When Papal infallibility goes wrong, the followers pay the price. [Or they just wise up and stop following]
For Pope Benedict, a Holocaust denier like Bishop Richard Williamson is welcome back but ecclesiastical outliers like gay folks, women who seek equal rights, people who believe the expression of sexuality should not be restricted to marriage and procreation, those who embrace ecumenical dialogue, and people who believe in the primacy of conscience (a hallmark of post-Vatican II Catholic moral theology) are not, you have to question the bigotry of his loyal flock.
Benedict is a tyrant of the orthodox minority: so out of touch and reaching out to all the wrong people. He wants to broaden the shrinking church by welcoming back excommunicated Holocaust deniers? An ex-Nazi youth like Benedict who still dislikes Jews, hard to imagine?
His ability to charm is foreshadowed, though. His homeland Germany has the lowest church attendance percentage in the world. It makes sense with guys like him in charge. Just what the Catholic church needs in these tough times.
The American Catholic Church should just set up its own authority and leave the Vatican out of it. They clearly haven't a clue.
Source: Religious Dispatches
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