As a 'lapsed' catholic, I know I won't be listening to anything the leaders of the catholic church say until they start living in the 21st century.

How can a group of men who havent experienced a marriage, a realtionshop with the opposite sex or even had children tell anyone what they are to do and what they should believe in?

Its such hypocracy - how can the pope condemn a way of life that many of his own priests take part in - how many cases, especially lately have there been where a priest has abused a male child. Its ridiculous!

Until they bring the catholic church into the present and allow their leaders to live a normal way of life and be allowed to have sex and marry they will always attract sick perverts who have nothing else except there perverted desires.

one under god: <song of soloman is about a homo erotic love affair>

Song of Solomon 1:13 A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.

Song of Solomon 4:5 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.

Song of Solomon 4:10 How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine!

Song of Solomon 7:1 How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman.

Song of Solomon 7:7 This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.

one under god, were you just assuming no-one would verify your claim? If you must lie, you really should do it better than that.

Countryperson,

You obviously feel strong about priests not having sex (and homosexuality) but you are about 2000 years too late to change the situation with regard to sexual continence.

“How can a group of men who havent experienced a marriage, a realtionshop with the opposite sex or even had children tell anyone what they are to do and what they should believe in?”

How do people with an engineering degree tell people how to build a bridge? What exactly are you getting at and why do you assume that they haven’t had a relationship? The prohibition is on sex after becoming a priest.

I don’t suppose the following will be taken up so enthusiastically by the media:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iulo8u2HSLUmoEGxml4xvq1R1PpAD95BMMVO0

mjpb comments "I don’t suppose the following will be taken up so enthusiastically by the media:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iulo8u2HSLUmoEGxml4xvq1R1PpAD95BMMVO0

I sympathise with your concerns and applaud Benedict's stance on the Gaza conflict. However, mjpb, there's an old story called "The boy who cried wolf". In case you've forgotten it, the moral is that people who repeatedly call out calamity when there is no calamity have only themselves to blame if their voice about real calamities is ignored.

Perhaps if Benedict restricted himself, as my original thread opener suggested, to matters of real importance (yes, like Gaza) then what he has to say about them might be taken seriously.

As an instance of the man's most recent unscientific pontifications about matters that are derisory in the extreme (in this case the contraceptive pill causing environmental destruction!) consider the following report and decide for yourself. This Bennie is a boy who calls wolf far too often for his own good.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jAOv_zU_KMSFrB0Mt7QEcsO0c4vg

Contraceptive pill is polluting environment: Vatican newspaper

VATICAN CITY (AFP) — The contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is in part responsible for male infertility, a report in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said Saturday. The pill "has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature" through female urine, said Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, in the report.

But that comment was from Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi...(?)

Okay, I see where you are. And I never thought (as an atheist)that I'd have to teach (apparent) catholics how the Vatican operates, but here it is. The Pope is CEO of the world's biggest religious corporation. Nothing happens anywhere in that corporation without the Pope or his representatives being responsible for it. If something is published in the Vatican newspaper, or if a confederation of Catholic scientists release some research, it is all done with HIS approval. The buck stops with him, - he's the CEO, the boss, the top dog. If some Catholic medicos say that they have discovered something it means that Benedict has, in effect, sanctioned it. Understand that this is the way things operate. He doesn't have to say it personally, himself - he has literally hundreds of thousands of willing slaves doing his will, every one of them in fear of eternal damnation. That's all he needs. Right? If it comes from the Vatican or one of its subsidiaries, then HE has effectively said it, or okayed it.