Pope "Eggs" Benedict is at it again !!

AP news report on this issue available at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/pope_other_christians;_ylt=AgURoqTZ0qkYJzn1QlF0_VvkeO0A



Hey Folks –

Well, the Pope is at it again trying to break his arm patting himself on the back, trying to make his funny hats fit tighter by swelling his head. “I am the greatest!! You're all dumb!! I’ve got the inside track to the infinite!!” What a dork.

I was raised Catholic and attended parochial schools through 8th grade; so I’ve heard this stuff before. It didn’t make sense then (when I was just a kid), and it doesn’t make sense now either.

Yep, there’s just ONE TRUE CHURCH, the Pope’s church, and everyone else is fucked – all other so-called Christians, as well as Jews, Muslims, Hindus, pagans, atheists, etc. are fucked.

Who says so?? Well, the Pope says so, and a major reason he’s down on Protestants is that they don’t want to curtsey and kiss his ring. Unlike Jews, Muslims, Hindus, pagans, atheists, and that ilk; protestants could wiggle into eternal bliss if they would just wise up and listen to the Man from the Vatican.

Since this isn’t happening in large numbers, Benedict probably figured it was time to turn up the heat (so to speak) threatening hell for anyone who won’t shape up and get in line.

He also gave the usual lame “reasons” – the same ones the nuns gave us 1st graders: the Catholic church supposedly has “apostolic succession” — the ability to trace its bishops back to Christ's original apostles, and other churches supposedly do not — and, therefore, only Catholic ordination of priests is valid, and only Catholic (and Orthodox) churches are really churches.

It’s sort of like the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR): if you can’t trace your ancestors back to the Mayflower, you just don’t measure up. Who says? The DAR says !!

Yeah, but (you say), the DAR isn’t infallible. Well, that’s what YOU say. Some of those stiff-necked biddies presiding as the Daughters’ hierarchy might disagree. In any case, the Pope is only as infallible as claiming infallibility can make him. That is, the Pope is infallible because he SAYS he is. I get emails all the time from nice folks who SAY they want to share millions of dollars with me – me, a total stranger to them. Should I not believe them, but believe his Holiness?

Besides, Benedict doesn’t have “apostolic succession” on this one. Popes weren’t infallible until the First Vatican Council of 1870 when fallible men who could not trace their line back to the apostles decided to declare the Pope infallible. Pretty lame – but still a good gig if your audience buys the press releases and doesn’t know any better.

This is just a marketing ploy to freeze in place those considering abandoning ship, to reassert unquestioned Papal & Church authority to do as they wish, and to pet the hardliners. Reinstating the Latin mass supports this view.

The mass was in Latin when I was a boy, and most – if not all (including the many Italians I attended mass with) couldn’t tell you what the hell the priest was saying – although many could mouth the inscrutable words right along with the priest. It was like a Rorschach test, beautiful but undefined; it could “mean” whatever anyone wanted it to mean. When meaning was attached via the vernacular, a backlash was to be expected – especially from those least enlightened or conscious of what they had been doing all those years ("Uncle Pauley" from The Sopranos comes to mind).

I remember attending a vernacular Catholic wedding years after I had “fallen away.” At one point all the young friends of the bride and groom started twittering in their high, sweet voices, “Eat his body, drink his blood, and we’ll sing a song of love. Eat his body, drink his blood, and we’ll sing a song of love. Eat his body, drink his blood, and we’ll sing a song of love.” Over and over and over during the wedding ceremony! It was creepy.

Nevertheless, kissing up to the potential Mel Gibson heretics with the “real” language of the mass (Jesus spoke Latin, didn’t he?) is a good holding action. Having an unintelligible liturgy enhances the “magical” quality of otherwise mundane or ironic utterances (e.g. Priest:“ Go, the mass is over.” Congregation: “Thanks be to God!”).

Most importantly for an institution the continued existence of which depends on blind acceptance of authority, pushing one’s weight around via arbitrary and unexpected fiats that ignore precedent, that degrade other groups (all non Catholics), and that are seen by some as seriously threatening (Jews) is a good move. It isn’t very Christ-like, but it makes a lot of sense on a worldly, political level.

- Uke Man