Is the Pope Catholic?

That kind of makes it sound like a cult.

Except you don’t call something a cult unless it’s also a fringe movement.

Maybe this guy is trying to create a cult. The only missing ingredient is to make it a fringe movement. Got to get the membership and credibility down. Then you can instill a persecution complex in the fanatical few.

Ooh, that’s beyond the pale.

https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2018/08/29/story-of-bombshell-charges-against-pope-more-surreal-by-the-minute/

1 Like

You mean we weren’t already beyond the Pale?

It doesn’t work like that. You don’t get 1.3B to do the same thing all at once, not even in China.

Not entirely without precedent?

The world is complicated.

then, by definition, if the Pope recognizes him as the direct decedent authority of Jesus, he is Catholic, right?

Like @finley said they wouldn’t be Catholics anymore. And it’s happened before with the Church of England and the Protestant reformation.

But I would naturally think Christians would look upon capital punishment unfavorably when Jesus was also executed by the romans.

So the independent Catholics aren’t Catholics to you? Okay. If you’re ethnically Chinese but…

…actually never mind. These debates are like angels dancing on a pin. :angel: :angel: :angel:

http://www.cesnur.org/2009/plz_sedevacantism.htm

Ok, we call the pope’s organization Roman Catholics.
I don’t think that the terminology Catholic is as much protected as the word pizza or hamburger.
Everyone can call himself a Catholic and most people won’t care, but you can’t call a hamburger pizza.
Also I am not going to make a religious study out of it.

You mean like catholic dues and school fees? They have that already.

Bit more to it than that. The Catechism explicitly states that the Catholic’s first duty is to the Church. No Church, you ain’t a Catholic. That’s why excommunication was such a powerful thing back in the day.

You’ve got to hand it to the originators of this one: as a means of achieving enormous political and social power, it’s bulletproof. I don’t think it’s ever been rivalled for sheer effectiveness. The Mullahs can only dream about having that sort of reach and influence.

2 Likes

Interesting that they refer to it as surreal. Whereas the only surreal part of it really is that it is getting called out. Everybody knows, as mister Cohen would have said.

1 Like

The surreal part is that it’s becoming a political hammer within the church. Francis isn’t popular with conservative elements of the church. He’s had political issues with the main accuser here before, he’s the guy who met Kim Davis. Cardinals seem to be lining up on political lines on the issue. Some might have thought people who claim some special moral standing might be a bit more nuanced, but true, that is totally illusory. Maybe we could have an old school schism :slight_smile:

2 Likes

It’s all just semantics. Just split off into a different Church and be, um, dutiful to that.

ahhh, but that wouldn’t be the real Church. There’s a whole load of blood-soaked precedent for that, too.

Everybody knows you’ve been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

LOL.

1 Like

Time for some sacramental Darwinism?

The Rome crowd were fearsome back in the day. But ever since they failed to quash the Reformation they’ve looked increasingly like paper tigers.

I’m waiting for Sacha Baron Cohen to interview on of these guys.

Can you imagine? “So what do you prefer, altar boys or choirboys?”