Winning friends and influencing people the Pope way

[justalurkr]

First, he honked off the Islamic world, and now he's going after Protestants.

Are things so dull and lifeless at the Vatican that Pope Benedict feels the need to stir up the dust a bit, or what?

Comments

[superbadgirl]

He scares me.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

According to Wikipedia, he hasn't managed to alienate the Jewish community. Yet. It appears to be a matter of time.

[forlornhope42.livejournal.com]

Let's not forget that he was, while still a cardinal, not exactly known as a liberal guy and that - while a cardinal in Rome - he ran for long years what used to be the Inquisition. Something like the "church mind police". After this years long high of "oi, I'm Pope now, you must love me" his true colors are shining through once more. Frankly, I didn't expect anything different. He wears shiny new clothes, but the mind is still the same.

[orange852.livejournal.com]

I'm not Catholic (or even all that committed a Protestant,) but since I chanced on the installation of John Paul I while a teenager visiting Rome with the parents, the Papacy and its pomp and circumstance has fascinated me, so I paid a bit of attention to the chatter around JPII and the speculation on whom the College would elect after his passing. Would it be a younger Pope to drive the Church into the 21st C, or a "caretaker" Pope to sort of keep things going while JPII's legacy was "absorbed"?

Never, ever did I hear anything to suggest the College of Cardinals would be so dead to all common sense as to elect a man they had to know would do his very best to undermine all progress made back to Vatican II. Benedict strikes me as the kind of church leader who prompts things being nailed to the door in protest. ;)