Pope Benedict criticizes Canadian Catholic politicians for backing gay marriage and abortion

[Newswire]

Or: Some schmuck in a funny hat says the voices he claims to hear in his head give him the authority to set health and social policy.

More... (http://www.gaywired.com/article.cfm?section=9&id=10581)

[Chicken Girl]

I feel I should mention that some of the ads on that site may not be work-safe. ;)

[judanne]

The Toronto Star ran an article in Saturday's paper and so did CBC (http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/09/08/pope-canada.html), if the link in the OP is problematic for anyone. I wouldn't presume to speak for anyone else, but I've had quite enough of men in full display regalia (be it pontifwear or mcflightsuit) making pronouncements and "lashing out" at anyone who doesn't fill his (their) moral prescription. What really scrambles Benedict's eggs though is probably this:Such laws, Benedict said, are the result of "the exclusion of God from the public sphere." Sure Canada has a sizeable catholic population but our multiculturalism ensures that all those gods would be bickering before long if we were forced to pick just one to occupy the public space. Obviously we couldn't. We'd have to worship them all - lakshmi, watu, allah, the pagan earth goddess, coyote, the jesus-jehova thing and many, many others. Just try and picture mandatory "morning" school prayer (in English et en Francais)...and the public expense of erecting all those monuments, not to mention the space they might occupy in public buildings. We could go the way of the Easter Islanders. No, Mr. Benedict, it just wouldn't do. Best keep your pronouncements to yourself and save the lashing for any self-flagellation you may feel the need for...or maybe that was some culty franciscan order...I get all these kooky stories about invisible beings mixed up sometimes.

[purple_kathryn]

Watch him stamp his foot and shake his fist in impotent rage.

[von_rick]

Funny thing is that he is saying all this while in his native Germany. The german churches which have seen rapidly thinningcongregations over the past few decades need just that. A pope saying things that would further accelerate the de-christianization of Germany.

Benny is the best thing to have happened to secularism in Europe.

[judanne]

Benny is the best thing to have happened to secularism in Europe.LOL! Yeah, it seems Europe has less of a problem with religious incursion in general. Declining interest in religiosity and church-going is something the catholic church has been aware of and struggling with for a few decades. I can't remember the guy's name off hand but back in the 60's some guy wrote an article bemoaning/discussing the state of North America's "civil religion"...couldn't bear my own laziness - that was Robert Bellah and there's a reprint of his article here (http://www.robertbellah.com/articles_5.htm). Well worth the read and interesting to compare the state of America's public religion now with Bellah's interpretation of it in 1967. That concept of civil religion has been played out in Canada in the past too, though the influence of southern baptist types is a little greater these days.

[PopeInTheWoods]

Zzzzzzzzzz.... Huh!?! What?!?

What's Adolf the Irrelevant blathering on about now?

[Shake]

Pope against gay marriage? What a surprise! Not.

Anyway, a local Unitarian church has a large banner hanging up which reads,Stand on the side of love.
Equality for same-sex marriages.

PITW, it's First Unitarian on Winton Ave