Pope Benedict XVI died last night, aged 95. Even though he had stepped down from the papacy in 2013, he was still physically and spiritually present in the Vatican in a way that gave many people comfort, myself included. It really feels like the end of an era.
Like Pope John Paul II before him (and now St John Paul), Benedict died the Octave of a major feast in Christianity. For John Paul, it was the Easter Octave and now Benedict during the Christmas Octave. I can’t find a reference right now, but remember reading or hearing that dying during a major feast octave takes a person to heaven much faster. I can well imagine that Benedict shot straight up when exiting the earthly realm last night and is fully available to intercede for us right now.
No Minister 
I’ve been reading some interesting stuff on his role in the church reforms of Vatican II, both during it and post.
Seems that a group of Bishops hijacked the outcome and produced a lot of stuff that Vatican II did not approve of, starting with dumping all the Latin in a Mass (rather than just for the readings and homily) and ending with a missal that Pope Paul VI approved of without ever really reading (by his own later admission). Lead author on almost all of that was one Father Bugnini, who played both ends against the middle in a fanatical drive for revolution rather than reform.
Benedict very much did not approve and said so in precise but very determined opposition, though too late.
Pope Francis is definitely in that line. The joke is that if you’re going to preach in support of most of what’s involved in Climate Change, Transgenderism, BLM and other current hot takes on society why would you bother going to church when you can hear all the same stuff everywhere else without the God bit? Seems deluded to think such preaching is going to haul lapsed followers back to the Church, let alone bring in non-believers. It’s a total joke and one need only look at what’s happening to mainline Protestants to see the RC future as well
I found an old post of mine on Benedict from 2010:
The attacks on the Pope.
Francis does not seem to talk in the same way, I agree. He could well be an “anti-pope”, but it’s hard to know.
In terms of future, Protestants are heretics, so it’s not a surprise that they might fade away over time. While as the Catholic Church ought to have imploded by now if it were just a human institution. Even mortally wounded, it has the ability to resurrect.
If only Kimbo were still with us…. Fucking red rag to a bull.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
LOL.
I’ve argued with people who believe every word of Foxes Book of Martyrs.
As a lifetime faithful heretic, I can tell you I have left one parish which turned itself into a branch of the Greens Party which meets on Sunday to worship at the alter of climate change.
Wow, that must have been crazy.
I’m still waiting for my local Catholic church to take down the hand-sanitiser bottles & put back the holy water fonts.
Hmmmmm … ‘Protestants are heretics’ … reminds me of a relation of mine who argued that Catholics were evil people to be avoided. Just reinforces the view that in religion, as in politics, there are extremists with both ends of the spectrum joined at the hip and intolerant of those who do not share their narrow view of the world.
If both faiths are false, then this is just a game of semantics with sides. If one is totally true, then the other will have to be less true, with the true one able to say the less true are heretics. Maybe inadvertent heretics, given how long ago the splits occurred, but heretics nonetheless. You might also want to scroll up a bit and refer what I was responding to in Tom’s comment that prompted my use of the word.
When I was still living at home with my parents, a few years ago 😉, we had the JWs visit us. To get rid of them I told them we were devil worshipers.
Unfortunately that seemed to bring them back more regularly.
We didn’t see them after I lied and told them we were Catholics. Seems they thought they had more chance saving devil worshippers than Catholics. 😳
LOL.