Here at God & State, we’ve been warning since the smoke was coming out of the chimney that Pope Benedict XVI was going to set the Catholic Church back hundreds of years with his archaic way of thinking and acting, and now finally people are seeing what we’ve been talking about.

The recent controversy began when the Pope decided it was time to lift the excommunication of a British bishop who denies the Holocaust. This is especially offensive in Germany, where denial is a crime punishable by jail time.

Now, the world is fighting back against the Pope.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the Pope’s decision, saying,

“This should not be allowed to pass without consequences. This is not just a matter, in my opinion, for the Christian, Catholic and Jewish communities in Germany. The Pope and the Vatican should clarify unambiguously that there can be no denial and that there must be positive relations with the Jewish community overall.”

Additionally, eminent liberal Catholic theologian Hermann Haering called for the resignation of the Pope.

In the United States, Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, took this as an opportunity to praise the Pope’s “act of mercy,” while denouncing what the bishop had said regarding the Holocaust.

And in continuing coverage of the Pope’s quest to time travel back to the good ‘ol days, he appointed a far right Austrian bishop who warned against children reading the Harry Potter series due to its “Satanism.” That’s some solid progress this Church is making.

I suppose there is good and bad to come of this. The good (for people like myself) is that people are finally looking at the Church and seeing it for what it is, allowing this inquisitory reaction to start the crumbling of the walls of the Church. The more people see that this Church (not Christianity in general) is really a front for an above-the-law, middle-ages-living, company of criminals, the quicker the world can move past religion holding everyone down. Rearranging living locations is not the solution to sexual predators in churches, and accepting Holocaust deniers is not the way to make amends with anyone.

Taking all of the “progress” that the church has made in the last hundred years or so and trying to turn it all back is not the way to advance society. There are holy wars all over the world, and going back in time is not the way to stop them. The only solution to any of this is for parents to stop forcing their children into these cults at such a young age. Allow one generation to be raised religion free and I will guarantee you that there will be more advancements in world peace in that generation than in any other single generation since the creation of religions.

But in the meantime, I’ll sit back as an independent observer and watch the Catholic Church and the Papacy crumble for all the world to see.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles is under investigation by federal authorities for the possible covering up of sexual crimes against minors by priests.

The investigation began late last year and is still in a fact-finding state, but subpoenas have been issued and witnesses called to determine if criminal charges will be filed.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahoney said that 22 priests were named in the documents but that none of them remain in the priesthood.

Back in 2007, this same Archdiocese payed out $660 million to 508 alleged victims,

This is also not the first time that federal authorities have gotten involved in the Catholic Church’s sex scandals.

While most of the investigations have been done by state and local officials, federal investigators also have gotten involved at times. In 2005, the Archdiocese of Boston resolved a federal criminal investigation into whether the church officials had withheld information about an allegedly abusive priest. The archdiocese, which denied any criminal wrongdoing, agreed to new disclosure requirements and audits regarding its child-protection practices.

The gist of the investigation is that authorities within the church failed to do enough to protect children from predatory priests.

Perhaps the real investigation should be into why so many priests are pedophiliac scumbags, and why these churches insist on their own brand of vigilante-justice, only without the vigilante part. Oh, and justice means ignoring. There are much bigger crimes here, and if the Catholic Church were any other type of “business” with all of the accusations remaining the same, the Church would have been shut down by now.

I’m sure the obligatory investigation will result in some more money being forked over to victims, but no actual changes will be filed that make any real changes. Surely this will result in another example of the Church being more powerful than anything that can challenge it.

So the real question, I suppose, is just how many children need to be abused, and how much proof of a cover up do you need before people stop trusting the Catholic Church with their children?

I’m hoping that this time the feds take a stand and make the Church understand that no matter what their codes say, when they operate inside of the boundaries of the United States, they are subject to the laws of the state.

It won’t happen, but I can hope.

The Vatican stated that enforcement of it’s “no women allowed” policy will include excommunication for all women priests that are ordained, as well as the bishops that ordain them.

The Church’s explanation for not allowing women priests is that Jesus only had male apostles, and Church law says that only baptized males can be priests.

According to Reuters,

“Excommunication is usually “ferendae sententiae”, imposed as punishment.

But some offences, including heresy, schism, and laying violent hands on the Pope, are considered so disruptive of ecclesiastical life that they trigger automatic excommunication, or “latae sententiae”.

The decree says that women priests and the bishops who ordain them would be excommunicated “latae sententiae”.”

If you’re wondering why the Church is on it’s way to being obsolete, here is another exhibit in the case. I get the whole — we’ll stick with our thousands of years old out of date rules — but come on. You gave in on the sun-goes-around-the-Earth theory when you could no longer defend it. At what point do you accept that women were not only crucially involved in the birth of Christianity, but also are competent enough to be priests.

It’s not like your whole concept of only having male priests is really working out for you so well…

Pope Benedict XVI is coming to America for the first time, from April 15-20, with visits scheduled in both New York and Washington, DC. Among the scheduled topics to touch upon (no pun intended), is the clergy sex abuse crisis that has caused so much damage and pain.

The pope’s got a very busy schedule, including speaking to the United Nations, meeting privately with President Bush, giving mass at Nationals Park in Washington, praying at Ground Zero in New York, and stopping at a synagogue at a Jewish community to wish a happy Passover.

One of the reasons for the stop off in the Jewish community is to “to allay Jewish fears over the pope’s reintroduction of pro-conversion language in the Latin Mass, and to serve as a symbolic sign of the Vatican’s concern over Jewish feelings.”

Political Implications

The pope’s visit won’t be strictly religion talk wherever he goes either. Well, it will be where he is, but it won’t be on the news each night. There are a lot of Catholics in this country, and many more Christians who listen to the pope as an authority figure, so what he says will have political implications.

Nearly a quarter of American adults are Catholics, and candidates from both parties would like to have those votes. Expect spinsters from both parties to be on television after every speech from the pope to explain how what the pope said is in line with their candidates beliefs.

Sex Abuse Scandal and Other Controversies

Pope Benedict’s visit will be all over the place. For six days, it will be all over every news channel. The pope must know that, and he should take advantage of this opportunity to say what needs to be said. If he’s going to mention the clergy sex abuse fiasco that has gone on seemingly forever, he should fully address it, not just mention it in passing. It is a major scandal, and a major problem in the Catholic Church. Being the leader of that church, he has a responsibility to help clean up this mess, and should use his authority and power to make changes, not just mention it in passing.

I’m sure it won’t happen, but it would be nice to see the pope acknowledge and take responsibility for the crimes of the church. This is also an opportunity for a dialogue between different faiths. I’m sure no one wants to hear from any atheists, but this will be a chance for the pope to meet with and talk about religion with leaders of different faiths. Considering the Saudi Arabian king is looking for all religions to unite against atheism, this would be a good time for the pope to condemn such actions. I’m 100% sure that he won’t, but I can hope that he does something I agree with on this trip can’t I?

The sex abuse scandal that has rocked the religious world in the recent past should not be brushed off. The longer it is ignored by the higher ups in the church, the worse it looks for everyone involved. Yes, it is a shameful time for the church, and a terrible crime was committed many times, it is even worse to do nothing about it, as that appears as the church condoning such actions. I’d like to think that’s not the case, but at this point, it’s hard to argue with their actions — or lack thereof.

I don’t think anything of importance will happen within the pope’s visit to the United States. For thousands of people, they will have the once in a lifetime opportunity to see one of the most famous men in the world in person. For Catholics that get a chance to see him, or even better, attend his service at Nationals Park, it may very well be a life altering experience. But he will not say anything of importance to me. He will speak broadly and echo the sentiments of the church. He will make nice with the Jewish community, and not give in on his Good Friday prayer changes. For me, the common atheist, the best thing that can happen is for this trip to be as uneventful and boring as possible.

I’m no fan of religion, but I’m especially no fan of the Catholic Church. I think Pope John Paul II was an honorable man that saw the changes the church needed to make to remain relevant. He also was a party to the massive amounts of sex scandals on his watch. Pope Benedict XVI seems quite intent on reversing any advances the previous pope made, and bringing the Catholic Church further and further away from relevance and modern times. For that reason, I hope he shows his true colors on his visit, then leaves quietly, not to return again anytime soon.

Religion must be rescued from extremism, as well as irrelevance, to be a positive force for good, according to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Blair, who has kept religion a personal and relatively private matter at many points of his public life, is now going public with his beliefs on faith.

Back when he was in office, Blair once said, “”I don’t want to end up with an American-style type of politics with us all going out there and beating our chests about our faith.”

While Blair was in office, his spokesman, Alastair Campbell, told an interviewer who asked about Mr. Blair’s faith, “I’m sorry, we don’t do God.”

Then, just last year, Blair converted to Catholicism, leaving the Anglican Church to do so. Blair has said that he avoided talking about faith while he was in office, for fear of being labeled a “nutter”.

So now that the former Prime Minister is out of office, and a full-fledged Catholic, he’s speaking freely on faith, saying, “faith can transform and humanise the impersonal forces of globalisation.”

He went on to say, “for religion to be a positive force for good, it must be rescued not simply from extremism — faith as a means of exclusion — but also from irrelevance.”

If I can offer a bit of personal opinion here, for religion to be a positive force for good, it must learn to accept that there are other beliefs. You can’t legislate morality or religion and have peaceful acceptance. For every Christian who thinks it’s unfair the way Saudi Arabia treats non-Muslims, there are non-Christians who don’t want to be told what to do or how to live by Christians.

While I will quickly concede that Christianity and Islam are night and day when it comes to legislating their way of life, it’s the principle that I’m talking about. Until everyone accepts that everyone else if free to believe what they want, there can never be peace through the world.

Religion is the number one reason that there are two simultaneous wars going on involving the United States, and it is the number one reason that the Middle East is the most unstable region on Earth.

Until people of all religions become accepting of other religions, and I’m not just talking about extremists, no real progress will be made. While I agree that Muslims are the root of this problem, other religions have the same issues, just to a different extent.

I’m not trying to knock Tony Blair for talking about faith, in fact I agree with what he said. Religion does need to be rescued if it wants to be a positive force in the world. I just don’t think that that is possible in the world we live in.

Recent News & Links…

Islam World’s Largest Religion
According to the Vatican, Islam is now the world’s largest religion, coming in at 19.2%. Roman Catholics are second at 17.4%. Sounds like it’s time for the Catholics to be fruitful and multiply to get their title back.

Expelled Documentary Explores Darwin, Intelligent Design, Religion Debate
This starts as an article about Ben Stein’s Expelled, and turns into an article about how Intelligent Design is being held back by the man. And by man, I mean complete lack of scientific evidence or merit.

Science Becoming a Religion
A blog posting by somebody about the relationship between science and religion. Makes some interesting points.

Sins, Secrets and Denial
The San Jose Mercury News is running a very in-depth series on the priest abuse that has taken place over the last 60 or so years in the Bay Area. Part 2.

–News & Links Archive–

Recent News & Links…

Vatican Security Worries Over bin Laden Tape
Anyone else worried that those of us not interested in fighting it, are about to be in the middle of a really ugly holy war?

Catholic Leader Attacks “Monstrous” Embryo Research
These idiot religionists really believe that if something has either “human” or “embryo” in the title, it must mean that evil scientists are murdering babies in order to create new breeds of immoral humans.

German Jewish Leader Criticizes Pope Over Prayer
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Pope Benedict XVI will set the Catholic Church back hundreds of years. So much, in fact, that the church may never recover from what he has done or does in the past and future years.

–News & Links Archive–

The Catholic Church is at it again, trying to update God’s eternal rules to match the modern times. This time, the Vatican has listed seven new sins that are more in line with today’s world.

The seven new “sins” are genetic modification, carrying out experiments on humans, polluting the environment, causing social injustice, causing poverty, becoming obscenely wealthy and taking drugs.

Let’s repeat that list.

• Genetic Modification -

  Morally reprehensible, in the Church’s eyes — that I’ll give you. But a sin? I tend to think that’s a bit on the extreme side, but I’ll let it go.

• Experimenting on Humans -

  What about experimenting on a voluntary cancer patient. That happens every day, often leading to groundbreaking advances. There are times when conducting experiments on humans is wrong, but there are also times when it is the complete opposite of sin.

• Pollution -

  My how the Church has changed it’s tune. Pope John Paul II was not the most environmentally friendly guy in the world, and now all of a sudden the church’s official stance is that pollution is a sin, worthy of spending an eternity in hell. Is driving a car a sin? How about that smoke that the church puffs when they elect a new pope? This is far too broad of a term to just tell people it’s a sin.

• Causing Social Injustice -

  Could there be a more broad term? Perhaps a few examples could be provided to let people know what will send them to Hell. This is just too broad a term to be considered a sin to me.

• Causing Poverty -

  How does one “cause poverty?” If you run a small business, must you stay in business until you’re broke rather than lay off an employee? While the business going under could set you back years, laying off an employee to save the business may cause that employee to live in poverty. You will apparently receive eternal death for this.

• Becoming Obscenely Wealthy -

  I think this is my favorite. How in the world can becoming obscenely wealthy be a sin? What is the exact point where you go from wealthy (and thus on your way to Heaven) to obscenely wealthy (where you will go to Hell)? Is there a point where you must sell all of your investments because the interest will push you into the “obscenely wealthy” category? What if you are obscenely wealthy, but give an obscene amount to the church? Hell for you, apparently.

  How about people like Joel Osteen, who has become obscenely wealthy from the church? How about the church itself? The church itself is apparently obscenely wealthy because they have already paid quite a few child molesting settlements.

  I know I’m going way out on a limb here, but listing “becoming obscenely wealthy” as a sin may be the new all-time stupidest thing that the Catholic Church has ever said. Okay, probably not, but it’s the leader in the clubhouse for Stupidest Thing Said by the Catholic Church in 2008.

• Taking Drugs/Drug Dealing -

  There’s a good chance that Moses was a sinner. I’m also in favor of punishing drug dealers, but there is a distinct line you have to draw with drug users. There are people with drug addictions that have legitimate problems and need help, not the promise of an eternity in Hell.

The list of new deadly sins or “mortal sins”, are, according to Roman Catholic doctrine, “a ‘grave violation of God’s law’ and bring about ‘eternal death’ if unrepented by the act of confession.”

You heard it folks, being too rich will bring about “eternal death”, according to the Catholic Church.

The first list of sins came from Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th Century and included envy, gluttony, greed, lust, wrath and pride. Sloth was added some years later and the sin of sadness was removed.

I would have guessed that this would have been a perfect time for the Church to reiterate how wrong molesting children was, not how wrong it is to be successful and rich. If it weren’t so scary, it would be entertaining to watch how Pope Benedict and his crew are trying to bring the Catholic Church back to the 15th century, but trying to be modern with how they do it. Hear me now when I say that Pope Benedict will do more to hurt the Catholic Church than all of the popes of the 20th century did combined, including Pope Pius XII.

Really, if it weren’t so scary that millions of people will completely alter their lives for this list, this would be slightly comical. Instead, it’s just alarming. If you are basing your life on what people who write lists like this believe, then I cannot help you. And if you think that God himself gave this list to the Vatican, then you are beyond help. And if God didn’t give this list to the Vatican, why would you believe it. And if you don’t believe this, then why believe anything the Catholic Church has ever said.

Stupid logic.

Pope Benedict XVI has ordered “exorcism squads to tackle the rise of Satanism,” according to a report in the Daily Mail. The Vatican has denied this claim.

According to the article, the Vatican is concerned with the rise of interest in the occult, and the “exorcistinchief”, Father Gabriele Amorth said,

“Thanks be to God, we have a Pope who has decided to fight the Devil head-on. Too many bishops are not taking this seriously and are not delegating their priests in the fight against the Devil. You have to hunt high and low for a properly trained exorcist.”

First of all, any organization that has an “exorcist-in-chief,” has issues. Until you can offer me even the slightest bit of proof that a single human being in the history of mankind has been possessed by the devil, or proof that a single exorcism has been successful in remedying such a possession, I’m raising my eyebrows at the notion of an “exorcist-in-chief.”

Also in the article, “The Vatican is particularly concerned that young people are being exposed to the influence of Satanic sects through rock music and the Internet.”

I’m not sure what to say about this. To many of us, the thought of exorcisms and Satanic possession is the talk of nonsense and gibberish. To those who believe in this stuff, there is no argument to be made from me, because it would be pointless. But regardless of your personal thoughts on Satanic possession, there is nothing good to come from the most powerful man in the most powerful church encouraging more exorcisms.

In theory, the idea of the exorcism is to drive out demons or evil spirits through prayer or other methods. The problem I have with this setup, is that it leaves it up to the exorcist, the church, or really anyone other than the “possessed” to determine who may or may not be possessed. According to the Roman Ritual, “speaking foreign or ancient languages of which the possessed has no prior knowledge; supernatural abilities and strength; knowledge of hidden or remote things which the possessed has no way of knowing, an aversion to anything holy, profuse blasphemy, or sacrilege,” are symptoms of demonic possession.

I have an aversion to anything holy. Could I be deemed possessed? I certainly would not like to be part of any exorcism, on either end, but feel that I could one day be forced to be exorcised. Perhaps not me, but certainly someone who is not possessed will face exorcism by some uppity priest and their new-found powers.

Historically speaking, exorcisms have not been kind to the “victim” in recent years. Granted, these are the do-it-yourself types, but my point remains. When you give people this kind of power, they will abuse it. That is an unfortunate fact of life. And if you think for a second that because this is the Catholic Church there is less of a chance of abuse, you’d be sorely mistaken. It’s the same reason there have been so many cases of sexual abuse in the church — absolute power corrupts absolutely. That phrase works in many walks of life, but probably applies only in politics more than religion.

There is an alarming trend to be noticed here, and that is the slow and steady grabbing of power by this Pope. As seen in his denouncing all other forms of Christianity as defective and proclaiming the Catholic Church as the one true church, this is not a welcoming and inclusive Pope. This is a Pope that has gone back to Latin masses, wants to increase exorcisms, and does not respect other forms of Christianity. My prediction is that Pope Benedict will open wounds in the religious world that will take decades to repair. I don’t know what will be the last straw, but something will go too far with him.

In the meantime, please don’t exorcise me for having an aversion to things holy.

In a pot-calling-the-kettle-black move of biblical proportions, Pope Benedict XVI said that atheism has led to some of the “greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice” ever known.

The Pope, writing in his second encyclical, stated that the atheism that he said was spawned in the 19th and 20th centuries from Karl Marx “led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice. A world which has to create its own justice is a world without hope.”

Apparently, Marxism (which I in no way support or believe in politically or philosophically) led to worse forms of cruelty and violations of justice than the Catholic Church? I agree that Marxism led to some very bad times. The resulting political atmosphere in Russia, Germany, and eventually Cuba and China among many other states that held some form of “Marxist” government was truly deplorable. There has never been a communist state on Earth that was anything other than cruel, with violations of justice. But a political theory that has only existed for 150 years has a long way to go to catch up to the Catholic Church when it comes to cruelty and violations of justice.

For starters, on the issue of cruelty, you had the Crusades, which by themselves lasted longer than Marxism has currently existed. When it comes to violations of justice, let’s go with the Inquisition.

All in the past, you say? How about the sex abuse issues with the church. Is that not an issue of cruelty and violations of justice. Repeatedly covering up cases of adult celibate males molesting young boys is not cruel or unjust? How about nuns molesting children? That’s why the Church has had to pay out $660 million in Los Angeles, $50 million in Alaska, and another $198 million in San Diego — in 2007 alone!

The bottom line is the Catholic Church is in no position to call out another denomination (or non-denomination in this case) for what it calls cruelty and violations of justice. And furthermore, as an atheist, I take offense to the fact that the pope is implying that all atheists are Marxists, or at least derived from Marxism. Believe it or not, atheism existed before 1848, and some of us don’t need to tie our religion in with our political philosophy.

When it comes to the all-time great violations of justice and cruelty, no religion in the world can compare historically to the Catholic Church. Islam is making a run at them, but still has a lot of catching up to do. But in the meantime, the rest of the world would appreciate if the pope stopped saying stupid things and insulting us.

I got news for you Catholics: All of the good that Pope John Paul II did by apologizing for past church sins, and accepting science into the Church’s beliefs, Pope Benedict is taking away. This man is setting the Church back hundreds of years, and don’t be surprised when there is some major trouble in the Catholic Church before Benedict is out of office.