And we’re supposed to take this guy seriously?

I almost spit my morning coffee across the kitchen table this morning when I read this sick quote (bolded text) from the pope in the paper this morning:

The plight of divorced Catholics who remarry is a concern for many faithful in the United States, where divorce and remarriage are common.

While the pope acknowledged "the painful situations" of those remarried Catholics, he also reiterated the church's stance that they cannot receive Communion because the church holds they are living in sin if they consummate their new marriages.

The church "encourages these members of the faithful to commit themselves to living their relationship ... as friends, as brother and sister," Pope Benedict said.

So all divorced, remarried Catholics must live together as “friends” or “brother and sister” in order to remain in the good graces of the Catholic Church? And if they don’t? They can’t receive Communion.

Oh my God! That is so sick (and this is the same guy who thinks gay love is objectively disordered). But it sure makes any other idiocy that comes out of this guy’s mouth a whole lot easier to ignore.

And hey, all you Catholic politicians out there, this same guy has a few dictates for you too:

The Church's opposition to gay marriage is "non-negotiable" and Catholic politicians have a moral duty to oppose it, as well as laws on abortion and euthanasia, Pope Benedict said in a document issued on Tuesday.

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"Consequently, Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce laws inspired by values grounded in human nature," he said

Wow! After telling certain married couples they have to pretend their relationship is more like that of a brother and sister than that of a married couple, this Pope actually thinks he has enough credibility left to tell our politicians how to legislate? He’s really a piece of work.

Could this Pope look any more ridiculous? Under him the Catholic Church has been fast tracking it to irrelevancy. His hyper-abnormal focus on any kind of sex that doesn’t fall strictly within the confines of Catholic-approved sex (i.e., sex strictly to produce a baby) is sick. With so many truly huge problems facing the world today, this church’s dogged persistence in focusing on all the wrong things makes it look more and more archaic, out-of-touch, and just plain stupid everyday.

No wonder so many people have left the Catholic Church. And something tells me that most of those who remain just turn a deaf ear to this guy and pick and choose what they want to believe makes them a good Catholic. There is no way that everyone in that line for Communion meets all the criteria put forth by the Catholic Church. The church has pretty much made it impossible to be a Catholic in good standing.

So today’s Catholic is left with two choices: a) leave the Church or b) follow your own gut for being a good human being and ignore the guy in the Prada cape and Gucci shoes. I lived option “b” for years and finally felt forced to leave when the Church told me that one of my children was objectively disordered and intrinsically evil. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. I hate hypocrites, but the Catholic Church forced me to be one.

And oh, by the way, no worries to anyone who is divorced from a nightmare spouse and wishes to remarry and remain a Catholic in good standing. Even the Catholic Church has loopholes that can be exploited for the right price.