Pope Benedict Dead

[TC Talks]

God's Rottweiler has died and let's hope his caustic conservative followers continue to lose influence. This explains why the move to defrock Pavone was made recently. Let's hope more of this faction is removed.

The death of Pope Benedict XVI Saturday sent a broad wave of mourning through the American church.

But it held special meaning for the conservative wing of American Catholicism: His death represented the loss of their unofficial figurehead, a shadow presence whose influence they followed even after he resigned in 2013 and Pope Francis became the church’s global leader.

While he largely faded from public life since his unexpected retirement, the former pope — whose early reputation as a firebrand once earned him the nickname “God’s Rottweiler” — remained a hero to many theological conservatives, who viewed him as a standard-bearer for a kind of doctrinal commitment and rigor they saw lacking in the church under Francis.

In recent years, the conservative wing of American church leadership has been gaining power, and has clashed openly and often with the country’s second Catholic president, Joseph R. Biden, and the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, over the issue of abortion.

Benedict’s promotion of Catholic leaders, including Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, helped shape the character of church hierarchy in the United States at its highest levels. Parts of the American church, including the younger generation of priests, have long held Benedict “in an awe bordering on reverence,” said George Weigel, a conservative Catholic commentator and author of “To Sanctify the World: The Vital Legacy of Vatican II.”

[bmw]

God's Rottweiler has died and let's hope his caustic conservative followers continue to lose influence. This explains why the move to defrock Pavone was made recently. Let's hope more of this faction is removed.

I generally despise Hitler analogies because I think the vast majority of them undermine what Hitler did, but this is one of those rare instances where because somebody is literally calling for ethnic cleansing (specifically - white, conservative, Christians), such an analogy seems appropriate. You sir, are an evil person, and it is my opinion that your comment above should be grounds to have you banned from these forums.

RIP Pope Benedict.

[TC Talks]

His nickname was well attributed by many news organizations. Funny how you jumped to Hitler, as there was zero mention of him in my post. I am merely a messenger.

With what he allowed to go on during his tenure, he shouldn't be celebrated. I believe he condoned hate and marginalized victims of sexual assault for years. All you need to do is look at the likes of Sean Hanity to understand how much his type of leadership has moved the church away from the teachings of the bible.

He was a VW Rabbit owner, so he wasn't all bad.

Hurting your warped feelings isn't something we ban people for...

[MWmetalhead]

Where is he calling for "ethnic cleansing" ?

Removal from power does not mean ethnic cleansing in the least. Frankly, you owe TC Talks an apology.

I agree with TC Talks that Pope Benedict is likely an individual of questionable morals:

Benedict also came under fire for his handling of the sexual abuse crisis that engulfed the Catholic church during his years as a senior cleric. A damning report published in January 2022 found that he knew about priests who abused children but failed to act when he was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.

Source: CNN

Rupert Murdoch's SkyNews refers to him as God's Rottweiler in this article:

https://news.sky.com/story/pope-benedic ... l-12776084

[TC Talks]

Where is he calling for "ethnic cleansing" ?

Removal from power does not mean ethnic cleansing in the least. Frankly, you owe TC Talks an apology.

I agree with TC Talks that Pope Benedict is likely an individual of questionable morals:

Benedict also came under fire for his handling of the sexual abuse crisis that engulfed the Catholic church during his years as a senior cleric. A damning report published in January 2022 found that he knew about priests who abused children but failed to act when he was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.

Source: CNN

I am not a Catholic but I have really been impressed with Pope Francis. He has the grace and humility I have always looked for in clergy.

[bmw]

I apologize to the extent I misread his comment. I interpreted "removed" as "dead" and "faction" as "conservative followers." He was apparently referring specifically to those high up in the church being removed from their positions. I was probably quick to jump to that interpretation given his long history of anti-Christian bigotry on this forum - specifically, bigotry towards the very "faction" of white, conservative, Christians referred to here.

(EDIT - punctuation and addition of a clarification)

[TC Talks]

Oh I have a very strong faith. You may recall that I am a Deacon and an Elder.

I don't trust many organized religions and any person claiming to be a intermediary to a direct relationship to God. Catholicism under Benedict was all that and more.

[bmw]

Distrust of organized religion and those who have positions of power within the hierarchy is one thing. But you take it a step further (both here in your initial post and many times in the past in here) and attack a specific faction of the followers at the bottom of the hierarchy (namely, white conservatives).

And no, I was not aware you were a Deacon. In a way, that makes your attacks on certain factions of followers of Christianity even worse. A Christian is not defined by his/her political beliefs, and certainly not by skin color, and someone in your position should not be making such attacks. Again, criticizing those in power within the church is one thing, but its followers? Sorry, I don't go along with that.

[bmw]

Frankly, you owe TC Talks an apology.

I agree with TC Talks that Pope Benedict is likely an individual of questionable morals:

In light of your call on me to apologize, I'm glad to see you changed your initial characterization of Pope Benedict as "a scumbag."

[TC Talks]

Your faith should be challenged by your beliefs.

You advocate policies that harm or kill people

You support policies that suppress the poor

Jesus was exactly the person who you would want the laws in the US to surpess or perhaps detain after exploiting. Greg Abbott and Donald Trump are some of the least Christian people in leadership roles. How do you right your support for them with the teachings of the New Testament?

Pope Benedict empowered these kinds of people with his misguided leadership.

Tread lightly on my condoning of these Christian followers when they are filled with racism bigotry and hate for their in fellow man.

[MWmetalhead]

A Christian is not defined by his/her political beliefs...

A fair percentage (albeit perhaps not a majority) of Evangelicals in particular would certainly say one's faith & religious views can & should shape political beliefs and advocacy.

After doing further research on Benedict, I felt my initial characterization of him as a "scum bag" was too strong and inappropriate. He did things I liked and other things I did not like in his public life. Inaction relative to some sexual abuse cases in the late 70s and early 80s during his time as Archbishop plus inflammatory remarks he made toward Muslims cannot be disregarded. On the plus side, he did have enough humility to resign his post as Pontiff following the Vatican Leaks scandal, for which I give him some credit.

[Mega Hertz]

Your faith should be challenged by your beliefs.

You advocate policies that harm or kill people

You support policies that suppress the poor

Jesus was exactly the person who you would want the laws in the US to surpess or perhaps detain after exploiting. Greg Abbott and Donald Trump are some of the least Christian people in leadership roles. How do you right your support for them with the teachings of the New Testament?

Pope Benedict empowered these kinds of people with his misguided leadership.

Tread lightly on my condoning of these Christian followers when they are filled with racism bigotry and hate for their in fellow man.

https://youtu.be/cE0_JhLsgPQ

[bmw]

Your faith should be challenged by your beliefs.

You advocate policies that harm or kill people.

I apologize to you for suggesting that you are advocating for certain people to be dead, and then you go and make the same accusation against me? That's the last time I apologize to you for anything.

I will assume you're referring to my stances on Covid and government intervention, given that in the past you have accused me of literally being directly responsible for killing people. I got no apology for that from you, nor did you get called upon by a moderator to make such an apology as I was called out to do. And for the record, I wrote up my apology on my own accord before even reading MW's call for one (I think it was part of his edit as I don't recall reading that part of his post the first time around). So I hope it doesn't look like I apologized simply because MW called for it.

Tread lightly on my condoning of these Christian followers when they are filled with racism bigotry and hate for their in fellow man.

That for the most part is factually utter nonsense.

[Graham Wellington]

A Christian is not defined by his/her political beliefs...

A fair percentage (albeit perhaps not a majority) of Evangelicals in particular would certainly say one's faith & religious views can & should shape political beliefs and advocacy.

Most Evangelicals, and unfortunately many others, have switched to the worship of politics and political leaders. They project the messages from their "gods" Donald Trump, Joe Biden, etc onto the God they claim to follow.

A true Christian should be repulsed by both political parties.

[TC Talks]

Tread lightly on my condoning of these Christian followers when they are filled with racism bigotry and hate for their in fellow man.

That for the most part is factually utter nonsense.

You can't be that obtuse... Try doing some research.

https://news.fordham.edu/inside-fordham ... ty-racism/