Why do Catholics

[clydefrand]

spend so much money to keep the leaders (from Pope on down) living so well.
I wonder how many millions it takes to keep up the Vatican et.al.?

[hunter]

1. I feel the same way about Bill Gates.

Like man?

[trumad]

3. Gates invented something.

[hunter]

5. Did he?

What?

An even stranger religion is Apple...

[saturnsring]

7. apple is a cult

[Iggo]

11. And the difference between a cult and a religion is....?

[saturnsring]

14. one gets taxed and the other helps people

[Iggo]

16. Aw.

[cleanhippie]

48. The size of the congregation.

[Rex]

9. He stole DOS from IBM and called it MS-DOS.

Then he stole the idea of a GUI from Apple. Bill Gates invented the art of stealing intellectual property.

[Yavin4]

18. The rappers call it "sampling"

He just "sampled" it.

[Rex]

19. Ha good one!

Gates was doing it before IT was even an IT.

[arcane1]

34. I thought he wrote DOS for IBM?

[Yavin4]

40. By "wrote DOS" you mean he "bought DOS", then yes.

IBM again approached Bill Gates. Gates in turn approached Seattle Computer Products. There, programmer Tim Paterson had developed a variant of CP/M-80, intended as an internal product for testing SCP's new 16-bit Intel 8086 CPU card for the S-100 bus. The system was initially named QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System), before being made commercially available as 86-DOS. Microsoft purchased 86-DOS, allegedly for $50,000. This became Microsoft Disk Operating System, MS-DOS, introduced in 1981.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS

[Rex]

63. He took their idea and made it his own.

I remember when it was IBM-DOS, Gates bought the license. IBM wanted Gates to make there next big OS, which was a mistake since it did poorly against MS-DOS. I have no idea if that was by design but IBM was not bright and Gates made out like a bandit.

[Baitball Blogger]

70. I believe he also stole ideas from Xerox.

[saturnsring]

6. and this pope provides a sevice to billions of people

[PeaceNikki]

15. And kills millions

[yeoman6987]

22. Oh for gods sakes

Of all the outlandish things to say. He is slowly improving many lives. Much more them you and I that's for sure. We don't get million lining up in DC wanting to see us and that is in regular neighborhoods.

[PeaceNikki]

24. The Catholic Church is killing people. Millions.

There are lots of exciting possibilities on the horizon for combatting HIV and AIDS. HIV vaccines are around the corner. Unfortunately, the vaccine may not help the millions of Africans condemned to this illness by the Catholic Church’s stance against condoms. This summer Roman Catholic bishops in Kenya went even further, organizing a boycott of polio vaccines. Last year, the church urged Catholic Kenyans to boycott the tetanus vaccine, claiming that it was “a covert means of controlling the country’s population.”

The Catholic Church is killing people. Not by pulling a trigger or wielding a weapon, but by imposing Dark Age ideas on a vulnerable population.

This needs to be stated clearly: The Catholic Church is morally responsible for the deaths of millions of Africans. Those that have not died as a result of imposing this theology, the Church would now like to saddle with polio and tetanus.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/freethoughtnow/were-all-africans-stand-against-hivaids-polio-and-the-catholic-church/

It's a shocking thing to say because it's fucking abhorrent that it's happening in this day and age. Outlandish? Nope, it's the truth.

[yeoman6987]

25. Ok. But that at least not yet is the pope

Like I said he is slowly changing the Catholic Church. Maybe this is next. At this point, I will give him a bit more time.

[PeaceNikki]

26. HIS bishops. HE has the power to stop that. Just like in Uganda.

[Angry Dragon]

30. he has the power to change it in a day

[Glassunion]

42. Does he?

How? I was under the impression he cannot change their law. I could be wrong.

[PeaceNikki]

43. He most certainly can tell the bishops to stop organizing boycotts of vaccinations.

There's no "LAW" involved there.

[Glassunion]

45. True.

[PeaceNikki]

44. He can ORDER those bishops to stop fucking LYING to Kenyans about vaccines.

[Glassunion]

46. See #45

[treestar]

60. It says in your post the Catholic Kenyans did that

The idea the Pope can order other Catholics around is wrong.

[PeaceNikki]

61. Read it again. Kenyan BISHOPS are doing that.

Cardinals, too. They answer to Pope Awesome.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/11/14/the-tense-standoff-between-catholic-bishops-and-the-kenyan-government-over-tetanus-vaccines/

[Angry Dragon]

68. others have answered for me

I was under the impression he was the leader of the catholic church and its members bowed down to him

[Glassunion]

69. He is the head of their state, and bowing does occur.

However he is not a dictator, and there are laws (which I am completely unfamiliar with) that the pope does have to abide.

That said, I do believe it is correct that the pope could have overruled the cardinals in Kenya as the other posters pointed out.

[Angry Dragon]

71. he has the power to reassign and fire (that is my belief)

[Glassunion]

72. I believe that you are correct.

I recall reading about how he fired or demoted some for money laundering, excessive pomp, denying communion for political reasons, etc...

[Angry Dragon]

29. yes

[treestar]

59. The Catholic Church can't impose on anybody.

In what part of the world is anyone forced to believe in Catholicism and follow the principles it has?

The church doesn't owe anyone any condoms. If they don't believe in it, they don't. Other people can do it.

[saturnsring]

52. some people cant see through their own h8

[PeaceNikki]

55. And some are blinded by dogma.

“Tolerating intolerance is not, in fact, tolerance. It is merely the passive-aggressive enabling of intolerance.”

Calling the RCC out for their crimes against humanity isn't "H8".

[LanternWaste]

74. Thankfully, there is a small contingent of humanity that are somewhere in between

Thankfully, there is a small contingent of humanity that are somewhere in between "blinded by dogma" and "blinded by hate," are are without a doubt, the most instructive people to talk with and friendliest people to be around.

Hopefully, we can all attempt to aspire to better understanding towards those people who believe in that which we ourselves may find distasteful.... otherwise, we're left with little more than name-calling, branding and repeating the same thing in seventeen different ways.

[saturnsring]

51. yea that's what he does he goes around killing people

[PeaceNikki]

54. Keep reading, chief.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7196359

[saturnsring]

67. while i cant blame the church or the pope for people having unprotected sex i agree the rest

looks pretty bad. did the boycott come from the church or from the Kenyon bishops? idk,but telling people not to get vaccinated doesn't make the church look good in that respect.
I seem to recall there was a belief (rumor) that those vaccines had birth control with in them and that was what the worry was about and why the Kenyon bishops were telling people not to get them.

[cleanhippie]

49. Services like misogyny, homophobia, and protecting pedophile priests?

[saturnsring]

58. yup that's all he does, trashes women and gays while protecting pedo's that and nothing else

btw there are former priests that would disagree with you
here are some - there are more

Josef Wesolowski

Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr.

priest Donald Grecco

Richard McCormick

[cleanhippie]

65. Do you deny that these are the policies of the church he heads?

[Yavin4]

17. "invented" or "stole"? n/t

[Warpy]

31. No, he hit his daddy's friends up for money and BOUGHT something

That something was DOS. He sold enough of that system to hire people to improve it.

He invented nothing. He just profited off other people.

[Yavin4]

41. Bill Burr on Steve Jobs

[PeaceNikki]

2. Catholics are FAR from alone in this. It's shameful.

[saturnsring]

4. this pope has not taken the lifestyle of the previous popes

[LittleBlue]

8. That's a bit of a misconception

The Pope may appear to live well, but he doesn't own the wealth that surrounds him. He is only a caretaker, that property is owned by the church

He has no real worldly wealth, only stuff on loan to him while he lives. The Vatican is basically a museum.

There are over 1 billion Catholics, so even a couple bucks from each one would easily fund a micro state with a population of 451 people.

[treestar]

57. Sort of like the White House

And it's not like a Pope does not have certain work to do. He can't spend his time on vacation. Or on high fashion. Like actual rich people could. They'd be free to do whatever they wanted. The Pope has expectations of what he does.

[LittleBlue]

64. Exactly

And asking why he doesn't just sell off art to help the poor is like asking why the French president doesn't sell the Louvre when the government needs money.

[upaloopa]

10. As apposed to the Crystal Cathedral or something like that?

[nichomachus]

33. Which is now owned by the Catholics n/t

[upaloopa]

37. What Catholics?

[nichomachus]

38. Diocese of Orange County

which will now use it for its new cathedral. It's undergoing renovations and is expected to open next year.

It has an interesting provenance -- having been financed by a bunch of rich, elderly widows, who were kept "medicated" by an associate of Robert Schuller.

I have a friend who was an evangelical minister and who knew Schuller. One interesting piece of dirt is that Schuller tended to staff the cathedral offices with attractive young men. Every once in a while, Schuller's wife would have enough, and there would be a major housecleaning. Only to have the cycle start all over again.

[Iggo]

12. Oops! Almost forgot: IBTL.

[KamaAina]

13. Pope Francis lives in modest quarters

in a guesthouse in Vatican City.

[nichomachus]

35. Well, that's a Jesuit thing

They give up worldly goods and focus on grabbing power.

[Arugula Latte]

20. Wasn't there a little something called the Reformation over this very issue?

[Drahthaardogs]

23. If you believe the Reformation stuck because of religious differences

I have a bridge to sell you. German Lords were politically motivated. The Anglicans were self motivated. Theology played such a small part. Some say Luther wanted to get laid...

[Arugula Latte]

36. Yes ... religion is a cesspool mixture of corruption, politics, greed, oppression and mythology.

I do think there was a legitimate backlash against the excesses of the Vatican/indulgences, etc. that helped split the church. Not that the resulting Protestant sects weren't loony and corrupt themselves. Frankly I wish all the Puritans' boats had sunk on their way to the New World. Now we're stuck with the legacy of their religious nuttery.

[1939]

62. Puritan legacy includes

Universal primary education paid for by taxes on the community.

Community assistance and support for widows, paupers, and the feeble.

Direct democracy in the form of town meetings.

[LuvNewcastle]

21. I can understand why a lot of Catholics

aren't bothered by the opulence of the Vatican. For one thing, it was mostly built in a time when the church had a great deal of temporal as well as religious authority. It's the repository of the church's history, and so many wonderful art treasures are on display at the Vatican. The bureaucracy of the church is headquartered there, so the place is kept up for them as well. Hell, I would just like to spend some time in the Vatican library!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

27. A lot of that wealth originated in the Middle Ages

when the church was extremely powerful and was essentially an arm of every European monarchy. Just like the monarchs, the church obtained its wealth from the contributions of the masses as well as from the monarchs (who got their wealth from the masses). By the time of the Reformation the church was fabulously wealthy, and the Reformation didn't do much to change that. The church still has that wealth, and has accumulated more, even though they've stopped selling indulgences.

[closeupready]

28. Oh yeah? Well, ABRACADABRA!

[nichomachus]

32. Why do Americans

spend so much money to keep the president living in the splendor of a medieval prince when so many Americans are living on the edge of poverty?

[GeorgeGist]

47. +1

[ChazII]

50. This thought crossed my mine

after reading the OP.

[oberliner]

39. Dividends from stock holdings pay the Vatican's expenses

The Vatican is still in pretty good shape financially.

[FreakinDJ]

53. Why do we keep the Military Industrial Complex rolling in money

Might be a better question

[treestar]

56. The church had wealth from before the 13th century

over the years that builds up. I don't think people are actually spending on that today. Most of it is historical or architectural or art. The Catholic Church is thousands of years old.

[pnwmom]

66. This pope lives in a simple guest house with a bunch of other priests. n/t

[Skidmore]

73. To project power.