Shameful trappings of the papacy

We should not ignore the symbolism of this whole transition. Supreme Pontiff with all his trappings now goes temporarily to lavish vacation home of popes. Then he will return to specifically built quarters just for him with lavish care and attendants. The head of the church, Jesus, was shamefully crucified before two thieves. He never had all these attendants and always served rather than served. The trappings of the papacy remains a prodigious scandal to the Crucified Jesus who insisted that the leaders should serve and that the last should be first.

Galileo and Contraception--The pope's speech

"And we knew that the relationship between the Church and the modern period, right from the outset, had been slightly fraught, beginning with the Church’s error in the case of Galileo Galilei; we were looking to correct this mistaken start and to rediscover the union between the Church and the best forces of the world, so as to open up humanity’s future, to open up true progress." (MEETING WITH THE PARISH PRIESTS AND THE CLERGY OF ROME ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI Paul VI Audience Hall Thursday, 14 February 2013) How many caught this in the pope's speech? Comparable to Galileo is the church's stand on contraception. Contraception is considered one of the great health advances of the twentieth century. Yet the RCC has given more grief and caused more harm with its resistance to condoms and other methods to limit birth. Will a future council or synod seek to "correct this mistaken start and to rediscover the union between the Church and the best forces of the world, so as to open up humanity’s future, to open up true progress." Then came Ottaviani, Woyitla and Humanae Vitae. And of course, those self aggrandizers, Neuhaus, wiegel and Novak. Quite an interesting comment by the pope. Do we see the irony?

Wash the feet of one another. Servants not Priests. Gary Wills

The preoccupation with the apology is an unfortunate distraction from the theology involved. Will's theology is sound and Vatican II began to straighten that out until Ottaviani and Co. started to modify the documents. So this is nothing new. This is why Vatican II talked about "presider" rather than priest. The Body of Christ is really the church which is what Jesus meant when he said that the second commandment, Love your neighbor, is equal to the first, Love God with all your being. The harmful sacralization of presiders is a principal reason why there is so much error surrounding this office. At one time there were priests solely for the purpose of saying Mass, nothing else, so they could monetize the stipends. The fallacy that each Mass saves a thousand worlds is related to this. Nowadays a terrible practice of sending Nigerian and Indian priests here is an apt example. Worst of all because these men are needed to minister to their own people so many of whom are living in squalor. The idea for sending the priests here is to continue the Eucharist. The fact is that the community makes the Eucharist, not the priest. That terrible error allows millions in the missions to go without the Eucharist. It is not celibacy that prevents the Eucharist from happening. It is the fallacy of a regal priesthood. The priesthood and bishops are the creation of an Empire church. The hierarchy always got away with this faulty theology because of an uneducated and intimidated laity. Now that the guillotine cannot be used by the church as a weapon we see more clearly. The cover-up of sex abuse should have given us the definitive answer. The bishops and pope were more concerned about their reputation than the welfare of children. We do need officials in the church. But we need to center on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus which the Eucharist is. Not a symbol of power and domination. So stop calling the pope , bishops and priests "Father" because you have one Father in heaven as Jesus admonishes. Keep church officials responsible and remind them that they are servants not rulers. Then your scandals will be minimized http://www.taiw.org/Pages/default.aspx

Compromise by the White House on Contraception

Basically it seems to say that women who work for places that object can purchase their own coverage without cost. I do not see how anyone can object to this. As far as the Catholic church and contraception go it is an irony that what has been arguably the greatest health benefit of the modern era is opposed by an institution whose leaders are not arguably models of virtue. Any objective historian knows that the reason Paul VI was persuaded to go against the recommendation of his birth control commission was the apparent threat to infallibility of the church. The irony is that very few hold to infallibility in the church anymore. No wonder so many women are angry at a leadership who militates against their well being. These false religious liberty bishops have impinged on the basic liberty of women.