If there was a Hell, people like Ratzi would have a special place in it.

Did he mean to imply there are those who can't? Is he basically making a case for predestination, here?

Okay, so I can only be loved by the god who killed his son if I become a Christian. I think I'll go with some other god, thanks.

"If only"... go blow yourself, Ratzi.

"All the world's major religions, with their emphasis on love, compassion, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness can and do promote inner values. But the reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate. This is why I am increasingly convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether."

"However the tea is prepared, the primary ingredient is always water. While we can live without tea, we can't live without water. Likewise, we are born free of religion, but we are not born free of the need for compassion."

Has anyone finally figured out whether, now that Ratzinger will no longer be a head of. state, we can now depose him?

Why can't christians just be happy with their beliefs and leave everyone else alone?

They think they're going to a paradise after they die. You'd think that would satisfy them, but no, they're like druggies, they're incapable of being happy unless other people validate their ridiculous beliefs too.

If only every religious person could realize how ridiculous they sound when they talk about their fairy tales.

@7: He will likely never leave the Vatican for the remainder of his life so he can hide behind immunity like a coward, never having to pay for his multitude of crimes against humanity.

The Italian government has all but said outright that if he leaves the Vatican, they are going to grab him and throw his ass into a courtroom.

I tried it. It was horrible. Jesus ruins lives.

eh, what the fuck do you expect. A "hail Satan" on the way out?

Don't worry, there will be a new asshole in charge for you all to rail against soon enough.

If only everyone could experience the joy of being gay, being loved by God, who gave hot guys to us!

Speaking as a Friend (and although there's only a quarter million of us worldwide, at the most, why shouldn't I, or anyone for that matter, have equal time with El Papa?), if you believe in God, and if you believe that God made us (blah, blah, in His image, blah), then the theological conclusion that God loves us, regardless of any religion we profess or don't, is completely inescapable. And, if you don't believe in God, then you must surely find that we have to love ourselves and each other in lieu of Him/Her/Them/It/Whatever. Either way, it nets out, we're all equal, and we SHOULD FUCKING RESPECT EACH OTHER! As equals, actions permitting, ymmv.

I hereby chastise the retiring Pope for his lack of respect for people who live their lives interfacing with the temporal and spiritual realms in their own chosen manner, differently than him. Where is the humility which is supposed to be part of his chosen Christian path?

@8 - That would be nice. But some sects require proselytizing in order to gain entry to heaven. Sucks.

@ 14, you may not be familiar with Catholic theology. According to Catholicism, the way to Heaven includes partaking of sacraments in an ever-continuing purging your soul of sin. Some sins automatically condemn you to Hell, you see, and many are committed simply by thought. Only sacraments like Confession cleanse your soul of those sins. (I forget what the point of weekly communion is, but I remember that you're supposed to be free of sin when you take it, or else - you guessed it - hellbound you are until you go to Confession.) And sacraments can only be administered by priests, who themselves received the sacrament of Ordination which grants them these powers. And they are believed to be powers - God working his miracles through his Pope, bishops, and priests. All your faith means nothing without sacraments.

Catholics are really taught all this and really believe this.*

Now, the Pope and Cardinals may know the whole thing is a scam, or they may really believe it. Either way, there is no motivation to respect any other interpretation. The Catholic Church is a power, first and foremost, and they derive power from keeping their members in a kind of spiritual slavery where they're dependent upon their priests for salvation. Even if they were to honestly recognize that the kind of spirituality you describe were valid, they'd never admit it in a million years.

This is a "YMMV" kind of statement. Not every Catholic is enamored of the Pope, or foolish enough to think that the Church's actions are all divinely inspired instead of self-interested, but even ones who recognize the absurdity of their positions on homosexuality, contraception, or the ordination of women believe that salvation comes through sacraments.

Um, my last paragraph @ 17 is a footnote. There's supposed to be an asterisk at the beginning...

If only people actually listened to Christ's message. He was just a regular guy with a lot of good ideas.

If only everyone could experience God's love and a priest's lovin'.

This is no worse than someone saying "if only everyone believed in Marxism, we could live in a world without poverty and strife." It's someone sharing their philosophical and untestable beliefs with likeminded.... err... souls.

If you don't like it, don't fucking follow the Pope on Twitter.

Caught the tail end of BBC News Hour in the car today, and the reporter was covering the Pope's last public appearance. The reporter, and the priests (or cardinals, or whatever - I didn't catch their titles) kept talking about the "terrible things that happened" in reference to the sex abuse. Like it was a series of bad harvests, or a natural disaster, or something else sad but completely unavoidable. Um, NO. We're talking about the terrible things that YOU FUCKERS DID TO CHILDREN for fuck's sake. That sort of slimy euphemism just makes me so fucking mad.

Can't expect much from the Nazi's at the end of the day.

Wonder if Benny thought of making Hitler a Saint while he was pope?

If only everyone could experience the joy of having the freedom to make their own medical decisions about their own vaginas!

If only everyone could experience the joy of being free to marry the person of their choice, regardless of gender!

Hey, this is fun! Everyone try it!

The Catholic Church is the West only has tradition going for it at this point. The people who are leaving the church now are people who won't be coming back, because they don't need the Church anymore. Once you've got a properly built set of secular civic institutions to keep us running happy lives, churches become unnecessary and can only survive by offering people a good experience - and they're too arrogant and out-of-touch to manage that. The church will hang on for some time longer in Africa, Latin America and other dysfunctional places where secular institutions stink so bad that the church can actually add value. But even there, their days will be numbered unless they change their institutional structure to break their insularity - and the odds of that are close to nil.

While I'm no fan of the Pope or the church, the Nazism accusation really is just lazy. There are a lots of things you can attack him for, like, oh I don't know, protecting priests who fuck young boys, for example.

To attack him for being forced to join the HY (like every other boy in Nazi Germany) is cheap. And really an insult to the millions of people who lived and still live under tyranny.

The implication being if you're not Christian God doesn't love you? Religions make such a mockery of God. They don't realize the paint a picture of a God that's basically a neurotic, jealous wife-beating husband. If you're not a member of God's favored human clique here on Earth, at beast he won't love you or at worst damn you to eternal suffering. Sorry ex pope, God doesn't take sides or play favorites or care what little teams we play on in our silly little playground here on Earth. A loving God loves all unconditionally. Carlin was so good at calling bullshit on stuff like this. RIP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRNZHFr69…

hifiandrew@28, most Christians believe that God loves everyone but that non-Christians do not open themselves up to experiencing God's love. The exception are the Calvinists (Mars Hill, Westboro Baptist, etc.) who believe in a peevish angry god that only a very few will actually satisfy.

Pray tell, Pope Rat - you weird, homophobic, closeted, woman-hating freak - what really goes on, behind closed doors at the Vatican, between you & your young male attendants?

And while you're at it, please submit yourself to the Court of the Hague to be prosecuted for your crimes against humanity.

How can anyone be dumb enough to continue to $upport this medieval criminal empire?

So I have to be Christian to open myself up to God's love? If that's how the system of God's love works, where you have to be open to it, especially by being a Christian, then that's still whacked. The fact that only Christians, or Muslims, or Jews, or any other religion has a belief that only they are open to the love of the supreme being is still condescending and insulting to non believers of those religions.