Y’know, there’s a lot one can find to criticize over the direction and\/or theology of the Catholic Church. And, certainly, there are aspects to the record of Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) that I disagree with and find disturbing.<\/p>\n
But, c’mon, folks — you do nothing to advance actual discussion by calling him “Pope Ratzi<\/strong>.” Not only is it a cheap shot that distorts the historic record (and comes close to violating Godwin’s Law), but it’s kind of disrespectful to those folks among the sizeable Catholic population (among others) who hold, at least, the office <\/em>of Pope with some reverence, even if they disagree at times with the person who holds that office.<\/p>\n Of course, some people seem to be into cheap shots and disrespect, but, to my mind, if you want to criticize the ideas and actions of Benedict XVI, or, in the past, Cardinal Ratzinger, that’s fine (and I may well be right there beside you). If you want to just call people names, don’t make noises as if you’re either morally or intellectually superior to the person you’re mocking, because you’re abandoning the high ground in both aspects.<\/p>\n I’m just saying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Y’know, there’s a lot one can find to criticize over the direction and\/or theology of the Catholic Church. And, certainly, there are aspects to the record of Cardinal Ratzinger (now…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8124,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/05\/13\/the_cult_of_per.html","url_meta":{"origin":7229,"position":0},"title":"The cult of personality","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-May-05 3:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Pope John Paul II may have been the greatest pope in the history of the Papacy, and he may have walked on water every day and twice on Sundays. But...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7234,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/04\/19\/putting_the_cal.html","url_meta":{"origin":7229,"position":1},"title":"Putting the calendar on hold …","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 19-Apr-05 10:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"The College of Cardinals has chosen Joseph Ratzinger to be the next Pope. The executive summary is, Don't expect any changes in Church doctrine or practice, except for more cracking...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49383,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/27\/because-catholic-churchs-problem-is-that-it-doesnt-have-enough-men.html","url_meta":{"origin":7229,"position":2},"title":"Because Catholic Church's problem is that it doesn't have enough men","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 27-Jan-15 4:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Of course.Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke decries the \"feminization\" of the Catholic Church, which apparently has spent so much time in the last fifty years coping with the troublesome womenfolk that they haven't had the time to deal with men and their needs. What the Church apparently needs, from Cardinal Burke's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32496,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/11\/the-golden-opportunity-for-the-catholic-church-which-it-probably-wont-take.html","url_meta":{"origin":7229,"position":3},"title":"The golden opportunity for the Catholic Church (which it probably won’t take)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 11-Feb-13 11:39am","format":false,"excerpt":"So I'm not Catholic myself, but I was raised that way, and have family who still are, and I'm Episcopalian which is quite similar (except where it's quite different, including cute English accents), so I have at least some standing and background to comment on Catholic matters. The resignation (abdication?)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/The-cross-of-Pope-Benedic-0111.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/The-cross-of-Pope-Benedic-0111.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/The-cross-of-Pope-Benedic-0111.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":32989,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/01\/simplicity-itself.html","url_meta":{"origin":7229,"position":4},"title":"Simplicity itself","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 1-Apr-13 2:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"There are any number of things, doctrinally and theologically, with which I know I disagree with Pope Francis I -- but I have to admire anyone who makes the pomp-and-circumstance traditionalists go apoplectic\u00a0with his already-evident rejection of the imperial trappings that Benedict XVI worked so hard to restore. Pope\u2019s Foot-Wash\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13523,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/21\/hug_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":7229,"position":5},"title":"Hug!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 21-Nov-08 10:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Pope Benedict is considering tweaking the Catholic Mass to shift the \"Peace\" -- the point in the service where folks greet each other with a handshake or hug, wishing each...","rel":"","context":"In "Episcopal Church"","block_context":{"text":"Episcopal Church","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion\/religion-episcopal-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}