We'll of course have Dodger Joe arriving soon to spew his hatred of humanity by defending his cult, but keep in mind the catholic church ruled the world for centuries and only recently have their walls began to crumble.
That being said I offer the following from catholicarrogance.org:
Even though only a 25% minority of the U.S. population belong to the Roman Catholic Church, because many of its members are so well situated and/or have spouses who are well situated in high offices in the land, and throughout American society, they have now secured not only 5 out of 9 seats of the U.S. Supreme Court, but key positions in every other important sector of society.
When you are an organization with such clout, with a billion members, a world wide institution, with centuries of effort to put down roots deep into societies all over the world, and a
treasury to match, you get to do all kinds of things, including
making your own reality, i.e. you can persuade yourself and/or others of "reality" like the following:
that Jesus Christ personally selects one of your high priests to fill his shoes and speak for him on earth; and . . .
this high priest isn't even required to act as Jesus Christ clearly instructed his apostles to act, or to teach what Jesus taught; and . . .
this high priest can teach all kinds of things that Jesus never taught, and get away with calling that teaching the "Gospel of Jesus Christ"; and . . .
this high priest can live in opulent splendor, in a palace with over 10,000 rooms, and never have their sheep question how they can be "vicars of Christ", who said of himself, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." (Matt. 8:20) See VaticanPalace.html.
Such high priests can demand that their billion "sheep" treat them -- not like royalty, because that is not good enough, but like a fourth person of the Holy Trinity. They can require, for example that (in defiance of what Jesus taught regarding the use of titles of honor) they be addressed as "Your Holiness", "Holy Father", "Supreme Pontiff," and even more "the Vicar of Christ"?
These are the instructions which Jesus left for those who would take over the leadership of his new movement after his impending departure :
"For, they (the lawfully established clergy of his time) preach but do not practice. They pile up back-breaking burdens and lay them on other men's shoulders -- yet they themselves will not so much as raise a finger to move them. Their whole lives are planned with an eye to effect. They increase the size of their prayer books and lengthen the tassels of their robes; they love seats of honor at public functions and front places and to have men call them "rabbi" or "teacher".
As for yourselves (the clergy that would follow Jesus), don't you ever be called "rabbi" -- you only have one teacher, and all of you are brother of one another. And don't call any human being "father" -- for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. And you must not let people call you "leaders" -- for you have only one leader, the Anointed One (Christ). The only "superior" among you is the one who serves the others. For, every man who promotes himself will be humbled, and every man who learns to be humble will find promotion.
But alas for you, you scribes and Pharisees, play actors (hypocrites) that you are! You lock the doors of the kingdom of Heaven in men's faces. You will not go inside yourselves, and neither will you allow others to enter." (Matt. Ch. 23)
( See
http://CatholicArrogance.Org/callnomanfather.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. )
You know Catholics are doing something right when we get 5 new threads every week.
