Agreed. Sinead O Connor said some time back that she believed if Christ was around today, the first thing he would do is burn down the Vatican. I think selling it to the feed the poor is a much better idea though..

She’s a feckin lunatic in all fairness now.

Sell (out) the poor and feed the Vatican more like

She is a bit wacky alright but she also speaks a lot of sense sometimes, and I’m with her on this one!

Johnny, the wealth of the Vatican is estimated to be 10-15 billion dollars. So lets divide that by the poorest 2 billion people in the world. So everyone of these people get between 5-7 dollars a piece.
Not a lot a person in poverty can do with that right?

And Johnny, how exactly do you sell off a building like St. Peter’s basilica?
Who buys it? What will the buyer use it for?
Are you thinking about what your saying?
Or are you really out to destroy what is a beautiful city with marvelous architecture and priceless works of art and books that are centuries old?

Ah jaysus Declan, ya cant be serious?

Ruari, I’m just posing a question to Johnny above. What do you mean by “am I serious”?

Sinead O Connor, has only ever read the bible for simpletons! That or the good news bible, the all American versions, or, she clearly has never read studied or collected a single bible in her entire life to be in any way objective. I’m an avid collector studied the dialectics of the bible for the last 26 years, my collection is priceless! Just shows you, people who you think are intelligent are not! That or she would clearly understand the most ancient of graffiti where Jesus is depicted as a mule! For disease! She’s as bad as Charlie Sheen!! Insecure drama queens! Scared of the real world! What a joke!

I think the whole idea of the Catholic Church Hierarchy is to be the Antithesis of liberal! So I’m afraid it’s unlikely……

@ Anita – it is a common misconception that allowing priests to marry would solve all ills. Likewise women priests. Men know long before entering seminary that marriage is not an option. This is why I’ve no time for these liberal priests who campaign against the very Church they profess to belong to.

Haha. Dream on….

Anita: It will never be possible for priests to marry. Ever.

However, it could be possible for married men to become priests. But these are two very separate issues. I presume you want married men to be ordained, and not priests to get married?

By the way, members of religious orders can never get married, by definition.

I’ll think you’ll find the church just made up the rules about non married priests themselves – its not decreed by god – it is entirely possible priests can marry.

Dave – there is no tradition of priests marrying in the Catholic Church. It just hasn’t happened historically and won’t be happening in future.

On the other hand, married men could be ordained priests, and there is a tradition which supports this.

The ordination of married men is very different from priests marrying.

Columba,

By tradition, the sun revolves around the earth; which is flat dont you know!.

Also, man comes from mud and women from spare ribs…..we’ve been here for 5000 years………..

Traditions change…..

Anita, a lot of the cardinals that will elect the new pope have been put in place by the old pope and he certainly is not what I would call liberal. See where I’m coming from?

“Dave – there is no tradition of priests marrying in the Catholic Church. It just hasn’t happened historically and won’t be happening in future”

A Brief History of Celibacy in the Catholic Church.

http://www.futurechurch.org/fpm/history.htm

Or a reality tv show held over several weeks and phone in vote offs

They’d all just start jumping.
No, the hand if man shall be involved.

Dammit there’s a theological flaw in my cunning plan: what if unknown to all, its the devil and not god who levitates the cardinal? Feck.

Complete with bush tucker trials, dance offs, sing offs, skate offs……..

@Paul

Do you mean Pope Idol? ;-)

Father Stephen McElligott. Get a life!

Veronica was the original Aunty-Christ !

sure why not? although Stephen Fry puts it a lot better:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbvr0m_the-intelligence-debate-stephen-fr_shortfilms#.UTn1HRwqySo

Anti-Catholic comments? Is it anti-Catholic to comment on the worldwide abuse scandal? No it is just stating facts.

“Let the anti-catholic comments begin!”

You say it like it’s a bad thing.I am unashamedly anti Catholic.An institution that has done more bad than good since it’s inception,you better believe I’m against it!!!

Ok so. The Catholic Church is based on a Piece of fiction written and edited into submission over hundreds of years to suit the needs of a small group of wealthy people and the hierarchy are probably amongst the most unchristian people alive today.

I doubt that will ever happen.

Yes in the real world when people claim to hear voices in their heads we call them disturbed and see that they get medical treatment. In Rome they call them cardinals and allow them to select the next Pope. Guided indeed.

Who’s going to guide them? Hope they don’t get the same guidance to help them who chose the other murderous, arrogant bunch of fools who called themselves pope. ( look at history, open your eyes)

@ Dave – please will you substantiate your severely libellous claim that for example Paul VI or John Paul I were murderers?
I suggest you ask the Journal to withdraw your comment; I have reported it myself.
You make nonsense statements for dramatic effect.

@Lieutenant Worf May I suggest you restudy your history, starting with Constantine.

@Lieutenant Worf
The Catholic institution has, only murderous foundations!? Murder Murder Murder! Hello!? Wake the F&&k Up!!

@ Immortal – can YOU, since Dave chickened out, offer any evidence to support his ridiculous claim or answer the question I posed to him? Of course you can’t, you’ll tell me to read history again – PS I’ve studied Church History in detail for one of my earlier university courses.

here’s a stat I heard the other day ; 9million witches burnt in europe during the “evangelisation” ………… don’t have a figure for the spanish inquisition but i’m sure the c.c. have ……….. money laundering of criminal monies is it not crime by association? ……………
having said all that I think the choice of new pope is a very very important decision for the world in general…i hope they make the right choice but then again according to one interpretaation of st. Malachy’s prophecies this is going to be the last pope anyway …………..

@Lieutenant Worf I was born in a Magdalene. You dear can’t top that! My theosophia neuropsychologia is the only true one there is! Trust me, I grew up with the old boys, in Lansdown Road….And I cant imagine that the like of you could ever catch up with me, on bible studies alone, I am most certainly 25 years ahead of you and my collection is priceless as is my level of knowledge!

@Lieutenant Worf You need to restudy your history, full stop! I guess you are not Irish? My Grandfather, not I might add by any biological means, thank goodness, was the guarantor of the first Irish hospital sweepstakes! So I strongly suggest, you are illiterate by all means and do, quite frankly know nothing! Not even anything of Irish history! Get back in your box, as they say!

@ Lieutenant Worf My point being, that history is nothing more that a perversion of truths, to suit whoever, but it takes an angel to define the truth & live through it!
Tell me have you ever had to get on your hands and knees to look for car bombs?
I have!
Have you ever had to walk through a house in darkness & crawl under windows, for the fear of being shot!?
No!?
I have!
So you can take your sh*t and shove where the sun don’t don’t shine!
Because that is what it is like living with those boys in suits, the IRA, That idiots like you pat on the back for a job well done!
You are an idiot!

@ Immortal – your comments are strange and disconnected. What does the IRA have to do with a papal conclave?? What does my nationality (Irish) have to do with anything??You attack my person rather than contribute to debate. This, of course, demonstrates you have nothing to contribute.

@ Immortal – also the Sweepstakes; what does that have to do with this??
As for claiming I’m illiterate…seems like you are in need of some help.

Does Ted know you’re on the internet again?

You gave me a laugh Little Jim

Has to be in comments of the week.

Stephen your account is a parody or something isn’t it? You can’t be for real.

Mumble away to your sky fairies then

The anti-theists’ mantra of “we respect believers not their beliefs” gets exposed as a lie every time Stephen gets attacked on this site simply for making an inoffensive comment

Deirdre. Thanks for your comment. I too am a practising Catholic but I believe what goes on in the Vatican is a million miles from what Christ envisaged. It’s obscene when viewed in light of the hunger and poverty in the World particularly in Africa.

I have been in the Vatican and the wealth has to be seen to be believed, not just in the Vatican but in churches all over Rome.

And those churches all over Rome are, in fact, almost entirely owned by the Italian state.

Who owns the treasures within the church buildings?

Ahh so that makes it alright then. Tell that to the starving poor – that’ll make then feel much better

Dave – the Catholic Church, and its members, does more for the poor than any other institution or body of people in the world.

LoL

Lol, wish I could vote you up a million times, but they will only let me do it once! So true.