Some things just make me MAD!

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Pope Apologises For 2000 Years Of Horror It has been revealed recently that the Vatican is about to release a statement apologising for the atrocities committed over the last two thousand years by the Roman Catholic Church. As history books have documented, the Church has been engaged in a seemingly endless crusade of torture, murder, burning and dismemberment for almost twenty centuries. In the run-up to the Christian Millenium, the Holy See thinks it is time to wipe the slate clean, to turn over a new leaf, to begin again. Apologising and asking the world to forgive the Vatican for its reign of physical and mental terror is the first step along this path. The Church could apologise for being directly or indirectly responsible for some of the following atrocities: The burning of countless men, women and children for alleged witchcraft, without anything approaching a fair trial. The often-fatal persecution of people who gave the real world precedence over Catholic doctrines; daring to suggest, among other things, that the Earth orbitted the Sun. The resultant retardation of scientific, technological and medicinal progress. The destruction of thousands of families as parents and children witnessed their loved ones dragged off to be questioned by the Inquisition (of which there were several), and often murdered as a result. The innumerable lives wasted, and the generations of people who have not been born as a direct result of these and other bloody massacres in the name of a merciful, loving, benevolent Christ. The persecution of (and occasionally wars against) followers of other religions. The corruption of Kings and politicians throughout the Dark Ages to ensure that the Church keeps a strangle-hold on the lives of the population. The obliteration of indigenous cultures as the Church cut a swathe of destruction among "heathen" continents, taking their lives, property and wealth for itself. Presumably, the Vatican will also renounce any belief in the Devil and therefore deny the sacrifice that Christ is alleged to have made on the cross. If people were falsely accused of being in league with Satan (and burned because of this), then they cannot actually have had a pact with the Devil. If the Pope still believes that Satan exists, then he has no reason to apologise for the burning of witches. If he apologises for witch-burning, he is admitting that Satan does not actually interfere with human affairs, and probably does not even exist. If Satan does not exist, then the whole doctrine of Original Sin crumbles, and with it the Atonement of Jesus on the cross. Hopefully in a few years, the Church will also apologise for its more recent dogmatic crimes, such as the bans on contraception and abortion, which have resulted in untold misery for hundreds of thousands of people. So, after two hundred decades of slaughter, murder, assassination, persecution, ignorance, theft, corruption and other assorted crimes against humanity, the Vatican is going to say "Sorry". Well, gee thanks.

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