Unfortunately, it's actually not true. Dawkins posted a message on his site in clarification and blaming the Murdoch media for lying about it.
I'm seeing the Pope in that scene from Revenge of the Sith when Mace Windu comes to arrest the Chancellor...
Well, it's not on the main page. Maybe hidden in a forum, though I scanned those and didn't see anything prominent. http://richarddawkins.net/
Some of you people really DO want another European Christian holy war, don't you? I can only IMAGINE the outcome of a country detaining the Pope on criminal charges.
They're arguing that that isn't the case as the Vatican is not party to the relevant treaty. Anyway, here's Dawkins clarification: http://richarddawkins.net/articleCo...ct-XVI,Marc-Horne----TimesOnline,page2#478580
That would be bad. Extremely bad. I imagine the EU would probably go so far as to actually send a stern letter of denunciation to the country that did it. And if that didn't do it, it could get real ugly. They might even start looking into the possibility of debating the idea of considering the advisability of thinking about threatening them with sanctions. And nobody wants to see that happen.
Some of the Maltese have an "interesting" way of welcoming the Pope. Notice who's lurking around the url on the billboard.
Perhaps. But if the Pope is guilty of obstructing justice and covering up crimes, should the principle of equal justice under the law not come before political concerns?
Sanctions? fuck the sanctions. There are enough Catholics in Europe to take matters into their own hands. A government, charging their "Vicar of Christ" with something like this. Riots in the streets, vandalism, cops tasering civilians, civilians throwing rocks at the cops is more like it. But, I think this is what henry wants... only, it wouldn't end in the way he thinks with the public looking at those people as religious crazies. It would end with more religion being pumped back into the heart of Europe since the fall of the mainland monarchies.
Only he didn't cover anything up... This shit has been out there for anyone to see and remember for 30 years. All he did was write a letter telling the California bishop to deal with the problem.
Dawkins referred the reporter here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentis.../apr/02/pope-legal-immunity-international-law And that says that the Pope is guilty of crimes against humanity and should be tried by the International Criminal Court for his involvement in covering up the sex abuse scandal. I'm not seeing where there's exactly a big leap from that to 'Dawkins supports the Pope being arrested.' That's pretty much what the article says, by my reading.
I was under the impression that the article (or maybe it's some other one) had said that Dawkins would personally arrest the Pope.
The pope was the head of the "Glaubenskongregation" in earlier years when he was a cardinal. He was a powerful man inside the church before he became the pope. He even was the number two in the hierarchy for many, many years. He has always represented the conservative side of the RCC. He was aware of several cases of child abuse. But he didn't fire the abusers, or even called the police. He didn't do anything. The image of his church was more important to him than justice. I am talking about cases in Europe, not the problems in California. The actual pope is a brillant thinker and theologian, no doubt about that. But I dare to say that he is not a character who can be trusted, because the church means everything to him. And he'll say everyhing to defend it. He spent his whole life within the church from childhood on. He is a classical apparatschik. I don't hate catholics. On paper, I'm one myself. But this guy can't be trusted. I liked John-Paul II better. The guy was not an intellectual like Benedikt XVI is. John-Paul did a lot of stupid things, too. However, he had a talent to reach people's hearts.
I'd become a believer in nuking the pope from orbit, just to be sure. Of course that already sounds like a pretty good idea . . .
The Pope is the best thing about Catholicism. He's in charge and that means it's easy for us to assign accountability. Damned convenient really. I wish Islam had a Pope. It would make everything simpler. Hell, I wish the damned baptists had a Pope. Then they'd quit splintering congregations and forming additional small, crappy churches in the same damn town. We should mandate Pope's for every sect of every major religion.
Not sure at all. There are 60 different Catholic churches in France, despite the Pope. (Or because of him?) Every one of them claims to be "the one true Church." Other than the Roman Catholic Church, I don't think any more than one or two of them has more than a couple of congregations at the most. The Mormons have the equivalent of a Pope, too. I'm not sure how many Mormon churches there are, but there are a bunch. Besides the big LDS and the Reorganised LDS, there are a bunch of small splinter groups there, too. I don't think a Pope would keep Baptist churches from splintering. I'm just waiting for one of them to call themselves the "Second Baptist Church," though...
When I think "Catholic" I think of the Roman Catholic church. The others are just cashing in on the name recognition. The mormons are something all together different. I really wonder about whether some of those divisions are really divisions at all.
