Pope resigns months after launching social networking effort
Pope Benedict announced his resignation today, becoming the first pope to relinquish the leadership of the Catholic Church in six centuries - and just months after becoming the first pontiff to join Twitter. The 85-year-old will step down at the end of the month, clearing the way for a conclave to elect his successor. He is the …
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Re: The Church is definitely not a business.
I think you'll find Jimmy Savile is dead, so he isn't.
Plus ça change....
Given that he has loaded the voting cardinals with conservatives - then the big debate is probably whether his successor is Italian, or English, African, or South American.
It takes a great man...
... to admit that ones strength of mind is deteriorating.
Although he wrote that in Latin as far as I know, so that's a man saying he's to stupid for the job, who probably is still more intelligent than most heads of state. :)
Re: It takes a great man...
I'm not convinced the ability to use Latin is a sign of intelligence; just a sign of training (or of having a team of translators on standby).
Perhaps he'd appreciate a farewell gift: maybe one of those t-shirts with the inscription 'Stand back: I'm going to try science.'
@Christian
A great man, in my opinion, wouldn't completely condemn others for their belief or what they stand for. Which is exactly what the pope has done regarding certain groups. Also the way he dealt with the whole pedophile incident was in my opinion hardly as great as it could have been.
When looking back I'd say that his predecessor has accomplished a whole lot more during his 'reign'.
Re: It takes a great man...
Yeah. I don't agree with him on... well much of anything. But ideology aside, his stepping down might be one of the most progressive things a pope has done in a long time. Reading between the lines--the reference to "today's world", etc.--it sounds like he intends to suggest that not just for himself, but in general, having popes stick around until they literally drop dead is not the way forward.
Re: It takes a great man...
Habet duos retorridam testiculos et male pendentes.
And as usual the new man (of course) for the job will be another bigoted individual who still thinks go-forth and multiply is good advice in a world of overcrowding.
In many walks of life when someone reaches the top of ambition's greasy pole - then sometimes they finally reveal a long-hidden reforming streak. Anyone Machiavellian enough to get to the top of such a powerful political organisation is equally capable of an apparently damascene conversion once they hold the reins themselves.
re: go forth and multiply
Thats just a mis-interpretation through censorship. What God actually told Adam and Eve was to F*** Off.
The world isn't overcrowded. It only looks overcrowded if you live in a heavily urbanised and crowded area. The entire population of the world could comfortably fit in western europe with a couple of acres apiece and still have room left over.
Though that's something of a silly thought experiment...
The actual problems with world population are down to one thing: lack of proper food storage. Approximately a third of the food produced today is lost to lack of storage. An entire third of the food we produce just left to rot because it can't be kept chilled or frozen.
We already produce more food on less land than we did 50 years ago. If we crack that single problem of storage we could feed the entire world with food to spare, without adding a single acre to our productive farmland. We could even dial it back a bit and let more go back to a wild state. Oh but installing refrigeration and letting people live their lives just doesn't have the same impact as "we need to reduce the population somehow!" does it?
Without immigration from the developing world, the developed world's population growth would be negative. Given, therefore, that the majority of population growth occurs almost entirely in the developing world, whenever I hear someone whining about the world being overpopulated I can't help but wonder if they have some deep-seated compulsion to prevent those awful darkies from breeding and are disguising their desire for ethnic cleansing as the noble pursuit of "saving the planet".
"and are disguising their desire for ethnic cleansing"
Africa is becoming more and more urbanised. Farmers either grow cash crops for export or can't compete against the low local prices generated by food aid. Forests are stripped for fuel, and water used, in non-sustaining ways. Aid funding for any purpose is liable to disappear into the pockets of corrupt officials and rulers.
The western world also had booming populations even in the early 20th century - when poor health care, social need, and little birth control resulted in uncontrolled family sizes often in double figures.
It isn't a question of feeding the world's population from available produce - that will be a moving target like the Hare and Tortoise. The need is to stabilise the population so that everyone has the chance of a decent life. That's achieved by good governance, education, and reliable birth control.
Re: re: go forth and multiply
Thats just a mis-interpretation through censorship. What God actually told Adam and Eve was to F*** Off.
I always thought "go forth and Multiply" was more like a vague and inscrutable (as is His wont) warning against Adders.
And not listening to the sky-fairy fans telling ladies to basically become baby making machines.
@ AC 13:40
Concerns about overpopulation have nothing to do with lack of food. All you're doing is revealing your lack of comprehension of the issue.
Re: re: go forth and multiply @Frumious Bandersnatch
"warning against Adders." Yes but they'd use logs!
"Oh but installing refrigeration and letting people live their lives just doesn't have the same impact as "we need to reduce the population somehow!" does it?"
Let's put it more simply, then: the world is too full of humans who consume megatons of resources that either cannot be replaced fast enough or cannot be replaced at all.
I agree with you: overcrowding, like CO2, is a big fat juicy red herring.
But humans like pretending that reducing their numbers and/or not producing a colourless, odorless gas is somehow going to stop resource consumption.
As you say, they also like pretending that darkies need to stop having babies.
In terms of population and/or overcrowding, however, the real "criminals" are countries whose citizens consume at a fantastic rate AND who maintain high birth rates to make more of these citizens as fast as possible.
USA and UK, we're looking at you.
Correct, and the problems are because people choose to flock to cities. So what you got is overpopulated cities and underpopulated countrysides.
One more problem with food is greed. Here we had a couple of years when the grain price where so lwo that the farmers choose to burn it as fuel rather than sell or send it of as food.
There is enough food to feed the whole earths population many times over. But our lifestyle and greed simply won't allow food to all.
Those who think the world really is overpopulated simply don't have their facts straight.
Re: So much for infallibility
Papal infallibility is restricted to a rather specific set of circumstances. Outside of those, he's free to FAIL as excellently as the rest of us.
Re: So much for infallibility
It is also a relatively modern invention (end of the 19th century IIRC) created with the specific aim of preventing significant changes in the Church by binding the future ever more tightly to the past.
Re: So much for infallibility
It is significant that it was declared just as the French took over the Vatican. "OK you may have all the soldiers and the artillery, but I'm occasionally infallible."
Worries me that he thinks that strength of body is an important factor. Maybe he thinks the Pope should be more of a kicking ass and taking names role.
Re: so much to do, so little time
Don't be silly, it's so he can spend more time with the wife and kids.
Re: so much to do, so little time
Bishop Brennan! How's the son- erm- the Son of God?
Re: bark of Saint Peter
Lads I'm pretty sure he said ark rather than bark or else there is rather more being given away in today's announcement than planned.
Paddy
Re: bark of Saint Peter
On the other hand "Bark of Saint Bernard" would have been perfectly acceptable, although somewhat surreal.
Re: bark of Saint Peter
"Not bark, 'B' ark."
That's what I call a really good pun.
Re: bark of Saint Peter
I thought it was a typo which should have been 'bank'.
Re: bark of Saint Peter
Paddy, the work "bark" sometimes spelt "barque" is a perfectly good word for "ship."
The best IT angle...
... has to be Robert Silverberg's rather entertaining 1971 short story 'Good News From The Vatican'
Re: The best IT angle...
I'm not sure I've read that one, I'll have to check to see if it's in one of the anthologies I've got at home...
Take them to the cleaners, Benny!
What sort of outfit lets their head honcho step down on less than 3 weeks' notice, without even having a successor or succession plan in place?
If he plays his cards right and negotiates well, he could probably hang on to that nice apartment in central Rome. He could hold out for the wine cellar, some of the jewels, and maybe a few nuns and/or Swiss Guards too.
Ask for the Michelangelo Pieta as a leaving present.
Although now he'll have to figure out what to do when everything is shut at Easter and Christmas...
Re: Take them to the cleaners, Benny!
the sort of organization that's lasted through centuries, wars and other pseudo intellects who believed they knew better perhaps?
or perhaps the sort of organization that's built schools, and hospitals in places where few would go and asking nothing in return. a damning statistic if ever on the Church's business acumen.
see son, for the pope to admit that he's no longer able to do justice to his job and retire takes a lot of brass. much more perhaps than it takes for a nitwit sitting in front of his keyboard taking cheap pot shots.
Re: Take them to the cleaners, Benny!
I think it was meant to be a joke.
Re: Take them to the cleaners, Benny!
>that's lasted through the centuries
The egyptian pharaos lasted longer, so that's Ra 1 : JC 0
Even the original line-up, Yawheh 1.0, are doing pretty well despite 2000 years of the church trying to wipe them out.
>asking nothing in return
Other than would you mind transferring all your gold to Spain, converting to our new religion and giving us your continent.
Re: Take them to the cleaners, Benny!
"or perhaps the sort of organization that's built schools, and hospitals in places where few would go and asking nothing in return."
Nothing, except blind obedience.
Re: Take them to the cleaners, Benny!
funny i don't recall Mother Thresa doing this when caring for the sick and dying in India, most of whom were non catholics. I myself have worked with the nuns at a home dedicated to looking after children with defects abandoned by their parents. i've also visited and helped out in old age homes many of the residents of which are non catholics.
from my experience of actually being there as oppesed to reading stuff on the internet, i can tell you, no gold changed hands.
Bookies favourite
Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana is the bookies' hot favourite. He appears to have been groomed by the retiring Pope as the successor. In this unique situation the retiring Pope will obviously still wield some unofficial power over the convocation. A scriptural scholar with no change on the views of contraception or HIV/AIDS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Turkson
Re: Bookies favourite
not too sure the word 'groomed' is entirely appropriate when discussing the clergy.
strike that
it's all too appropriate.
Or perhaps just a bit of an over-reaction to Obama refusing to build his Death Star...
Another Twitter prima donna
He read all the criticism of his tweets and just decided to rage quit.
A break with tradition.
The Pontifical Election Conclave could choose to be really modern and appoint from outside the business by selecting a woman.
I hear Carly Fiorina's probably available at the right price.
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