Pope Benedict XVI resigns

I'm sure the next pope will carry on the time honored tradition of bashing homosexuals and harboring child abusers.

From a friend's Facebook post ...

I predict his successor will be old, white, male, and conservative.

Later!

[with apologies to the Pythons]
Brave Pope Ratzi ran away.
Bravely ran away, away!
When scandal reared its ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Pope Ratzi turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
Bravely taking to his feet
He beat a very brave retreat,
Bravest of the brave, Pope Ratzi!

Wait, I'm confused. Isn't he supposed to say in office until his apprentice grows powerful enough to strike him down?

Let's not forget opposition to birth control. Because 9 out of 10 popes* agree that the 3rd world should continue to suffer starvation, poverty, and disease.

*

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Catholic Popes, that is. No slight meant to all DIscordian Popes.

... and presumably a ... Catholic.

I wonder if his working closely with John Paul II for 25 years and watching him grow old and severely feeble while still in office informed his decision to quit before he did himself. It was probably a wise move, despite it being a very odd one from a perspective of tradition.

There is some chance the next pope won't be a white European,
though I don't know how much of a chance.

Very very small. Though the time is coming when the african and latin american catholics will probably want one of their own in place as most of europe is less and less catholic.

Meh

Benedict XVI gave up the papacy for lent.

Hopefully the next papal elect will have slightly more modern views on the world!

Gays are bad
Abortion is wrong
Jesus hates condoms
Raping little boys just gets you re-assigned

Nope......it'll be business as usual.

Apparently, Benedict elected half of the cardinals who will name the next Pope. Business as usual.

And numerous others that were Cardinals at the same time as the pope (then Ratzinger) shared his same views as well....

Anti-relativism, anti-Semitism, denigration of secularity, nuns should shut their filthy Jesus loving mouths. You know, that kind of thing.

Apparently lightning struck St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican the same day as the pope's announcement:

How about this nice piece from 60 Minutes:



What a bunch of fucktards! At least one of them has a conscience.

Here's the problem with hoping for that. You are talking about an institution that believes their god has a divine plan, and anything they do is part of that plan, and that the Pope that is elected is because of said gods' plan. So if they choose another conservative Pope, its not because they aren't in touch with the views of the modern world, it's because their god feels the modern world is out of touch with his views.

It's a great system they have.....in their mind they always win (emphasis on in their mind)

I'm not going to claim any expertise on the Catholic Church, but it is my understanding that the church is growing only in Africa. As I understand it the remaining members of the church elsewhere tend to be more conservative including the existing college of cardinals. This would suggest that if anything the next Pope is likely to be as if not more conservative than the current pope.