Remember that the Pope used to be the head of the roman empire. The papacy is rooted in bloody imperialism.

Fuck The Pope

That's a popular slogan amongst fascists from the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) to the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) to the Indonesian military when occupying East Timor

Well it's just gone the 12th. of July in Northern Ireland and this slogan is spraypainted all over, hope that makes you happy that you are surfing such a popular concept.

Northern Irleand (that's not the north of Ireland where Donegal was excluded form the carve up for having too many Catholics) is the part that was partitioned and militarily occupied where Catholics were denied basic civil rights. This led to a nonviolent civil rights movement inspired by MLK in the deep south USA facing off the KKK. The "Fuck the Pope" brigade (backed by the British military) backlash led to a 30 year war because the croppies wouldn't lay down. A war that we are just getting over.

"I don't want your fucking dogma,
I don't believe in what you preach,
I don't want your fucking bullshit,"

Fine don't join the Catholic church! If you were born into it, leave. It's a voluntary organisation. If you identify as a Catholic and think papal teaching at this point in history conflicts with the teachings of Christ stay, pray and articulate your position - you won't be alone. The church is a voluntary organisation - you can, join stay or leave! The Catholic Church is a lot of things but it remains the church of the poor. And Catholics are coming to Sydney form East Timor, Africa, Latin America to gather in Sydney and you want to deny them the right to assemble and free expression. That's nothing new - go back to Northern Ireland, East Timor, El Salvador in recent memory - we've been there done that and paid with our lives merely for being identified as Catholics. You say they need to be stopped because of the present papal teaching on condoms. What next you going to smash the Hare Khrishnas for abstaining from meat?

If you identify as a punk. Reflect on how quickly your movement was co-opted by the temptations Jesus struggled with in the desert for 40 days and nights - power, wealth and status. The same temptations that largely co-opted the church under the Roman emperor after 3 centuries of nonviolent resistance and refusal to be co-opted. Have a look at the recent film on Koe Strummer "The Future is Unwritten!". See Joe, Mick and The Clash as young and no compromise, see them play New York a few years later - all dressed up and as bloated as Elvis at the end. Listen to Joe and Mick reflect self critically on what happened to them and punk

Or keep bathing in you ignorance and poverty of an unreflected life and keep pumping out the anti-Catholic bigotry

Ciaron
Dublin Catholic Worker (punk tendency)

Adolph Hitler was not a practising Catholic. He was, however, a practisng vegetarian. Maybe you could aim your bigotry on more targets.

Catholic pacifists such as the White Rose Conspiracy, Sophie Scholl et al) and Franz Jaggertstarter were executed for their nonviolent resistance to Hitler.

It's interesting (and significant) that this Pope has put forward Jaggersater forward for canonisation for resisting a war and military he himself participated in as a young man. But then again some people reflect, learn and grow others wallow in bigotry, ignorance and their white boy comfort zones.

Ciaron damn straight, stick it to them... I'm an aethiest who beleives very strongly in science, thats my beleif and Catholics have theirs, I dont refuse them that. Something we have in Australia is not just the FREEDOM FROM RELIGION but also the FREEDOM TO RELIGION, the Catholics arnt commanding Secularists they cant use condoms, if you dont like it dont join it, simple as that. And to target Catholics due to Hitler being a Catholic by FAMILY? You have to be fucking joking, then what about every Muslim on this planet? Osama Bin Laden? J.I.? Sadam Hussien? Ayatolha Komheinie? All these vile people were muslims, and together they have killed more people than Hitler did in WW2. Islam preaches no condoms yet no-one bashes them.... why? Its simply anti-Christian/Catholic bigotry. No-one bashes the Qu'ran or Muhammed the prophet for engaging in pedophelia... he married a 6 y.o called Aisha, no, its always anti-catholic and im tired of it, fuck the notopope colation!

"Seems you can fling the biggotry around as much as you complain about it."

Well you didn't identify yourself and it sounds like I got you in one...a white boy who inhabits a comfort zone perceived by most outside of it as a deeply racist society and history. Trust me, Australians are generally perceived universaly as glorified Africaans.

"Why should you have to struggle to be legit mate? Is there something wrong with having comfort?"

If you haven't struggled and there is need to, being a white boy...you could at least come up with come rational arguments to engage. You try to get by on anaonmous bigotry...sells records and moves product does it? No surprises there.

"Just because you like the martyr victimhood path. Trying to emulate your buddy Jesus. "

That was your first mistake buddy thinking I was a passive victim.

I'd only rate as a martyr with the low standards of white boys inhabiting comfort zones. Out in the real world my life doesn't rate in the martydom stakes.

Ciaron

Its all bullshit really, religion, something for the masses to believe in, islam is still the eternal enemy of Christendom & by looking at past history its hard to see a peaceful coming together of the two, I am a catholic & I am happy to be called a catholic because it is part of my families history & maybe even my civilisations history, but I dont like to see it turned into a circus but maybe there are other catholics who know how to run the show better than I do, after all this Islam rhetoric for decades on the mass media its nice to see Catholics showing abit of support for their pope.

The early Romans had the write idea feeding the Cristians to the Lions. Did you know that Nero would light Cristians on fire tied to posts during his parties for entertainment! I'd like to see that, well that might be going to far but there will never be peace while people practise these silly superstions. How can we save this planet if people think a God created this world for us to ruin rather than us just being an equal part. Religon is the ultimate arrogance. Believing in God doesn't answer any of the mysteries of creation; if there has to be a God to have created us, then who created God? Wake up! The last step in evolution is to evolve the mind, us atheists have done it...

"The early Romans" had the write idea feeding the Cristians to the Lions. Did you know that Nero would light Cristians on fire tied to posts during his parties for entertainment! I'd like to see that, well that might be going to far but there will never be peace while people practise these silly superstions."

Early christians were executed as athiests as they refused to worship the legitimate gods of rome. Rome didn't have a problem with imperial state pluralism bringing many and varied gos back from their far flung empire. You can still find radical christians imprisoned, tortured and executed by dictators like Nero for your entertainment. Some such survivors from East Timor will be in Sydney for this gathering, why not talk to them

How can we save this planet if people think a God created this world for us to ruin rather than us just being an equal part.

There are many faithbased people (Catholic, protestant, rasta, Busshist, pagan etc etc) working to save the planet, "the left" in the first world wastes short time and valuable energy in waging this inquisition into the subjective territory of people's spritituality and religioisity. How people come to terms with the existential questions of "How th efucj did I get here!"" and "I'm not going to be here for long!" is their business. Leave them alone - organise with them on the baiss of direct democracy and nonviolence to save the world and build a better one.
Ciaron