Catholic God Revises Position on Condom Use

In 2009 God told Pope Benedict XVI to tell you that using condoms increases the problem of AIDS. It's now a year later and it looks like God has informed the Pope that it has an update on its position on condom use and HIV:

VATICAN CITY – In a seismic shift on one of the most profound — and profoundly contentious — Roman Catholic teachings, the Vatican said Tuesday that condoms are the lesser of two evils when used to curb the spread of AIDS, even if their use prevents a pregnancy.

...

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told reporters Tuesday that he asked the pope whether he intended his comments to apply only to men. Benedict replied that it really didn't matter, the important thing was that the person took into consideration the life of another.

"I personally asked the pope if there was a serious, important problem in the choice of the masculine over the feminine," Lombardi said. "He told me no. The problem is this: ... It's the first step of taking responsibility, of taking into consideration the risk of the life of another with whom you have a relationship."

"This is if you're a man, a woman, or a transsexual. ... The point is it's a first step of taking responsibility, of avoiding passing a grave risk onto another," Lombardi said.

Any guesses on what God's position on condom use will be next year?

The Vatican: For Child-Raping Priests, Follow Medical Advice; For Nine-Year-Old Raped Girls, Excommunicate the Ob/Gyn

Photo by Sergey Gabdurakhmanov

Interesting. When it comes to priests raping minors the Vatican relies on, and follows, the professional recommendation of medical personnel:

"Only upon receipt of full assurance from qualified psychological counselors was the priest in question re-introduced into limited service, under supervision and with extensive limitations on his access to parishioners, after which he did not re-offend," Lena [the attorney for Levada, the top Vatican official who oversees the office that handles cases of alleged abuse by priests] said in an e-mail.

Even Pope Benedict is aware of this practice, so much so that he tries to use it as an excuse, one of the many excuses frenziedly flung to the wall as of late by church representatives and their enablers, in a mad dash to evade responsibility.

On the other hand, when it comes to nine-year-old girls who've been impregnated by their stepfather the Vatican just excommunicates the Ob/Gyn who performs the therapeutic abortion, medical advice be damned forever and ever to the fiery pits of hell.

I guess having a monopoly on the One.True.Morality (TM), you know, the very one the Catholic Church insists should be shoved down the throats of countless patients and their physicians and be made part of their medical care, isn't all that's cracked up to be after all.

Pope Benedict XVI's Final Word on the Case of the Nine-Year-Old Rape Victim Who Underwent an Abortion

Photo by roblisameehan

Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church have come out with the definitive pronouncement on the case of the 9-year-old Brazilian girl who was raped by her stepfather and underwent a therapeutic abortion: the Ob/Gyn who performed the abortion and the parent who consented, still totally excommunicated.

Apparently, the Catholic Sky Fairy wanted to make sure you didn't get the wrong impression from the Brazilian bishops who overturned the original excommunication or from Monsignor Rino Fisichella's gentle criticism of insensitivity.

So the Catholic Sky Fairy told the Pope to tell you that a therapeutic abortion constitutes a grave offense that does irreparable harm to the whole of society.

In other words, formal cooperation in emptying the uterus of products of conception constitutes a grave offense punishable by excommunication. On the other hand, allowing a 9-year-old kid to die a slow and painful death constitutes a whimsical gaffe, free of repercussions, one sanctioned by the Catholic Sky Fairy as an invaluable benefit to the whole of society.

No wonder President Obama recently explicitly expressed his commitment to Pope Pope Benedict XVI to reducing the number of abortions and to listen to the Church's concerns on moral issues. Withholding needed medical treatment from little kids and allowing them to drop dead prematurely in droves under the watchful eye of the Catholic church will go a long way towards insuring there will be fewer sexually mature people around capable of becoming pregnant. Brilliant plan if you ask me.

President Obama and the Pope Meet, Affirm Mutual Goal to Limit Your Access to Medical Care

(CBS)

President Obama meets with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican for 25 minutes and, amid discussing the encyclical released by the pope earlier this week, the situation in the Middle East, Cuba and Honduras, interfaith dialogue, countering Muslim extremism, immigration and bioethics, Obama makes sure to promise his BFF that he would work to limit how many abortions take place each year in the United States:

"The pontiff told me that President Obama affirmed his personal commitment to try to reduce the number of abortions in the United States," spokesman Federico Lombardi said, according to Agence France-Presse.

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This was the first meeting between President Obama and Pope Benedict. Mr. Obama sought common ground on abortion and stem cell research during the meeting, McDonough said, despite the differences between Benedict and the pro-choice president.

At the staunchly Catholic University of Notre Dame earlier this year, the president stressed his desire to reduce the number of abortions in America.

"Let’s make adoption more available," he said. "Let’s provide care and support for women who do carry their children to term. Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded not only in sound science, but also in clear ethics, as well as respect for the equality of women."

Sure, there's no sound science showing that the availability of adoption has an impact on the abortion rate, or that women who carry to term aren't provided care and support, or that existing conscious clauses aren't sensible and don't honor the conscience of those who disagree with, you know, the availability of safe and effective medical procedures for pregnant patients. But other than that, let us, indeed, make sure that all our female reproductive health care policies are grounded in science and, equally important, that they accommodate the personal beliefs of this or that religious sect.

Pope Benedict XVI Mocks Women's Reproductive Health

"Particularly disturbing is the crushing yoke of discrimination that women and girls so often endure, not to mention the unspeakable practice of sexual violence and exploitation which causes such humiliation and trauma," Benedict told an audience of government leaders and foreign diplomats in the late afternoon.

He also criticized what he called the "irony of those who promote abortion as a form of 'maternal' health care." The pope was referring to an African Union agreement signed by Angola and 44 other countries that abortion should be legal in cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is endangered.

"How disconcerting the claim that the termination of life is a matter of reproductive health," Benedict said.

You know what's actually ironic? That the earthly representative of one of the many Sky Fairies and/or ETs people believe in is unable to grasp the concept that the uterine container is in fact a ZOMG!! human life.

And you know what's disconcerting? Permitting your Supreme Leader, the Pope (PBUH), to mock and belittle women's reproductive health care without condemnation.

Vatican Prepares for War With the United States

Q: When is lying and calling for a foreign religious potentate to threaten our legislators in order to interfere with the passage of laws acceptable?

A: Do you even have to ask?

(Freedom of Choice Act)

Pope Benedict XVI in the City

Today the Pope celebrates Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Meanwhile, all the support vehicles and personnel are tucked away from view, parked on my street. Which, if you ask me, is odd seeing how I live quite a few blocks away from St. Patrick's.

Papal visit 2008

Papal visit 2008

Papal visit 2008

Papal visit 2008

UPDATE: Mystery solved. All these people and equipment aren't the primary crew; they're the support team. From what I've seen on TV (the Popemobile is just making its way down 5th Ave.), the B team is about x3 the size of the A team.

Contraception Is A Mortal Sin

Photo by pagedooley

News Flash: God told Pope Benedict XVI to tell Bishop Gianfranco Girotti to tell you that the seven deadly sins v2.0 is now available for wide release.