bonduca

You blasphemer! Only Sally Field can fly.

4th Generation Atheist

...and a big clove of garlic in every school lunch meal (hey, it would be the first time a school lunch actually tasted like something), roses over the door, and a specific policy stating that until your child appeared on the school grounds in daylight he or she is specifically not invited.

Hey, it would make about as much sense as some current school policies!

Mutant Insectoid

That piece of crap Poop.

Mecha_Dude

The pope can only fly after consuming 87 eight-balls of crack with robert downey Jr.

The Naked Mage

Pope in a Wood Chipper would be a great name for an industrial metal album.

dk

I find it hard to reconcile the good this pope has done on the world theatre for Jews, Moslems, workers and the poor with the obvious hostility in this thread. It doesn't seem rational.

simian

This pope seems to be backpeddling on the progress that had been made since the '60s (? Vatican II). He is pushing magical thinking (creating a huge number of saints, and getting rid of the "Devil's Advocate" position - the person charged with questioning the "miracles" by showing how they could be natural events). The Vatican seems to be increasingly trying to tell the rest of the religious world they will be going to hell. And I have no doubts that he has named the next Pope - he has named over 90% of the voting Cardinals the last I heard. The next Pope will probably be at least as scary as this one....

Simian

Toto

Oh come on. What good has the Pope done? He has criticized traditional Catholic anti-Semitism, but are we supposed to give him a reward for finally making an attempt to live up to Christian values? He finally apologized for the Crusades?

The main thing this Pope has done is to solidify the conservative backlash against the brief period of liberalization of John 23. He has quashed liberation theology. He has tried to make sure that the Catholic church will never agree to the use of birth control. (He's not just opposed to abortion - he's opposed to birth control.) Keeping birth control technology in the 15th century creates major problems for the poor, the workers, and the world as a whole.

daemon

Tell you what, you tell us what good the Pope has done for "Jews, Moslems, workers and the poor."

Allow me to point out the following comment made by the Pope, according to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/08/19/pope.poland.mon/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>:
Genetic manipulation and the establishment of the limit of death are what medicine is about, and the Pope condemns it. "Death good, life bad," teaches the Pope. Hooray for ignorance!

[ September 20, 2002: Message edited by: daemon ]</p>