I was raised in a devoutly Protestant home; we never worried ourselves too much about what the Pope (John XXIII and Paul VI at the time) said or did.  It wasn't really until the assasination attempt on John Paul II that I ever really paid much attention to it.  That he publically forgave the would-be assasin impressed me.  Most of the other stuff he said or did I either disagreed with or ignired; but that one act stands out in my mind.

I can remember in my youth scoffing at the idea of infallibility, still do for that matter.  But what if Rocha said about JP I's letter is indeed fact rather than fiction, it"s a shame he didn't last.  It might just be a radically different Roman Catholic Church we see today, for sure.

The Pope today could learn a lot from this fictional Pope.  But he is far too entrenched in his position, and the vast majority of the new bishops since JP II have been staunch conservatives, to the point that change from within may no longer be possible.  The brand new Archbishop of Los Angeles is a member of Opus Dei, fer chrissakes.  That'll go down well with the Catholics in Hollywood.

The Vatican is rotten to the core, and only a major shakeup will change things.  We need to either see the Pope himself on trial, and/or lawsuits allowed against the Vatican directly for systematically shielding pedophole priests and reassigning them to rape more children.  If the foundation of the church is shaken sufficiently, we may see change, but I would still sincerely doubt it.  The Cardinals who will choose the next Pope are still the ones chosen by Ratzinger and  JP II.

This will happen, the Pope will stand on trial unless the pope dies first.  The Vatican will be forced to release all of their documents by American lawyers, who I have read have already won 2 billion dollars for US victims.   the Vatican will also be forced by the Italian gov't to stop providing refuge for Bishops (and Cardinals) and priest who hide from the police.

The Church will return to the road it started under Vatican 2. 

Recently the Pope excommunicated the Priest who served as spiritual advisors for the Children who witness the Virgin Mary appear at Medjugorje.  Interesting enough because she was suppose to be saying that  the church would be returning to the path of Vatican 2. This version of the Virgin is seen as a threat to the Pope. She also is reported to have said things that are similar to what  Arminius is saying here on wondercafe and on his web site at http://www.hharlos.com.

Depends who you ask.  The UN does not recognize the Vatican.  The idea these days is to arrest the Pope for crimes against humanity under international law.

There are finally lawyers working on the process right now.  Whether or not a police force will carry out the arrest, and whether any nation is willing to suffer the Catholic backlash, are questions for later.

Good times.  Times when the you can criticize religion in general, and especially the Catholic church, for the crimes they committed this time.  Times when you can discuss arresting the Pope and have a glimmer of hope that it could actually happen.

You can not, however, fly in or out of Europe.  Oh well, can't have everything.

Also if the Italian government changes to a party or parties and they decide to make the Vatican officially part of Italy, than the Pope will no longer have a country.  That is what many on the left in Italy have wanted for years. 

I think the Pope, as the head of the Catholic Church, should be tried for crimes against humanity at the International Court at The Hague.

(Maybe that's just the Knight Templar in me screaming revenge :-)

The current Pope, in his previous capacity, was complicit in the systematic coverup and enabling of child rapes around the world.  I do not come from a legal background, but Ratzinger's crimes appear (to me) to be covered in the above definition.

The rapes of thousands of children are "distinct events in widely separate places"?  What a cold way of saying it.  Besides, this didn't happen 10 times.  This happened thousands and thousands of times, and we have Ratzinger's signature on documents putting the church ahead of the victims, and demanding the press and police not be involved.

The coverups are one aspect, but known pedophile priests were also moved to predictably reoffend.  We have two different crimes.  We're not talking about the actual priests now, but the coverups, and the movement of known pedophile priests from one diocese to another.  Ratzinger knew, it can be proven that he knew, and it can be proven that this happened in Munich by his orders, and in other parts of the world because of his instructions.  He is a criminal.

 here is a link to

UN Judge Says Pope Should be Prosecuted at International Criminal Court