Tell me, is the Pope a thief?

[17 squirrel]

Those eyes are harshing my mellow dude...

 

[Alpo]

Didn't realize you had a mellow setting.

 

[17 squirrel]

Hahahahaha... I'm better in person..

 

[Kutnupe14]

<<<<<<<< Baptist sitting this one out, but plenty of

 

[churchmouse]

<<<<<<<< Baptist sitting this one out, but plenty of

"X" or non-practicing Catholic here.

No knock on the church or the Pope.....Just watching the thread.

 

[mbills2223]

The office of pope is blasphemous and abominable biblically in the first place. No amount of apparent piety is going to allow this one to overcome the evil inherent in the office he holds and the doctrines his "church" supports.

And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Matthew 16:18

 

[ccomstock001]

Nothing puzzles me (being kind here) more than someone who admits he has never been to mass more than a few times in his life, so would not be unreasonable to ascertain that he has a limited understanding of the mass and of Catholicism in general.

If you had only been around guns once in your life, would you think it a fair to make sweeping unreasonable statements about gun owners? You can't know or love anything that you don't first put some effort into understanding or into getting to know.

If you make an honest effort to understand the mass, you will also come to understand that Catholics don't worship the pope. You might even come to feel more warmth. I know beyond any doubt that you would be very welcome at our Church, and its hard not to like people who sincerely like you. To me the Church has been like a mother who has led to me to my father and lord, to the one real and true love. It is a life long process that will never end, it is a two way street, but as in anything else, you have to be willing to take a first step.

C'mon man, you really think we worship the pope? You may have loved your father, that doesn't mean you worship him more than God. In the people we love, we always try to emulate what is good about them, we may have a great and sincere admiration for them, look up to them, but that is far from worship.

I don't think all do "worship" him but I feel some do. I just don't understand why it feels like non Catholics are looked down upon. One example is with communion. Why is it you have to be a Catholic to receive it. It should be for anyone who is willing to partake in it not just a select crowd. Again I don't mean to bash on it and there are far worse churches out there.

 

[17 squirrel]

Hummm. As a Methodist I have taken communion since I was a wee little lad.
The few Catholic services I have been to, a few weddings and funerals , when over I thought I had been to the gym and worked out on a knee / stairmaster.
It was exhausting.

 

[bulletsmith]

Hummm. As a Methodist I have taken communion since I was a wee little lad.
The few Catholic services I have been to, a few weddings and funerals , when over I thought I had been to the gym and worked out on a knee / stairmaster.
It was exhausting.

Oh my, you should attend an Orthodox Liturgy. Or even better, a wedding or funeral. You'll need water, energy bars, and maybe something to make fire.

 

[rhino]

That is, is he bringing glory to God or to himself or what?

Keep it civil, it 's just a question.

I've expressed my opinion of the Pope elsewhere in less than respectful terms, but your words above conflict with the way you stated your topic. Asking if the Pope is a thief and then doing the "Oh, I'm just asking a question" routine is disingenuous at best. And yes, I get that you used the word "thief" in an atypical context. It's still purposefully inflammatory.

 

[rhino]

C'mon man, you really think we worship the pope? You may have loved your father, that doesn't mean you worship him more than God. In the people we love, we always try to emulate what is good about them, we may have a great and sincere admiration for them, look up to them, but that is far from worship.

That wholly mistaken (and ultimately ludicrous) belief is held by many, many people in the U.S. It's unfortunate, but they've been indoctrinated to believe that the Roman Catholic Church is some kind of devil-worshiping cult worthy only of their relentless scorn and hatred. It's usually accompanied by the equally fallacious assertion that Catholics worship Mary, that Catholics can behave any way they want and they just "fix" it with confession, blah blah blah. And yes, I've had the misfortune of being subjected to a significant amount of virulent anti-Catholic prejudice (when I was young), so I've had most of it in my face. There exists no truth, reason, or discussion that can change the minds of unfortunate people who hate something they do no understand, but have been taught to judge and condemn based wholly on ignorance and purposeful misinterpretations.

A great, pious man. He is far beyond politics, so stop trying to pigeon hole him.

I am disappointed that you believe that. I assert the opposite, and my opinions are based on his own words and his history. Liberation Theology is way more political than it will ever be about any kind of Faith. He is a product of that and it shows.

The office of pope is blasphemous and abominable biblically in the first place. No amount of apparent piety is going to allow this one to overcome the evil inherent in the office he holds and the doctrines his "church" supports.

Wow. An excellent example of what I referenced in my response to Mark 1911 above. Wow.

This is why the current social war on Christians is not so new to Catholics. We've been contending with statements and people as this quote shows for quite a while before it became fashionable to bash Christians for just being Christian. Of course, it's likely the person who typed those words does not consider Catholics to be Christians, which is the epitome of irony.

Wow.

And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Matthew 16:18

Hush, you! You're not supposed to use the inconvenient parts. And we all know that every conceivable details of what Jesus said or taught is explicitly contained in plain, modern English in the Bible, and there is no way he taught the Apostles anything AT ALL that they might have chosen to pass to their descendants (in the Faith) that they didn't include explicitly in the Bible. In plain, modern English. It's un-possible!

I don't think all do "worship" him but I feel some do. I just don't understand why it feels like non Catholics are looked down upon. One example is with communion. Why is it you have to be a Catholic to receive it. It should be for anyone who is willing to partake in it not just a select crowd. Again I don't mean to bash on it and there are far worse churches out there.

You have it backwards with respect to Communion at a Catholic or Orthodox Church. Even a lot of Catholics are not allowed (or should choose not) to receive the Sacrament if they have not been properly prepared (i.e. the education and preparation leading the first communion), don't believe, etc. To receive the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, you have to believe what we believe: that it is literally the Body (and Blood) of Christ in the same sense Jesus meant those words at the last supper and told the Apostles to repeat it in remembrance of him. It's call "transubstantiation." If you aren't Catholic or Orthodox, you don't believe that (yet) and at the very least it would be very disrespectful and at worst blasphemous to accept it with the attitude that it's a just a cracker from some dude in a dress.


If someone feels "looked down upon" when attending a Catholic Mass, I think that it in general it might be more an issue that is internal rather than what they are experiencing from those around them. There are exceptions, though. When you have a group that has over 1.1 BILLION members, there will be turds in the parish punch bowl. I had the misfortune of trying to attend Mass while traveling in Kearney, Nebraska. I've never been in a more overtly hostile environment for guests. So I recognize that personal experiences with people can vary, but it is not indicative of the Faith or what the Church teaches to make people feel unwelcome or uncomfortable.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

"Transubstantiation", that's the one: Hey Cletus, I heard them Catholics was all cannibals!

Not of the faithful myself, I've admired many of the popes, I just think this pope in particular is bringing in liberation theology, which in my perhaps inadequate knowledge uses the faith as a bludgeon to push political goals which are flat out communist. Yes, I know that the early church was a collectivist commune, but once again not being of the faithful, I'm against that sort of thing. As soon as he digs in with AGW, yeah, maybe he's just trying to change hearts, but he's trying to change them in a way I must oppose.

 

[Alpo]

I would suggest that, at the very least, you read the Wikipedia article on Liberation Theology. A lot of people have a limited grasp of what it is, what church doctrine says about it and the positions of the prior pope (Ratzinger) and Pope Francis. Much of the information in the public domain on Liberation Theology is, abbreviated and likely misunderstood. Also, the plight of the poor in the barrios of Brazil or the wilds of the Amazon are much different than the situation of the poor in most first-world countries. It scarcely is necessary to see that a parish priest confronted with open sewers, malnutrition and diseases which have been eliminated in most modern countries might look more strongly at the temporal aspects of his flock than one would find in the USA. In addition, while punishment in the afterlife used to hold many in check in their treatment of peasants in the feudal systems, corporations seem not to worry about the disposition of their souls in the hereafter.

Be that as it may, to label this pope as a liberation theology advocate is, I believe, misguided.

 

[Leo]

I'll not poke any sleeping lions, but I'll be very happy when the news does not include 24/7 Pope.

+1

Raised Roman Catholic, Parochial school until we could not afford it, still have a Father McBride Catechism book. I was even an altar boy. I do not understand the hysterics. Of course I do not get too excited around rock stars either.

 

[spec4]

At the request of my devout Catholic wife we watched the Pope show last night. My thought was that if I were him, I would have had it earlier in the evening. He looked a little tired. The entertainment was below par IMO, except for the orchestra. Aretha Franklin was flat terrible. His speech was on family and it was good, and I say that being blessed with a fine family. There are many disfunctional families (I came from one) and they would have done well to hear this.

 

[RockofStrength]

.

 

[mbills2223]

When I said politics I meant US politics (left vs. Right)

 

[devious169]

The new pope I'd compare him to barrack hussein Obama , but white! Worst pope I've seen in my life!

 

[mbills2223]

The new pope I'd compare him to barrack hussein Obama , but white! Worst pope I've seen in my life!

Why??

 

[devious169]

Use you imagination