God damn you to eternal blistering hell, Josef Ratzinger!

[thatcrazycajun]

Your latest idiotic statements reiterating your church's vehement opposition to the use of condoms in sexual intercourse—even to prevent the spread of a lethal, incurable disease—are not terribly surprising; I know full well you share your predecessor's obstinate, reactionary conservatism on a number of important social issues, which was part of why he elevated you to Cardinal in the first place.

But saying this on your way to a tour of Africa, where this pandemic is more rampant than anywhere else on the planet save China—and before you had even touched foot to the soil where 22 million people live with this scourge, and nearly a fifth profess membership in your church—not only continues your church's complicity in causing millions of needless deaths, but makes the job of trying to prevent it that much harder for my partner, who has spent the past two years toiling at the center of the effort to stem the tide of infections there...and already has far more to cope with than anyone should. She also calls your faith hers, so she will not bring herself to condemn you publicly; I, however, labor under no such constraints.

So I hope your God will forgive me if I pray that, when you finally come face to face with Him (assuming that your teachings are actually correct about His existence, Heaven and Hell and so forth), He throws you down into the lower depths of Lucifer's realm for all eternity for wrongly interpreting His will and adding to the pain, misery and shame that people with HIV/AIDS already suffer.

Comments

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

AIDS is God's way of punishing people for having sex.

That's got to be how they think of it.

"God" is a petty, cruel, vicious, demanding, misogynistic asshole with super-powers.

I've stopped trying to please people who CANNOT be pleased EVER. I have got more important things to do than worry about some Catholic's "Invisible Sky Friend" wanting to torture me for all eternity because I eat shrimp on Fridays, while wearing cotton/polyester blend clothing and don't go to church to kiss His ass once a week.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I look at it this way. I was endowed by the Creative Entity with brains. If S/He is going to get upset because I *use them*? I want no part of it.

That said, I think a certain Rabbi was a rather wise man and had a lot of good things to say, a number of which are misunderstood by the masses... and I also think there's a whole lot more truth, and a whole lot more weirdness, out there than 98% of folks who find themselves in a pew on Sunday will admit.

But I think you're spot on in rejecting all the pettyness most of those people try to foist on us...

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

The shame isn't the opposition to condom use, although that's pretty bad. It's repeating the blatant untruth that condoms actually help spread the disease. He's either disingenuous, utterly ignorant, or lying, none of which a Pope can afford to be when he affects so many people's health and lives.

It's time to get a Pope who's both informed and honest.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

"disingenuous" just means "lying badly". Which has to be the truth here, because Josef is not stupid. Karol wouldn't have put up with him. (Although I think Karol erred in grooming Josef to be his successor. Rome needed a pope that would be more inclusive, not less.... and the guy who ran the successor to the Inquisition is *not* gonna be more inclusive!)

*sigh* The Church will either get a clue, or it will fall. The problem is, like certain other cathedral-based entities (I'm thinking specifically of the one over here in Redmond), it has a long way to fall, and too many good people will go with it when it does unless they're smart enough to get out first.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Then let's amend that last to "blatantly lying", to make it utterly clear. Or would you prefer "unabashedly" -- as it's clearly both.

I don't need the Church to fall. I just need it to get somewhere into the latter half of the 20th Century, which is at least six hundred years past where it's stuck.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Both.... but nevermind about the bread, Rabbit. :)

Frankly, I would rather it *not* fall. There is great potential for good there, *iff* they'll take the opportunity. (Certainly people like Mother Teresa did a lot of good alreddie.) And most of the rank and file, both lay people and front-line priests and nuns, are nice people who are trying to help as best they can. But I fear what passes for leadership weighs heavily... and the laws of entropy cannot be denied.

[maugorn.livejournal.com]

Preach it brother!
Amen

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

Y'know...there's a reason that there so many Emperor Popentine photoshopped pictures out there...

*sigh*

I don't know how the head of the Inquisition got elected to the papacy but it was definitely a mistake.

And we know how long it takes the Catholic Church to admit a mistake...

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

tell us how you REALLY feel!

Actually, I just consider the source and one other recent pronouncement, specifically regarding some other "holy man" who had been excommunicated.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

He will. On both counts. This is not only evil, it's blatantly stupid, and the Christian God I learned about at school was against both of those things.

As I've said elsewhere, I'm quite convinced that the cardinals who elected Ratzinger are having definite second thoughts, whatever they may feel obliged to say in public.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

The Pope is disturbingly wrong on this issue... unless he's more concerned with the Catholic afterlife than life here on Earth.

While I don't want to underplay the death and misery his statements will cause, there is a feedback loop: Anyone who listens to the Pope about condoms and AIDS is far more likely to die, resulting in fewer people who listen to the Pope.

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

unless he's more concerned with the Catholic afterlife than life here on Earth.

Most of the REALLY REALLY hard-core in-your-face religious folks I know are using this existence we have as purely an "afterlife insurance policy". What happens here is MEANINGLESS unless it gets their soul into heaven.

After all, the pure wonderful souls of all of us (which is the ONLY part that matters to "God") are trapped in these filthy dirty nasty evil sinful bodies. Why should we want to protect those horrible nasty things? Souls are SO much more important than anything else.

I was a Sunday School teacher once.

I blame it on being 16 and stupid.

Ugh. I can't believe I ever taught kids to believe that sort of crap.

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

So let me get this straight:
The CEO of the planet's largest faith-based "nonprofit" organisation wants people to breed like rabbits, but only when they're married, at a point where humans are on the threshold of outstripping the planet's capability to support them, then he says Africans should abandon their "superstitious beliefs" which have stood faithfully for uncounted centuries and instead embrace his superstitious beliefs, which have only just cracked 2,000 years. And he proposes all this while wearing a white a dress?

I'll stick to the customs of my home planet, thanks.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

the reddit discussion got interesting: http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/85xia/

[dsthomas.livejournal.com]

I understand abstinence worked for Bristol Palin. This is not the way to battle teen pregnancy. However, I know for certain that condoms have saved lives! To 'curse' the use of a condom is ludicrous. Pregnancy, diseases, and father-of-the-girl-shotgun-weddings are avoided with the use of a condom.