# Benedict XVI vs. Spain **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 22, 2005, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629 "2005-04-22T17:00:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Avenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Avenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avenger)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/21 "2005-04-23T13:48:37Z")
> [@](#): > > The cardinal insisted that just because something was made law it did not make it right. Yeah it’s the same as if, just because it was made compulsary to join the Hitler Youth, it wouldn’t make it the right thing to do. Oh wait… ---
**Author:** ![EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilHamsterOnCrack)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/22 "2005-04-23T14:27:30Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > My point being that, _pace_ an earlier poster who commented “See folks, this is why liberal non-Catholics were perturbed to see Ratzinger get the funny hat.”, no matter whose brows the funny hat towered over the response from the Vatican would have been identical. > > Up to speed now? No, it wouldn’t. That’s the point of this thread. A less (for lack of a better word) tough conservative pope, may not have given his blessing for the law, or even condemned it (most likely), but not told the Roman Catholics in government to go against their civic duty. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/23 "2005-04-23T16:25:25Z")
> [@EvilHamsterOnCrack](#): > > No, it wouldn’t. That’s the point of this thread. A less (for lack of a better word) tough conservative pope, may not have given his blessing for the law, or even condemned it (most likely), but not told the Roman Catholics in government to go against their civic duty. Reading the thread again (less hurriedly this time) and thinking about it I have to concede the point. It is less likely that a more liberal Cardinal would have rung the civil disobedience bell. My response was based on a false reading and I apologize. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/24 "2005-04-23T18:38:44Z")
Go Spain! Anyways, since the new law does not mandate that priests perform gay weddings (I presume) I really don’t see what his point is. Torquemada has been jobless for a while, maybe he should seek his old post. A big meh! for the new old dude in funny clothes. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/25 "2005-04-23T19:51:28Z")
[http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/cdf.html](http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/cdf.html) It sure sounds like the department he headed could have been called the RCC gestapo. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/26 "2005-04-23T19:53:38Z")
> [@EvilHamsterOnCrack](#): > > No, it wouldn’t. That’s the point of this thread. A less (for lack of a better word) tough conservative pope, may not have given his blessing for the law, or even condemned it (most likely), but not told the Roman Catholics in government to go against their civic duty. Yeah. Catholics should pay no mind to that subversive long-hair hippie dude who told them to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/27 "2005-04-23T19:56:01Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > [The Ratzinger Fan Club: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith](http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/cdf.html) > > It sure sounds like the department he headed could have been called the RCC gestapo. Well, it _was_ the Inquisition… ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/28 "2005-04-23T20:23:03Z")
Yeah, but we didn’t expect the \*German \*inquisition. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/29 "2005-04-23T20:25:12Z")
> [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > Yeah, but we didn’t expect the \*German \*inquisition. > > 😉 NOBODY expects the German Inqui…wait…that’s not right. I’ll come in again. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/30 "2005-04-23T20:36:56Z")
> [@Steve MB](#): > > Yeah. Catholics should pay no mind to that subversive long-hair hippie dude who told them to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. Maybe the pope is just looking at the rest of that instruction. Of course, your interpretation as to what is due to God is probably somewhat different from his. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/31 "2005-04-23T22:16:07Z")
> [@thirdwarning](#): > > Maybe the pope is just looking at the rest of that instruction. Of course, your interpretation as to what is due to God is probably somewhat different from his. And I thank God for that daily! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/32 "2005-04-24T02:31:57Z")
> [@thirdwarning](#): > > Maybe the pope is just looking at the rest of that instruction. Of course, your interpretation as to what is due to God is probably somewhat different from his. Ok. So I take it marrige (even secular marriage) is what is God’s? Then I assume all those officials the Pope is directing this to will also quite their jobs rather than oversee marriages between divorced people? Or for that matter people who wern’t virgins. And obviously they should quit there jobs rather than facilitate the marriage of non-Christians, right? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/33 "2005-04-24T06:24:29Z")
Benedict XVI can excommunicate anybody … if he’s prepared ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/34 "2005-04-24T06:57:30Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > Benedict XVI can excommunicate anybody … if he’s prepared He’s Ratman! ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/35 "2005-04-24T07:06:22Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > He’s Ratman! :snort: ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/36 "2005-04-24T07:41:46Z")
> [@Avenger](#): > > Yeah it’s the same as if, just because it was made compulsary to join the Hitler Youth, it wouldn’t make it the right thing to do. > > Oh wait… Hah! ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/37 "2005-04-24T07:47:58Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > He’s Ratman! I think of him more as ratbastard. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/38 "2005-04-24T08:44:39Z")
meeeb meeeb meeeeb Here comes the fruit light brigade. Give it to him boys! oh. You don’t mind me calling you fruits, fairies, poofs, girlie men and umm… turd burglars do you? I guess it can’t be any worse than calling the pope: Benny asshole, ratman or ratbastard or Christianity anachronistic hogwash and such. So get to him lads! That’s the spirit! ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/39 "2005-04-24T09:07:27Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > meeeb meeeb meeeeb Here comes the fruit light brigade. Give it to him boys! > > oh. You don’t mind me calling you fruits, fairies, poofs, girlie men and umm… turd burglars do you? I guess it can’t be any worse than calling the pope: Benny asshole, ratman or ratbastard or Christianity anachronistic hogwash and such. So get to him lads! That’s the spirit! Which would make you a bigoted motherfucker. Well, if your mother would even have you. I’m sure she regrets your trip through her once and would pass on a repeat. See… now THAT’S a cheap shot, you asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629/40 "2005-04-24T09:23:27Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > [The Ratzinger Fan Club: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith](http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/cdf.html) > > It sure sounds like the department he headed could have been called the RCC gestapo. I’ve only skimmed [one document](http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20040731_collaboration_en.html) and to be honest, I can’t tell what the hell it’s talking about. > [@](#): > > A second tendency emerges in the wake of the first. In order to avoid the domination of one sex or the other, their differences tend to be denied, viewed as mere effects of historical and cultural conditioning. In this perspective, physical difference, termed sex, is minimized, while the purely cultural element, termed gender, is emphasized to the maximum and held to be primary. The obscuring of the difference or duality of the sexes has enormous consequences on a variety of levels. This theory of the human person, intended to promote prospects for equality of women through liberation from biological determinism, has in reality inspired ideologies which, for example, call into question the family, in its natural two-parent structure of mother and father, and make homosexuality and heterosexuality virtually equivalent, in a new model of polymorphous sexuality. > > 1. While the immediate roots of this second tendency are found in the context of reflection on women’s roles, its deeper motivation must be sought in the human attempt to be freed from one’s biological conditioning.2 According to this perspective, human nature in itself does not possess characteristics in an absolute manner: all persons can and ought to constitute themselves as they like, since they are free from every predetermination linked to their essential constitution. > > This perspective has many consequences. Above all it strengthens the idea that the liberation of women entails criticism of Sacred Scripture, which would be seen as handing on a patriarchal conception of God nourished by an essentially male-dominated culture. Second, this tendency would consider as lacking in importance and relevance the fact that the Son of God assumed human nature in its male form. Reads like a buncha damned legal gobbelty gook designed to hide what it is one really means. I _hate_ people who can’t be succint. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benedict-xvi-vs-spain/300629.md?page=3)