Are you beset with condescending advice to “just pray and leave it to the Holy Spirit and trust that we will have the Pope we need-perhaps not the Pope we want.”? Is some ratchet-jaw giving you grief about your perfectly acceptable speculation on which cardinals are papabille? Did your radio scan stop on NPR just long enough to hear them talk about the resignation as if B16 was President Bush and musing on what “policy changes” the new pope will spearhead? Consider this entry the official wall of shame and post your examples here.
Asshattery Exhibit A: Proph gives us a President Benedict XVI article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/11/next-pope-five-key-issues which implies that if the next pope is more like Obama, then we can expect policy changes on contraception, same-sex “marriage”, abortion, and women’s ordination.
Exhibit B Mark Shea once said that “I was born and raised Catholic…” is nature’s way of warning you that what is said next will be a raving farrago of nonsense. CNN’s Paul Donovan is introduced as “a lifelong Catholic and a commentator, writer and broadcaster who has contributed to The Guardian, Tablet, Universe, Irish Post and Independent Catholic News” and proceeds to call for the Episcopalianizing of the Church.
Exhibit C Hat tip to Chris Johnson for this from the Washington Post:
Pope Benedict will leave behind a church facing the same debilitating problems that loomed after the death of Pope John Paul II — above all, how to remain relevant to an increasingly secular world and to its own changing membership. This pope’s response was to insist that only uncompromising adherence to past doctrine could preserve the faith. Catholics who seek a different answer will have to hope that a college of cardinals dominated by the pope’s appointees will choose a more progressive successor.
Hmm…to “remain relevant to an increasingly secular world” by becoming less Catholic. Where have I heard this before? Perhaps:
Exhibit D What is it with CNN? Here is Piers Morgan tweeting:
As a Catholic, I’m not buying this. Popes don’t just quit because they’re tired. What’s going on here??
and then:
The Queen’s a year older than The Pope. Can’t see her ever resigning because she’s tired. #indefatigability1infallibility0
(Hat tip Matt Archbold)
Of the many, many examples I’ve come across today, I think the most
egregious asshattery came from our own president, who gassed on about
how he and our Pope have worked so closely together these past four
years… What. A. Tool.
That said, I plan on making some extra penance this lent, for the Holy
Father’s intentions. We are so very blessed to have had him as our
Pope.
This list of “five issues on the next Pope’s in-tray” had me laughing. Note that (a) four of them are things the Pope can’t possibly change and (b) all of them are issues the left invented five minutes ago.
Whoops, forgot the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/11/next-pope-five-key-issues