Roman Catholic Church feels Europe slipping from its hands

[RKP5637]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-catholic-church-europe-20130311,0,2846801.story

Good!

The issue of gay rights is just one in which the church is losing its influence, and its privileged status is increasingly called into question.

A smiling Pope Benedict XVI had just wrapped up an official visit to Portugal in May 2010, during which he praised Catholic organizations striving to protect families based on "the indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman."

But barely 72 hours after the pontiff flew home, the president of Portugal declared that he would sign a bill allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed. With Spain having granted such rights five years earlier, the move turned the entire Iberian Peninsula, historically a Catholic stronghold, into an unlikely hitching post for homosexuals.

"That shows the importance of the pope's views, of the Catholic Church's views, on same-sex marriage in terms of domestic politics," Paulo Corte-Real, a gay rights activist and economics professor, recalled wryly.

More than just an embarrassment, the turn of events was emblematic of the fact that the Roman Catholic Church, once a mighty force on its home continent, is weaker in modern Europe than ever before, its influence ebbing, its privileged status increasingly called into question.

[silverweb]

1. Good.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]If individuals want to believe the dogmas of the Catholic Church and belong to its community, that's fine, but the Catholic Church (or any other religious group) has no right to impose its rules on general populations.

[Cha]

8. Exactly. Not to mention they need to clean their own

house before they start telling others how to live their lives.

silverweb

[silverweb]

27. You got that right!

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]
Cha!

[JI7]

2. as places embrace equality and more freedom the church loses influence

any connection there ?

[Go Vols]

3. Good

[Apophis]

4. Good.

[Warpy]

5. Good. The sooner the Vatican becomes a toothless, powerless

vestige of its once gilded self, the better. They've been hopelessly corrupt and wedded to an unscientific, superstitious past and are a millstone around the necks of too many people.

If you want to see what a Catholic church will become without the corrupting influence of Rome, look at the Anglicans.

[RKP5637]

9. It's the epitome of an old boys' club! n/t

[Heywood J]

25. Look at the Anglicans? OK, just don't look too hard.

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/02/world/indian-lawsuits-on-school-abuse-may-bankrupt-canada-churches.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/society/education/a-lost-heritage-canadas-residential-schools/bc-church-goes-bankrupt.html

[Warpy]

32. They aren't without problems

but at least they didn't degenerate into an organized pedophile ring/sex based slave labor racketeering organization.

[Cha]

6. What took them?

[JDPriestly]

7. The Roman Catholic Church lost Europeans long ago.

Long, long ago. For many better educated Europeans, the Church is a joke. They pay their dues so that they will have a respectable burial. That's the extent of their faith.

[whathehell]

17. You can't have a respectable funeral without the Catholic church?

[VPStoltz]

10. They might as well close the gates to the Vatican and call for take out...

because they are DONE. Stick a fork in 'em.

[Arugula Latte]

13. Nobody intelligent is buying their bullshit anymore.

[lpbk2713]

11. Quite a turnaround for Spain.

Catholicism was pretty much the state religion under Franco.

[RainDog]

28. The Catholic Church's official collusion with fascism in Spain

no doubt helped to turn Western Europeans away from Catholicism.

Josemaria Escriva was an apologist for fascism in Spain. He was also made a saint by JPII - who, himself, shielded pedophiles like Maciel.

What a repulsive cabal of nasty men - that's the church hierarchy - nothing but creepy old goats who love fascism.

[Arugula Latte]

12. Good. To the dustbin of history with you, RCC.

Oh, and a big Eff You to the Vatican.

[Mkap]

14. It's been slipping

Since the middle ages, a lot of people don't understand history especially right wingers but european treats religion different then americans. Whereas americans respected religion and placed the seperation of church and state in the constitution, europeans look at religion with a great amount of suspicion and to steal marx's phrase "an opium of the masses". Not to mention it was the cause of endless civil war between protestant and catholic that lasted from the 15 century till the 1990's with the IRA and protestant militia groups fighting each other. That's almost 300 years worth of fighting. Even in the middle ages...reading Robin Hood and the the "Canterbury Tales" religion wasn't look on very favorably. Their divorce from religion has made them a more social liberal area of the world with gay marriage, legalization of marijuana, and scientific research, as religion has less of an influence in government then in america. As sad as this sounds, the US government is more of a theocratic state then any European state

[whathehell]

19. I have many issues with the RC Church, but to blame them solely

for all the fighting between Protestants and themselves, not to mention the Northern Ireland situation is ludicrous,

[ZRT2209]

15. Good.

[dawn frenzy adams]

18. Reform or die

Good for Europe. But I don't want the church sticking its vampire teeth in any part of the world.

[Iggo]

20. Time to close up shop, then.

It's been real, popesters.

[vkkv]

21. 'Organized Religion' is the oldest marketing scam on the planet.

'Organized Religion' is the oldest marketing scam on the planet.

They sell a product: salvation, that costs absolutely nothing to make, to gullible people looking for the answers that science can't entirely explain while assimilating many cultures and traditions to spread it's viral poison of guilt, shame and selfishness.

Martin Luther formed a new church because the Pope was corruptly selling slices of Heaven known as "indulgences". The Pope was on the take from both poor and wealthy supporters.

IMHO that is!

[Le Taz Hot]

24. And Martin Luther

was an avowed anti-Semite. Additionally, when the peasantry rose up against their oppressors, the ruling class, Luther sided with the oppressors and urged them to show no mercy against the peasants. There's lots more but, needless to say, Luther was no saint.

The point, of course, is that virtually all religions are corrupt by nature (they're selling you a false doctrine) and Protestantism is no less guilty.

[DallasNE]

22. The Roman Catholic Church Has Lost Its Moral Compass

So of course its privileged status is being called into question, as it should be. And the problem goes back at least 75 years to when the Church turned the other cheek to Jews being rounded up and shipped to death camps. The surprise is that this hasn't happened more rapidly. The "protect the Church at all costs" attitude when the pedophile Priest debacle was ongoing reminds one of Penn State circling the wagons with their similar problem, exposing untold additional children to this horrid abuse. Concentrated power corrupts absolutely. We see that principle over and over and over again so the answer is to break up the power. It is the too big to fail attitude.

[olddots]

23. Its time for the R.C. church to atleast join the 18th.century .

They're sitting on enough loot to take a big dent out of world suffering ,guess they plan on taking it with them .

[idwiyo]

26. Party Time!

[progressoid]

29. But, but, but who will give them moral guidance?

[lame54]

30. Must be all that lube

[L0oniX]

31. Churches? We don't need no stinking churches!