Yes, that's the amount the beyond-broke British taxpayer will be paying for a visit from Himself-The-Holy so that he can utter these immortal words created especially for those who live within the 'natural law'.
"In a speech in which he confirmed that he will be coming to Britain on a four-day visit in September, the Pope said: “Your country is well known for its firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all members of society. Yet as you have rightly pointed out, the effect of some of the legislation designed to achieve this goal has been to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs. In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed.”
Excluding gays and women of course in that equality nonsense, not being part of what's natural and stuff. I hadn't realized that paedophiles are part of the Natural Law Club.
Let's hear it once again for hate, prejudice and exclusion, shall we?
Some days I get suspended between LOLing and SOBing.
That is why i have a problem with most organized religions.
ReplyDeleteTwain:
ReplyDeleteIt made me so sick, even though I resolved not to post on global issues, I broke my own rule, I needed to vent this sooooooo bad!
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Twenty million? Is that right? I hadn't seen that figure. So why can't he pay for his own little jaunts around the world to visit his believers and spout his bigoted nonsense? The Pope pronouncing on equality of opportunity is absurd, a bit like the Mafia commenting on law and order.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder whether he actually understands what he is saying:
ReplyDelete"In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed."
Ummmm - that's exactly what the new law is putting into place!
(If it gets through - the House of Lords voted against it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8479761.stm)
And then the church complains that the country is becoming more secular!
The Pope's visit has been causing other controversies. Apparently, he has refused to stay with the Queen, our Head of State, at Buckingham Palace as most other Heads of State do on these types of visit and there will be no State Dinner in his honour. So why his visit is costing £20m beats me.
ReplyDeleteWhile you may think this is a minor thing, the Queen is usually at Balmoral in Scotland in September so has to come to London because of his visit. Diplomacy and all that!
There is also the question of an apparent "snub" to the Queen who is also the Head of the Church of England. Reading between the lines I get the impression there may be some connection to the Pope's invitation to Anglican vicars to join the Church of Rome if they continue to oppose women as Bishops etc. He has even said they can remain married and keep to the Anglican traditions.
The Queen was not happy at that announcement by the Pope and at the very least it was bad manners not to advise her through the usual channels that he was going to speak out about it. It has obviously put her in a difficult position. She has apparently sent the Lord Chamberlain to see the Archbishop of Westminster to try and establish what is really behind all this.
Seems the Pope wants to interfere in the matters of State that are for our Sovereign and Parliament and not for him. Just imagine the uproar if it had been the other way round.
With regard to the Equality Law, part of the problem is that it is an EU Directive which has been dictated in Brussels. So the vote against it in the Lords is a major headache for our Govt. The EU has already said that the UK has given too many religious exemptions from the legislation. Therefore this will end up in the European Court of Justice and I have no hesitation in saying that we will comply because that is where the power today really lies. Not with those in Govt (but not in power) in London.
We'll no doubt be seeing more of this as time goes on and the British people wake up more to the fact that we have given up our sovereignty to a "foreign" power without a squeak of protest. Who needs to go to war when it can be done politically and economically. It's just a different sort of occupation or should that be subjugation.
Religion is the biggest BS story every told. It is bunch of "men" in funny hats telling everyone how to dress, who to marry, what to eat, how to pray and bunch of other hows, whats and whos... For the life of me I can not understand why millions of very sane and smart people believe in the established religion?
ReplyDeleteAs George Carlin said : "Religion is just mind control"...
What is this "natural law"? Where can I get a copy to read for myself? Is it in the Bible? Is there a page reference? Or do I have to be a priest to read the fine print that apparently rules my life regardless of religious affiliation or lack thereof? How medieval ...get thee to a nunnery, girl!
ReplyDeleteNick:
ReplyDeleteWell said on the mafia (not forgetting, of course, its alleged financing of the Vatican over the centuries. I get just about apoplectic every time this awful man pronounces on topics of morals or gender.
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Jo:
ReplyDeleteI don't think they ever listen to themselves pronouncing this absurdities appealing only to the great unwashed.
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Rossa:
ReplyDeleteI believe that that the EU are on the side of justice and equality here and I have tremendous difficulty with religions pushing their patriarchal dogmas. And getting major tax concessions on this platform also. I am thoroughly amazed at the compliant taxpayor taking these abuses on the chin. Especially female taxpayors.
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Nevin:
ReplyDeleteWell put my friend, A total cult. Brainwashing included. And I've never understood the tolerance for the intolerances exhibited by these cults. And paid for by us the taxpayors.
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Annie:
ReplyDeleteWhat? Didm't you know that your uterus is not yours? And here you were thinking it was?
And regulated sexual conduct is all part of the 'natural law'.
The barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen thing. Maybe you need a refresher?
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I'm awfully relieved that I was not born into a Catholic family or community and that this is not a legacy that I have to discard myself off the hard way, because I'm sure it is very difficult once you've been brainwashed into it. My parents saw it fit to raise me with no religion at all, nevertheless, I picked up enough nonsense about it from the society I lived in and have to rid myself of all sorts of ideas. Imagine if I had had a true religious upbringing. The matter of factness with which the pope declares his vision, or any other religious leader, stuns my mind and makes me wish for electric shock treatments for the delusional. Anything to get the sense knocked into them.
ReplyDeleteYes, GSW, it is like they're in an alternative universe where prejudice, hate and misogyny reign and they cloak it in words like 'natural law' and infest the innocent brains of children with it.
ReplyDeleteIt is criminal and unconscionable.
I'm so glad the grandgirl is being raised without this horrific abuse.
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I can only echo what Nevin has already written. I hate, hate, hate organised religion and everything that goes with it - more and more every day. I cannot get my head around the reason so many good people allow themselves to be brainwashed - why can't they see the pope and his equivalents are wearing no clothes?
ReplyDeleteSo sorry to read (catching up) that you are feeling down, WWW.
Hugs, hugs and more hugs.
I'm glad you broke your rule, WWW. What I love about you is that you don't mince words.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why you don't have comments from practicing Catholics. I have a daughter who is one, a convert, and she is on the right side of all the important issues. I wonder how she can reconcile her liberal politics with the pronouncements of the boss of her chosen church.
T:
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, I've missed you! Yes, I'm finding it so hard to keep my lips zipped when the spoutings of the brainwashed go on around me.
And I am shocked at so many allowing this appalling man headroom.
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20CW:
ReplyDeleteI'll have to break my own rule, I think or my head will explode! :-)
Any woman or gay or other who knowingly participates in such patriarchal hogwash needs psychiatric attention.
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I don't need to express my opinion - you already know it. Herr Ratzinger is just another power-crazed cleric desperately trying to hang on to his ever-diminishing fanbase.
ReplyDeleteRJA:
ReplyDeleteYou'd be surprised at how many people make crazed allowances for him though, that's what scares me. How easy it is to brainwash otherwise intelligent people through the mechanics of fear and 'natural law'.
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