Atheism & Religion in the news
(The Pope)
Dateline: June 03, 1998
Below are a number of recent news stories involving the Pope and the Catholic Church. The stories themselves are directly from original wire reports - I have only made changes in order to condense the information or to avoid violating copyrights. What you read is what was reported. The italic sections following the reports are my own comments on these stories.
Pope Calls for More Morality
While in Vercelli, the Pope called upon public officials to display more morality in carrying out their duties and attacked Italy's 20-year-old law legalizing abortion.
Perhaps he should clean house first and give that message to the church's clergy, considering how many of them keep getting caught molesting church members. Besides, I really don't think that a celibate man has the moral authority to tell women that they shouldn't have abortions.
The Pope and The Shroud
While visiting The Shroud of Turin, the Pope described it thus: "The Shroud, what an eloquent message of suffering and of love, of death and immortal life. The Shroud allows us to understand what Christ wanted to go through... This precious linen, in all its dramatic eloquence, offers a most significant message for our life." For the Pope, the Shroud is "the icon of the suffering of the innocent of all times."
He also stated that once again, further scientific tests would be permitted because "Because the Shroud is not a matter of faith, the Church has no specific competence to make a decision on this." He also called upon scientists to keep an "open mind" during their investigations. He called the Shroud a "challenge to our intelligence."
Does anyone else see all the contradictions here? The Shroud, which has already been shown to be a medieval production many times over, cannot be an "icon to suffering" if it is a fake. To be an "icon of suffering," it really needs to be an image of a genuine crucifixion. Thus, the Pope reveals that he must believe it to be genuine - but on faith? Yet he said that it is not a matter of faith! Then he states that he wants the scientists to keep an open mind? Not only should he heed that message himself, he should then direct it at the legions of shroudies who will insist that it is genuine no matter what scientific or empirical evidence is presented. They can be a really nasty lot, viciously attacking people who questions their orthodoxy.
Pope: Evolution Theory Not Complete
VATICAN CITY (AP) Evolution alone can't account for humans' existence, Pope John Paul II told thousands of the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday. "Evolution isn't enough to explain the origins of humanity, just as biological chance alone isn't enough to explain the birth of a baby," he said.
Sorry to break this to you, Pope, but evolution is indeed enough to explain the origins of humanity. Are we talking about bare genetics? Evolution explains it quite well. Are we talking about behavior? Evolution makes progress there every year - even a cursory examination of recent research in sociobiology reveals a wealth of data on just how similar other mammals and our closer ape relatives are to us. The Pope claimed that the Shroud's authenticity isn't a matter of faith - but why is this? Why can science make claims about the Shroud, but not about human origins?
Pope tells U.S. bishops women cannot be priests
Pope John Paul on Thursday, May 21, reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's position against women's ordination, saying that the priesthood was not an equality issue and that the Church had no authority to change the status quo. He also said: "The Church's teaching that only men may be ordained to the ministerial priesthood is an expression of fidelity to the New Testament and the constant tradition of the Church of East and West." This is based on the apparent fact that only men were chosen as disciples by Jesus. The Vatican has also stated that the Pope's 1994 ruling against the ordination of women as priests is a definitive and infallible part of Catholic teaching that cannot change in the future.
This sort of thing is to be expected from the current Pope - backward thinking leading to backward policies. Oh, the Vatican says that women have special "gifts" which need to be nurtured - and in the past those gifts have included cooking and child-bearing. I'll bet women just can't wait! It is interesting that this opinion has been proclaimed as "infallible" and "unchangable." I wonder if any future pontiffs will choose to dispense with it anyway? I certainly hope so.
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