conservatives say or do have anything to do with principles. These people are ideologically driven on every single thing they do. To do things on principle would presuppose you have some, which they do not. The right operates solely on ideology. There is no rational thought, no critical thinking, no ability to think independently, nor any ability to give the other side any modicum of respect or of being right. These conservative catholics have no problem moving pedophilic bishops and priests around from parrish to parrish, to protect them and not the children they abuse, and willingly allow war mongers and death penalty advocates to receive communion. But support a woman's right to choose, not support abortion, but say the woman has the right to make decisions about her health, and well by Holy Hell, you are damned forever. This crap from the religious right is old and does nothing but drive good christians away from the church. And they wonder why more people are not self identifying as Christians, look at Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Jerry Fallwell, Bill Donahugh, and the many conservative mouthpieces for the religious right and you understand. Frank Schaeffer is complete right when he says these people are out to lunch.
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people." - Karl Marx
He was right....no matter what the 'churches' - 'religions' - have done through the ages and continue to do - people will follow - because they live in fear: of not 'knowing', of being utterly alone.
from a gang of pedophile priests. Catholics are so out of the mainstream that they're becoming more and more like Moonies.
Another way to look at this is that it's a good thing when politicians have their religious associations backfire on them.
Hey Pat Kennedy, stop associating yourself with
douchebagsreligion in the first place.To bad the whole Kennedy family don't have the balls to all say "fuck you" to the catholic church.
Get the hell out of my health care--or lose your tax-exempt status.
Roman Catholic dioceses and religious orders saw a rise in molestation claims against clergy last year, according to an annual report from U.S. bishops. Most of the cases were from adults who were abused as children. The church paid out more that $436 million, bringing the total since 1950 to $2.6 billion. Source:
-------------------------------------------------------------
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago paid more than $15.8 million in legal settlements related to sexual abuse last year, amounting to $80.2 million in claims for the decade, according to an annual report. Abuse settlements were funded through property sales, loans and insurance. According to the report, the archdiocese received $1.09 billion in revenues from parishes, schools and services. Source:
Why should an atheist pay more taxes so that a church which he despises should pay no taxes? That's a fair question. How can the apologists for the church exemption answer it? --E. Haldeman-Julius
Historical Notes: Chronology of Important Events:
(1948)The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrive in Girard, Kansas to question Haldeman-Julius after his publication of The FBI - The Basis of an American Police State: The Alarming Methods of J. Edgar Hoover.
(1951)Emanuel Haldeman-Julius dies, found drowned in his swimming pool.
(1978)The publishing plant in Girard, used to produce Little Blue Books for over five decades, is destroyed by fire.
What is it with this stupid country that we refuse to tax these idiotic churchs, even when they show time and time again they want to be involved in politics. I don't mide them putting in their 2 cents as long as they pay their 2 cents on April 15th.
Hell if we taxed the "donations" they receive we could balance the budget. and the beast that is the Mega Church would make our government rich beyond their wildest dreams.
It seems to me this Bishop deliberately chose Kennedy to use him as an example to other Catholics in Congress. It is time for the IRS to strip the Catholic Church of all tax exemptions and serve them a retroactive bill with an ultimatum: Pay up or get out.
Unfortunately, I don't think our Supreme Court would share your opinion. :-/
--------------------------------------------------------------
Composition
12/19/75
John Paul Stevens: Protestant
09/26/86
Antonin Scalia: Roman Catholic
02/18/88
Anthony Kennedy: Roman Catholic
10/23/91
Clarence Thomas: Roman Catholic
08/10/93
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Jewish
08/03/94
Stephen Breyer: Jewish
09/29/05
John G. Roberts: Roman Catholic
01/31/06
Samuel Alito: Roman Catholic
08/06/09
Sonia Sotomayor: Roman Catholic
We've come a long way from John XXIII and Liberation Theology. The nerve of these reactionaries, to link their religion with the state that way. Where do they think they are, in the darkest era of Catholic Ireland, or in Franco's Spain? I was raised Catholic, so I can understand their stance in a theological way. But we're living in the United States of America. Our politicians represent all of their constituents, from the Mormon to the Catholic to the Muslim and Jew to the atheist and the agnostic. This kind of clerical bullying equates having an abortion -- which the Church has the perfect right to tell its adherents is a mortal sin -- with a politician protecting the rights of women who do not take the Church's view.
This counter-revolution won't end well. This is the politics of Pinochet, Franco and Mussolini.
"Students at Regent University are obligated to be concerned for the conduct of their peers in accordance with Luke 17:3, 'If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him'. A student accused by another of violating the Guidelines for Community Life will be dealt with in accordance with the Student Discipline Procedure, which follows the biblical teaching in Matthew 18:15 - 17 '...and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector'." [Regent University Graduate Catalog 1994-1996, p. 28, Pat Robertson, Chancellor]
So the witch doctor, oops, I mean bishop, of that international child sex ring calling itself "The Catholic Church," refuses to allow Kennedy to participate in the church's childish pretend game where a magic cracker turns to the actual flesh and blood of an imaginary pagan man-god named Jesus in your mouth. Ugh! How disgusting! Not only do Catholic church priests rape vulnerable, innocent children, they want everyone to pretend to be cannibals and allow "Jesus" to come in their mouths.
The REAL question here is not only why should society continue to tolerate the fraud called religion, but what is wrong with Kennedy? What is it that makes him want to belong to such a perverted cult and to participate in its perverse and irrational rituals? I don't want anyone in politics who is either stupid enough or emotionally ill enough to swallow the lies of any religion (and ALL religions are based on lies). Kennedy should be trying to tax the church out of existence and push for legislation that would enable us to round up the Pope and his minions and lock them up forever for child rape and fraud.
By the way, Jesus never existed;
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com
Jesus Christ (c. 4 B.C.-33 A.D.), Jewish religious teacher, reformer, reputed miracle worker and Messiah who founded a new sect of Judaism.
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword."—Matthew 10:34.
----------------------------------------------------------
I'm not sure if he did or didn't exist, though the industry has proven to be quite prophet-able to many people... others not so much. It's a good gig if ya can get it. freedom evolves... it's only natural.
----------------------------------------------------------
Pierre Bayle (1647-1706), French philosopher and literary critic. Son of a Calvinist minister. Fled to Switzerland to avoid persecution of Protestants. Argued that religion and morality are two quite, quite different things.
The astute English translation of "The Dictionary", by Bayle's fellow Huguenot exile Pierre des Maizeaux, was named by U.S. President Thomas Jefferson as one of the one hundred foundational texts that formed the first collection of the Library of Congress.
Traditional anti-Catholicism – fundamentalist attacks on the Church as the scriptural "whore of Babylon" – bubbles just below the surface in many areas of our society. This traditional anti-Catholicism created many of the myths of anti-Catholicism that linger within the culture: the Church as solely interested in power; Catholicism as an "alien" religion in America; Catholicism as the enemy of separation of Church and State (as well as the public school system); the Catholic Church as oppressor. :-/
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.E.), Roman statesman/philosopher/lawyer; considered the greatest Latin orator and prose stylist. His political enemy Marc Antony had him executed. His head and hands were displayed in the Forum. They say Antony's wife pulled out his tongue and jabbed it repeatedly with her hairpin, taking a final revenge against his oratical prowess. Roman women, man.
"Without the hope of immortality, no one would ever face death for his country." (Or his Allah.)--Marcus Tullius Cicero
I was Catholic for years. Don't worry, Patrick, think of what you'll be missing -- a sip of sticky, sweet wine and a cracker that tastes like plaster. Not even a fit meal for a mouse. Or a pedophilic priest.
hmmm... another example of paying lip service to one's own tenet... more double standards for dogma... let's just call these hypocritical freaks what they are, the christian taliban...
Seriously, Catholicism is a horrible oppressive religion that protects pedophile priests. It is hypocrisy at it's best, much like Republicanism.
may the last stone, from the last church, fall upon the last priest.
One can only hope that, in response, the entire Kennedy family leaves the Catholic Church. I'm sure another religion would gladly welcome the Kennedys -- their devotion, their concern, their activism ... and their donations.
Well, now that the catholic bishops are part of the legislative branch of the United States of America--other catholics should take heed. At their meeting this week, the bishops reaffirmed their opposition to abortion, gay marriage, contraception, IVF, and surrogates. So--to use the conservative theory of the slippery slope-- all of the catholics who limit their families, use IVF or use another woman to give birth to your child--keep it to yourself. Oh, that is most catholics. What a about the death penalty, or war--what a bunch authoritarian, patriarchal hypocrites.
"There was a time when religion ruled the world. It is known as the Dark Ages."--Ruth Hurmence Green
and more thorough investigations of child rape and abuse (including murder, it has happened in Shelburne, Mass) of the church that likes to get between believers and their God.
That has been the Catholic Church's position since its inception: To act as the inbetweener of God and His followers.
Which eventually led to the Protestant Reformation.
The Catholic Church hasn't really changed that much.
The audacity to think that they know what's better for me.
crazy crap.
of religion, on display, 24/7.
I don't think that taxing the church will solve the problem. The problem is that the church fails to remember that when in Rome you are to do as the Romans do. In this country abortions are legal. It should not come as news to anyone that male dominated religions do not recognize any rights for females.
And their willingness to climb under the covers with the U.S. right wing. But the kind of bile directed at the Church here astounds me. They still do a lot of good along with the bad.
Let's not forget the good.
The hypocrisy is what drove me away. That and it's just a tad to far out there in superstition. But the church is filled with decent people
Not all mind you. But enough to keep me in check as far as attacking the church. I'm not talking about the priest's. I'm talking about the church goers. The church it's self..... I have a problem with.
It's the whole organization and all the historical dealings it's been
involved in. Some of the church goers ar the ones doing real good in communities. I have no beef with them. That's why I don't comment on these things much anymore. The Religious org's( any particular one) drive me nuts. When they cross the line in to politics, f...em. Tax the crap out of them. But, the church goers who I call the lunatic fringe, the ones who try to convert people, who spout the churches views, who take the position that they know better and that I'm a lost soul. Yeah, I have a problem with them too. They should mind their own business.
And then we'd all get along much better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug75diEyiA0
Don't forget that Christianity as well as all other religion is based on a mountain of LIES. The Pope's minions as well as the leaders of ALL churches, temples and mosques are parasites who feed off the fears of emotionally ill people, and who are encouraged to abuse their children intellectually and emotionally by brain-washing them into their hideous delusional belief systems. There is NOTHING good about that.
http:www.jesusneverexisted.com
Actually, your complaint seems to be against the Abrahamic faiths.
Several Asian religions don't even have gods, or at least they don't play important parts, Buddhism, Taoism, Confuscianism, Vedanta etc.
And even in theistic religions they vary from a concept of godhead that is primal principle, distant and not concerned, to close and concerned.
And religious practices and customs seem to go back at least as far as the Neanderthal man. Are you going to over-generalize the majority of people since then as emotionally ill?
Sounds like projection to me.
Christopher Hitchens makes a great argument regarding the delusional belief systems you listed. So does Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris.
The majority of people "since then" are not only mentally ill (delusional), they also suffer from incredibly low IQs.
I suggest you read up on the subjects you struggle to address in here.
I might can agree with you if you'd tell me what you mean when you say the Church. Even Father Greeley has written about how there are two churches, not one. I used to tell people I am Catholic of the Dorothy Day variety in order to clarify which church I belong to, and I know others who've said they are Catholic but not papists. Now I hardly bother to identify myself as any sort of Catholic at all. In my recollection, aside from Day and a few other saints, I can't think of anything Catholic outside of Liberation Theology, (which the Church has firmly put down), that has done much of anything for humankind. After all these years of knocking my knees against the kneelers, it finally occurs to me that what I sought from Catholicism is much better embraced by socialism and humanism. As for the other Church, anyone who'd like to experience first hand how the medieval feudal lords lived should pay a visit to the pope in his palace in Rome.
As a recovering RC and woman, I consider what very little good they do to be irrelevant. They need to be emasculated as they are in Europe. I'm tired of their desire to tell me what to do and I'm tired of people like you telling me to settle for crumbs.
No, I'm not putting words in your mouth. When you follow what you say to its logical conclusion, that is what you are asking me to do.
Good point. And all those "decent" Catholics still give money to the pedophile, woman-hating Church.
Any "decent" Catholics should be rebelling against this hatemongering religion.
I know: I was raised a Catholic, and they're a bunch of right-wing hypocrites.
I don't believe the Catholic Church or ANY church for that matter, should be able to LOBBY for what ever they want. Since when do THEY PAY TAXES!!!?
from what i've been able to find, on the pedophilia scandal was that he sat on his hands and hid what was going on in his diocese.
shouldn't he be banned for this? actually, shouldn't he, as well as all the others, be defrocked?
I'd say arrested and thrown in the clink for 20 years would be better....
When Tithing Drops to zero... the idiot leaders of the CatholicThugs may finally listen! I hope so... or let's take away the Church's license to steal our TAXES. They are acting politically more and more.. and they lost the moral high ground year's ago... priests and little boys ring any altar bells?
When the tithing drops down to nearly to zero... that's when the idiot Catholic leadership will finally pay attention and listen to reason. But alas, not until then.
As a Catholic (fallen maybe) I truly believe that the only way the idiotic Catholic leadership will ever learn is to stop giving to the corrupt Vatican led crime family. Seriously, just how may times have they cried crocodile tears over the victims of their immoral priests and their craven pedophilia?
So, when will we Catholics learn? I'm convinced the leadership of the church care only about their power/money and will say or do anything to keep it. They are worse than politicians.
So, I guess this means Patrick has three more minutes of useful time to add to his Sunday, right? I mean, who gives a flying fvck (the Roman spelling) on a smoking purse about this silly hocus pocus ceremony? Piss off, religion, get out of the way of progress. Next...
Proof positive that organized religion does indeed meddle in Government affairs. Do churches have to report their income? I do know they don't pay taxes. I think if a church is making more than say 200k or so a year, they should pay taxes just like any other business. Whether or not the Congressman should take communion is between God and the Congressman. Not between him and the Pope.
... the tax exempt ponzi scheme taking money from the poor to buy $500 shoes for a prior Nazi who spews hate towards women and gays, the church that protects child molesters... yup fuck the Catholic church!
I used to give to my local Catholic Church. When the Vatican took a political stance against my Democratic Progressive principles, I simply stopped. My lousy few dollars a month may not mean a fart in a gale of wind to the Roman Catholic church, but it made me feel like I was doing something to oppose their 15th-Century attitudes.
Login or Register to post comments.