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Why Benedict XVI Resigned 2/17/2013 9:50:17 AM
Did Benedict quit because he was old and sick or did
he quit because of his ties to the sex scandals?
Why Did Benedict XVI Resign?
Benedict claims he’s too old and sick to perform all the responsibilities expected of a pope. I suppose that’s a reasonable rationalization, except that John Paul II looked like the walking dead before he actually died, and it’s been 600 years since a pope actually resigned. We know how important tradition is to Joseph Ratzinger.
Here’s my take on the situation: Joseph Ratzinger was Dean of the College of Cardinals before he was elected pope, one of the most powerful positions in the Vatican. As such he ruled on every single sex abuse case that came before the church, and he generally came down on the side of the priest.
Why? you ask. Well there’s the sacrament thing. Here’s the definition of a sacrament according to the Catholic catechism: “efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church by which divine life is dispensed to us.” There are seven of them: baptism, confirmation, the holy Eucharist, penance, extreme unction, holy orders, and matrimony.
So then a priest should have grace instituted by Christ, at least enough to avoid molesting a little kid. Ratzinger believed the priest rather than the victim for the entirely understandable reason that he is a priest, and he believes all the bunkum that goes with the job. The kid must be lying.
Besides the church is having a hard enough time inspiring vocations without kicking out the ones they already have, and if the church sends these perps for therapy, they ought to be able to overcome temptation in the future. Actually I was rather surprised the devil didn’t get the blame. He’s so convenient. After the Salem witch trials and hangings were finally stopped, the Puritan judges blamed the devil instead of themselves. But that would be an insult to Jesus if you believe the definition in the catechism. The devil is more powerful than Jesus? I don’t think so.
Instead of going to jail, like some of the priests who were sent back to their parishes to do more damage, Benedict XVI gets to retire to a monastery where he will be fawned over by nuns. Wait. There’s another indictment I’d like to hurl at Bennie and his predecessor John Paul II. Why did they wait so long to make contraception permissible in Africa when people were dying of AIDS faster than gang members in Chicago. John Paul II never did allow any contraception; he just let them die. At least Benedict outlined some situations where prophylactics were acceptable. Male prostitutes may be able to use them. Apparently Benedict is not aware that a woman can contract A.I.D.S. as well.
I was raised in a small town of 800 or so people; there were at least three priests who left the priesthood to get married, and this was in the fifties and sixties. I really don’t think there’s a whole lot of difference between a priest and an accountant when it comes to sexuality, except one is leading an unnatural life. So where did celibacy come from? I’d blame it on the Essenes, who indicted women for virtually everything wrong with society. The Jews were held captive in Babylon for something like seventy years and were exposed to Zoroastrian (Mazdian) misogyny; they brought it back to Israel when they were finally released. What they found was a Judaism increasingly influenced by the Greeks. So they moved to the desert and women were virtually baby machines if there were any women allowed at all. John the Baptist was most likely an Essene since the Jews did not practice Baptism, and that would make Jesus familiar, if that story about John baptizing him is correct, with the Jewish sect if not a member. You will also notice that Eve got the blame for tempting Adam in the Garden of Eden myth. According to theologians most of the Old Testament, including Genesis, was written after the Babylonian Captivity.
So what does the church do about the increasing number of priests being accused of improper relations with children? They blame it on gays. If you flunk the gay test, or admit that you are one, you don’t get to be ordained.
Okay, so obliviously I’m no longer a Catholic. How do I feel about the other so-called sacraments and the grace they’re supposed to give me? Baptism.
Give me a break. I didn’t do anything wrong in the first place. Why should I be forgiven for an “original sin” two mythological people named Adam and Eve did, and so what if they did eat an apple? God the father should’ve wanted them (and maybe he did) to eat from the tree of knowledge. But that’s not what the Bible says.
Penance or Confession: I went about once a month. Once I took the little blue book that had all the sins in it in there with me. It took me about a half hour to peruse them all with the priest, and he didn’t throw me out. And it was Easter duty time. You should have seen the looks I got when I finally came out. But I was only seven or eight so you shouldn’t blame me too much for being so scrupulous. I was afraid I’d go to hell if I didn’t get them all right, sinner that I was. From then on I mostly repeated the same ones. I disobeyed my parents; I missed mass on Sundays; I used God’s name in vain when the dog bit me. Later on it was impure thoughts and then the real thing. Believe me, impure thoughts are not a sin. As a matter of fact, sin is not a sin. Sin is a way to control you. If you don’t have impure thoughts, there’s something wrong with you.
Confirmation: This is a ritual around the age of thirteen akin to the Jewish Bar Mitzvah to let you know that you’re expected to act like a man or a young woman. The Bishop is supposed to ask each of you a question. I was scared to death. He skipped that part. I felt cheated.
Extreme Unction. The priest comes to your death bed and anoints you with holy oils and prays with you. Actually I kind of like this one. My mother didn’t even remember he was there when I asked her if she’d seen a priest.
Matrimony. Okay, it’s a sacrament. That’s the reason the church is against gay marriage. Then there’s all that homophobic stuff in the Bible about gays. If it’s in the Bible it must be true, right? Well, did God the father actually tell Joshua to kill all the women and children after the Battle of Jericho? And is that behemoth in the Bible really a dinosaur? Sounds more like Grendel to me or the good old devil.
No, this stuff is only like 3,500 years old. A mere blip in time. One man’s religion is as good as another’s. Why should your mythology be better than mine? And all the church hierarchy does is prolong the inevitable: a secular society.
