a few bad apples.

Many more will see this as "the straw..." Those will not leave for theological reasons but rather that the hypocrisy is too much to ignore.

That's why authoritarians hate science. They lose control.

And most intelligent people survive their crises in faith. Just look at all the Atheists we have on DU. They're mostly just regular people who are pretty well grounded. I'm sure many of them had questions before they had convictions.

Many believers I know are having a hard time separating their faith from The Church. The Church makes it deliberately so.

I mean, say the resignation is at 3pm ...is he infallible at 2:59, but not at 3:01? Or is it that the infallibility fades slowly over time?

But if he is no longer infallible how could he be infallible when he was Pope?

is one of the more misunderstood concepts within the Catholic Church.

Papal infallibility does not mean that if the Pope misspells a word or makes a statement that it is absolutely true. what it means that the Pope, when defining doctrine, is infallible.

http://www.catholic.com/tracts/papal-infallibility

The doctrine that says the sanctity of the church is worth any number of destroyed lives?

The one that made it OK to take and CONTINUE TO TAKE TO THIS VERY FUCKING DAY, a Nazi kickback to look the other way whilst millions of Jews, Romany, mental and physical "defectives" and other undesirables were systematically slaughtered?

The one that makes it OK to enslave women and children for the crimes of unwed motherhood and fatherlessness respectively?

Did you bother to read the article?

from you comment I would hazard a guess that that answer to that question is a resounding "no".

Please read the article and then maybe we can have a discussion about it.

...and in all probability still bloody well do.

Doctrine is not just scriptural interpretation, it also means STANDARD PRACTICE.

So let's discuss little things like: The Magdalene laundries; Kirchengeld; A failure (nigh on absolute refusal) to "render unto Ceasar"; Beating the devil out of lefties; Indulgences and pope poop; Convent cellars full of baby bones; Profitting from genocide; The deliberate fostering of ignorance and spread of misinformation; Two thousand years of anti-semetism; The inquisition & witch hunts; The Knights Templar; ....

NO FUCKING EXCUSE AT ALL!

Nor do I think 58% is a truly representative ratio. Protestantism is (among other things) about independence from a rigidly controling heirarchy. They simply did not have the help covering shit up that Catholic priests had and still have to this day. Furthermore only 1/3 of American Christians are Catholic, so all else being equal, Catholic abusers remain over-represented by a considerable margin.

The release this year of 30,000 pages of documents out of California alone strongly sugests that the true proportion of Catholic abusers is considerably higher still.

Certain breeds of Protestant may well be rabidly Capitalist. The Roman Catholic Church seems to prefer Fascism. Poe-tay-toe, poe-tah-toe, both are hightly exploitative of the most vulnerable.

When does a resigning Pope lose his infallibility? What made him infallible?

Maybe its just holding the title "Pope" that carries infallibility.

Sort of Nixonian, isn't it? If the Pope says so, its not illegal...oops...infallible, right?

when joined with the Pope ecumenically, ie a council of the church. This infallibility is in regards to defining "for belief as being divinely revealed."

As far as the current situation there is much debate as to Benedict's role should he decide not to lead a private life. His Holy Orders are still valid, he can say mass. Retiring from the Papacy does or does not remove him from the College of Cardinals? There are many who have debated that he could actually join the concave to participate in selecting his successor if he wanted, were he under the age requirement.

I doubt we will hear much from him publicly and he pretty much said so this afternoon.

The doctrine of infallibility was declared in 1870.

Since then it has been used once, by Pius XII, in defining the assumption of Mary.

I grew out of it as well, around the age of 12.

Sounds like your child has found his ability to think critically and arrive at rational conclusions. That is wonderful.

Too often, the religious indoctrination that children must endure, robs them of that ability for their entire lives, keeping them ignorant and easily fooled.

this kid to the absolute absurdity of this pre-historic violence cult.

Wait till he hears about the flat-earthers and that they jailed Galileo for saying the earth orbit is around the sun.

He's just getting started. Good for him.