Should the Pope resign?

A very interesting question and one that I have being asking myself since reading calls for his resignation through the weekend and today.  Being a Catholic and one brought up in the catholic tradition of the Infallibility of the Pope, the question set my mind racing.

The pope himself has responded through his spokes men that he would not succumb to pressure. What has led to this call for the Pope’s resignation? The child abuse scandal of course. As Cardinal Ratzinger he is alleged to have facilitated the moving around of pedophile priests.

The Catholic church has through the years being the perpetrator of or has being alleged to be the perpetrator of some of the most heinous crimes in the history of man. the Inquisition, silence over persecution of Jews , and so on. In recent times it is the child abuse scandal that has come to bite it.

One has to bear in mind that the Catholic Church is an institution run by humans, and like all such institutions, it is always subject to human errors and mistakes. A lot of mistakes were made regarding the child abuse and other forms of abuse that may come or have come to light.

In transferring pedophile priest all over the place, did the Church believe their sickness would disappear? There seems to have being a concerted effort to hide heads under sand and pretend the evil was not there. Was it just simply because number of priests were on the decline and all available had to be kept?

What caused the decline in the number of candidates entering into the priesthood?  A lot of people had sat down over the years and decided it just was not worth it anymore. The Church seemed to have being blinded by hypocrisy and was content to let the truth slide in anyway possible.

Well that was my take on it anyway. I was so disillusioned by this hypocrisy that I left the Church for about eleven years. My sojourn led me to various other churches, they were not much better anyway, in fact, my dissatisfaction  only increased and I went back to being a Catholic, Anyway, that’s a story for another day.

The Church, in my view, needs to take a pragmatic look at the way it currently operates.  Why is it that women cannot be Priests? Why were there no women among Christ’s disciples? Was it probably due to the fact that in those times women played a minimal role in activism?

Talking about issues like this could lead to a bit of digression, so back to my question. Should the Pope resign over recent allegations leveled against him? I don’t know. i believe he should listen to his conscience and what it tells him. As a Catholic, I believe and hold firm the Churches dogmas, infallibility, etcetera.

That not withstanding, i would be very uncomfortable in knowing that my bishop knew about a priest guilty of pedophilia, and instead of getting such a priest off the priesthood, he was simply transferred to some other parish were it would be okay to molest little children.

By allowing pedophile priests to roam free, the Church gave tacit approval for their behavior. Thank God, times have changed and people are a lot more assertive than in the past! A lot more children would be in trouble today from priests with pedophilic tendencies.

bishops who are guilty of this tacit approval do not belong in the Church. Cardinals also should not be if they have being guilty of this. Before he became Pope, he was a Cardinal, and if he is guilty of the allegations leveled against him, then let him follow his conscience and do the ‘right thing'.’

The time has come for the Church to start living up to what it teaches. You cannot teach Love and turn around and commit heinous crimes or allow such crimes as pedophilia, where is the love in that? That in my opinion is HYPOCRISY of the highest order and it is time for concise change. Change that would mean millions of disillusioned Catholics will take the step to love the Church again, like they used to. Change that would make us proud to shout out loud that we are CATHOLICS!

Interesting………

I read this little article today and I still can’t stop laughing. The story relates to a school in Nigeria, YabaTech, which has apparently decided to enforce some sort of dress code for its students. According to the news article, “The Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, has made a resolution to take a stiff disciplinary action against students who wear indecent apparels in the school premises. This was disclosed by the rector of the institution, Mrs. Margaret Ladipo…..” I am just a bit confused as to why an institution of higher learning, at this day and age, should concern itself with the dress code of its students. I believe this is absolute rubbish and this emphasis again a culture of misplaced priorities in a nation which has simply lost the plot. Students in this school are undergraduates and should not have to worry about stupid and illiterate policies that stipulates what they have to wear. In a country where a lot of graduates are simply unemployable, the rectors and the like should be worried about improving the quality of education they provide rather than concern themselves with the see-through apparels of some female students. Then again, one is not surprised at news like this anymore. A Judge recently dismissed a juror for wearing an FCUK t-shirt! The puritanical judge probably thought FCUK meant something else!

So the Pope finally apologised to the Irish catholics for years of abuse suffered at the hands of pervert priests! The abuse was described by the Pope as ‘’shameful and hateful’’ While the apology has being largely welcomed, there is still a lot to be said about the Church’s years of silence regarding this issue. Abuse claims were simply swept under the carpet, where they could not, a lot was done to pervert the course of justice. It still makes me feel that this is just the tip of the iceberg, more revelations are still out there waiting to burst forth. A lot of these paedophile priests were transferred probably to Africa to spread the ‘Good News.’ With the African culture, I am quite sure a lot of allegations of child abuse were probably swept under the carpet and allowed to fizzle out. Ah, well, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Better be careful the way you flaunt your wealth. A Belgian judge has being accused of supporting hooligans by claiming that an attack victim was to blame, apparently, for drawing attention to his wealth in a poor area! Wow! Next time you fat cats are driving around poor areas in Belgium in your Jags and Rolls, better pray that some hooligan doesn’t attack you and claim what you own, you might not get any justice.

MAKING A BABY

This joke is just too good not to share! Enjoy!

 

The Smiths were unable to conceive children and decided to use a surrogate father to start their family.

On the day the proxy father was to arrive, Mr. Smith kissed his wife goodbye and said, Well, I'm off now. The man should be here soon.'

Half an hour later, just by chance, a door-to-door baby photographer happened to ring the doorbell, hoping to make a sale. 'Good morning, Ma'am', he said, 'I've come to...'

'Oh, no need to explain,' Mrs. Smith cut in, embarrassed, 'I've been expecting you.'

'Have you really?' said the photographer. 'Well, that's good. Did you know babies are my specialty?'

'Well that's what my husband and I had hoped. Please come in and have a seat'.

After a moment she asked, blushing, 'Well, where do we start?'

'Leave everything to me. I usually try two in the bathtub, one on the couch, and perhaps a couple on the bed. And sometimes the
living room floor is fun. You can really spread out there.'

'Bathtub, living room floor? No wonder it didn't  work out for Harry and me!'

'Well, Ma'am, none of us can guarantee a good one every time. But if we try several different positions and I shoot from six or seven angles, I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results.'

'My, that's a lot!', gasped Mrs. Smith.

'Ma'am, in my line of work a man has to take his time. I'd love to be In and out in five minutes, but I'm sure you'd be disappointed with that.'

'Don't I know it,' said Mrs. Smith quietly.

The photographer opened his briefcase and pulled out a portfolio of  his baby pictures. 'This was done on the top of a bus,' he said.

'Oh, my God!' Mrs. Smith exclaimed, grasping at her throat.

'And these twins turned out exceptionally well - when you consider their mother was so difficult to work with.'

'She was difficult?' asked Mrs. Smith. 'Yes, I'm afraid so. I finally had to take her to the park to get the job done right. People were crowding around four and five deep to get a good look'

'Four and five deep?' said Mrs. Smith, her eyes wide with amazement.

'Yes', the photographer replied. 'And for more than three hours, too. The mother was constantly squealing and yelling - I could hardly 
concentrate, and when darkness approached I had to rush my shots. Finally, when the squirrels began nibbling on my equipment, I just had
to pack it all in.'

Mrs. Smith leaned forward. 'Do you mean they actually chewed on your, uh...equipment?' 'It's true, Ma'am, yes.. Well, if you're ready, I'll set-up my tripod and we can get to work right away.'

'Tripod?'

'Oh yes, Ma'am. I need to use a tripod to rest my Canon on. It's much  too big to be held in the hand very long.'

Mrs. Smith fainted !

the day i died

Image is from http://www.flickr.com/photos/44216394@N00/



This image was taken after the recent massacre in Jos.




On March 10, 2010 © Stani. All rights reserved

the day that i died
started off like any other day
i lay in mother's arms
getting to know her, bonding

the day that i died
they came like thieves in the night
bows and arrows, machetes
guns no roses

the day that i died
gunshots reverberated
screams cries of the forlorn
people running helter-skelter

just the day before
as i lay in my mother's arms
i had visions of the greatness
i dreamt of mighty deeds

the day that i died
hours before the harrowing death
i laughed and cackled happily
to my mother's tickles

the day that i died
i met those for whom the sobriquet 'beast'
would not be fitting
a better word for describing such evil has not being found.

the day that i died
my sisters and bothers
woke in the night to sing me
beautiful lullabies.

the day that i died
while i dreamt of greatness
also i had palpable feeling of the doom
that awaits my land.

hold me mama
don't let me go
bad man is here
where are you mama?

there goes my sister to her death
raped and defiled
hacked to pieces
future snuffed out with multiple stabs\

oh! mama! there you are
bad man got your tongue
bad man raped you
bad man killed you.

the day that i died
i lost it all before i even got

the angel of sadness
beckoned to me
'come' she said 'come'
rest your head on my bosom.

i saw the angel of death
gory faced as usual skulking
waiting patiently to receive
charred pieces of my soul.

the day that i died
dreams of liberation died
plans hopes for the future
all blown away with the wind

the day that i died
just four days old i was
four hours and four seconds
all it took to lose it all