The number of Catholics in the world is up 57% over the last 30 years.
Of what “decline” do you speak?
I guess that’s tied up with the fact that there is currently a Pope Emeritus.
So you’re saying this is all some …Papist plot?
It’s really, really simple. Her parents put her up to this. They knew it would look bad for the Pope to turn her away. His guards stop her, but he realizes that it would look bad and had her brought to him.
You do not need any sort of conspiracy. If you don’t want to rely on kindness, you can just use basic PR strategies. This Pope wants to be seen as a friend of the people. So of course he’s going to let her through.
A conspiracy would get out, and it would tarnish the Pope’s image.
An advocate of personal responsibility who, while acknowledging the necessity of governments, never mentioned any particular style specifically.
Cynical bastard that I am, even I can gather enough optimism to give the Pope the benefit of the doubt and just think that he’s genuinely a good guy trying to do the right thing within the bounds of his personal system of beliefs and obligations to his position as head of the Catholic church.
He saw a little girl who somehow got past the barricades and ran towards him. Who among us is hard hearted enough in that moment to think, “Ooooh! I must not waste this great PR moment! - FETCH ME THAT CHILD, PEONS!!”
Gosh, the stunt WAS planned by immigration activists way in advance!
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/48e13a4f1ddc41aa83db5f44ff9e78a4/la-immigration-group-center-girls-encounter-pope
Who EVER could have predicted that? Besides, you know, EVERYBODY???
How did this become a liberal/conservative thing.
Are you that radicalized that everything has to be seen through a political lens like that where everything is finger-pointing and black/white?
What would really blow the lid off this caper is if the Pope was in on it too! 
Well, like it or not, the pedophilia scandal WAS used by liberals as a weapon against John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who were perceived (wrongly) as “conservatives.”
Now that the Pope is perceived (wrongly) as a liberal, many of the people who WERE screaming bloody murder about pedophilia have pretty much forgotten about the issue.
You’re quite right- this is an issue where political and doctrinal beliefs SHOULDN’T make a difference. But they always DO shape how people perceive a scandal.
Too often, people have used to pedophile scandals to advance their own pet causes. Liberals, with groups like Voice of the Faithful, have tried to use the scandals to push for women’s ordination, a married clergy, all the things they already believed in. Meanwhile, many traditionalists have tried to argue that Vatican II caused morality in the Church to collapse- just as they already believed.
But in reality, BOTH liberal AND conservative bishops have responded to the crisis EXACTLY the same way: by paying hush money and covering things up.
NOBODY can claim honestly “If only MY ideological allies had been in charge, this would never have happened.”
Oh, my bad, I guess Catholic priests like to lie. My grandparents priest told them followers were on the decline and that everyone needed to do their part to spread the word and try to bring more into the flock. Either that or my grandparents lied to me about the priest lying to them.
What? You’re telling me 5 year olds aren’t going around all the time using words like “galvanizing” and spelling them correctly. :dubious:
It’s the growth in Africa that’s causing the confusion. Some of the older priests are only counting them as 3/5 of a Catholic.
I know you’re just trying to make a joke, but you are aware that it was the ANTI-slavery North that wanted slaves counted as 3/5 of a person, aren’t you? It was the Southern slave owners who wanted them counted fully.
Since nobody seriously questioned that, I don’t think anyone is surprised. The allegation seems to be that the Vatican planned it.
Not quite, Astorian.
The original plan of the northerners was to count slaves as zero for representation purposes. The south wanted them counted fully. They settled at 3/5 as the price of bringing the slave states into the union.
But to say that the northerners ‘wanted’ that is to be a bit askew of history.
Duh. You’re the only one who said anything about north or south.
There’s a reason it is called the three-fifths COMPROMISE.