Should the Popes personal preacher be fired after his recent comments?

Bring on the Inquisitors, I say.

I’m not Catholic so it doesn’t affect my religious beliefs. As far as I’m concerned the entirety of the Vatican is corrupt and shouldn’t be given much credibility. I dont think it’s a witch hunt to take a closer look at molestation claims in their ranks when there have been so many child molesting priests that they have protected and enabled.

Well I’m not a Catholic either so the only Hail Mary I can do is if I shout for someone called Mary but it has been given a fair bit of airtime here (I’m in Scotland) due to the Pope coming for a little visit later this year and also because of our links with Ireland where they appear to have had a real problem.

There have been shouts about the Pope should resign so I guess an added on question is…should he? Or should the fact it was going on long before he got the job negate that and instead should he focus on clearing it all up?

lol, it would be only fair for there to be witch-hunts against the Vatican. All of the culture that has been destroyed by it and its predecessors. They pretty much invented witch-hunt didn’t they?

But why sink to their level. Better they be forgotten than actively destroyed. Let them see our backs, not our torches.

The Catholic Church doesn’t have any preachers.

you better tell the Pope that then as some guy recognised by the Vatican as his personal preacher was standing there…well….preaching to him

They all feel like they are under siege – dozens of years of bad behavior is getting the scrutiny it has always deserved, and they don’t know how to handle it. They need to consult a good publicist, or they are going to keep on fucking things up.

What part of infallibility don’t you understand?

I was raised Catholic but I don’t identify that way because I am an agnostic. However, the Catholic Church has many in the clergy and the laity who are worthy of respect for their past and present humanitarian works. It is true that the Catholic Church has a checkered history, as do all institutions which have endured over time. The abuse scandal should be aired and dealt with.

Having said that, I think that the intent of the “preacher’s” remarks is that many people were taking advantage of the situation to attack the Pope and the Vatican, not because they particularly cared about the abuse scandal, but because they resent or perhaps even hate the Pope and other members of the Church for other reasons. To that extent, the analogy to anti-Semitism is apt. Someone who is anti-Semitic will make derogatory remarks about Jews for any reason and usually the stated reason for the attack is not particularly pertinent to her or his prejudice. (This is to be distinguished from statements by people who are honestly critical of other people who happen to be Jews who do bad things, such as participate in settling housing in the Palestinian West Bank in violation of international law.) Prejudice against Catholics because they are Catholics is functionally no different from anti-Semitism or any other form of irrational prejudice.

@semblance I think you are absolutely correct about the intent. I am a Jew, and that is exactly how I interpreted it. However, the remark was still inadvisable from a public relations standpoint.

I happen to have some profound and vivid disagreements with the present pope, but the fact is, he was the person who began treating child abuse seriously, from the point of view of ecclesiastic responsibility. It’s too bad the Church can’t just manage to make that point without digging themselves in deeper.

The Catholic Church doesn’t have any preachers.

I thought it sounded weird too, but apparently Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa (the guy in the news) is the official Preacher to the Papal Household.

His web site:
http://www.cantalamessa.org/en/index.php

@dpworkin I don’t really disagree with you. The Church has not handled this well from a public relations standpoint and the statement about anit-Semitism was ill advised, not because it is necessarily wrong, but because it looks like a clumsy attempt to change the subject. Having said that, I just think that the media and the Internet chatter are jumping on it because it is an attention getter, giving it more play than it deserves.

Good for you in being able to see that this is not an “all or nothing” issue and that Pope Benedict, whatever past failings on this or other issues, is trying to take corrective action now. Too many people these days see every issue in a polarized way.

@semblance Then you may perhaps be able to forgive the fact that I have referred to him as Pope Nazi the XXVI in other contexts. (I am angry about the beatification of Pius, as I believe he was complicit in the Holocaust.)

@jaytkay, I stand corrected. My apologies, @cytonic_horus.

He should be persecuted and then crucified…

the vatican is imploding, praise be to God.

Auto-da-fé?

@dpworkin Christianity is all about forgiveness. And although as an agnostic I can’t really claim to be a Christian I still share that value. So, if you need forgiveness, you’ve got it.

Yes. Then fire the Pope too. He covered up child rape. We can forgive more easily after people apologize.