Happy Birthday Pope John Paul

alleepally

it's a bit late in the date but it's Pope John Paul II's birthday today. 84 today.

It's terrible to see him in bad health and think about 1979 when he was in Ireland and so vibrant.

I really am sorry my parents didn't take the family to Phoenix Park that day. Ok, we were young but I'd like to be able to tell my kids I saw the Pope in Ireland.

I do remember very vividly his plane flying over our house on the way to Dublin and I swear I could see his face at the window but more likely my active imagination.

If I see the "young people of Ireland" speech it still brings a tear to my eye.

Anyone like to share a memory from that time?

Note : Hope that this thread doesn't descend into a church bashing thread. I'm not blind to the terrible deeds done by the Church nor am I blind to the hurt it caused many many children and adults. I'm not blind to any failing of the church

BUT PLEASE

Just for this thread, I'd love it to be something positive. I'm talking about a man, a time, a childhood memory and hoping there's some out there who'd like to share something of their memories of 'El Papa' too.

Tusky

the popes a muppet, hes also ghay

mike65

Tusky!* :ninja:

Mike.

*that said I can't belive someone felt the need to say well done Pope in 2004...

Mike.

pork99

Originally posted by Tusky
the popes a muppet, hes also ghay

That's a bit harsh.

Whatever my disagreements with Catholic doctrine I have to say that John Paul II is a sincere man who is a very significant figure in the history of Post-War Europe.

That said I'm afraid I'll have to drag this down to my own level now (You're a Christian alleepally - forgive me );

Pope Idol

And oh yes, Happy Birthday Your Polishness!

alleepally

Originally posted by pork99
That's a bit harsh.

Whatever my disagreements with Catholic doctrine I have to say that John Paul II is a sincere man who is a very significant figure in the history of Post-War Europe.

That said I'm afraid I'll have to drag this down to my own level now (You're a Christian alleepally - forgive me );

Pope Idol

Not a problem. The thread isn't so much about religion at all but about a time in Ireland and when the Pope visited so I'm figuring there most be a few "oldies" on the boards who can remember the time.

Kobie

It's all very noble & all staying on until the very last, but I can't help feeling the church would be a lot better off if he just resigned & let somebody more capable take over.

Johnny_the_fox

Happy Birthday to the Pope...

fair play to him...

Kobie

For what? Not dying?

I can do that.

(so far)

Space Coyote

I was there when pope visited, cant remember if i was in the park or down the college in Maynooth, he was in both places at the same time i think. Think I had a flag. I was 4. I had a packet of custard creams i remember vividly.

No offense but he'd be better off dead at this stage. He's fairly wrecked.

Karoma

Originally posted by Space Coyote
I was there when pope visited, cant remember if i was in the park or down the college in Maynooth, he was in both places at the same time i think. Think I had a flag. I was 4. I had a packet of custard creams i remember vividly.

No offense but he'd be better off dead at this stage. He's fairly wrecked.

:blink:




you're Dougal from Father Ted. (...jumper...)
you remember vividly the custard creams, yet you remember "pope" being in two places at the same time...


Personally, if he can cheat death this long and be in two places at the same time-he should live forever and be pope foreverer!

Rabies

I can't believe the guy is still alive. Taught he would have been dead a few years ago.
Did he get the birthday bumps?

Karoma

Originally posted by Rabies
I can't believe the guy is still alive. Taught he would have been dead a few years ago.
Did he get the birthday bumps?

so did i

nlgbbbblth

I have the Pope John Paul the Eleventh In Ireland album on vinyl

just gave it a spin - great for sampling. You can mix the speeches with some of the tracks from DJ Shadow's Entroducing or DJ Krush's Meiso and it sounds ok

Kobie

I have the Pope John Paul the Eleventh In Ireland album on vinyl

Can I have a go on your time machine?

pork99

Originally posted by nlgbbbblth
I have the Pope John Paul the Eleventh In Ireland album on vinyl

This is what happens when you stop beating Latin into schoolchildren.

vibe666

Originally posted by nlgbbbblth
I have the Pope John Paul the Eleventh In Ireland album on vinyl

are you sure that wasn't II rather than 11 nlgbbbblth? :rolleyes: oh dear.

have to agree with the 'why doesn't he just die' sentiments. someone who's supposed to be that close to god clinging to life so strongly when he's so obviously been on the verge of carking it for so long doesn't exactly instill me with confidence.

Beruthiel

yes
I remember when the pope came to Ireland
my parents made me go see him in knock, where we stood so far back all I could see was a white dot, dead exciting that was

I am resisting the urge to rant about popes and the catholic church because you asked me not to, this show restraint that I never knew I had!
*mumble*

Clinical Waste

http://pics.tactic.be/gallery/pope/HavanaPausLex

Kobie

Bit of an abvious photoshop job there.

Sarky

Who'd win in a fight, the Pope or Bill Gates?

Slutmonkey57b

Ha! This isn't Personal Issues so we can rant ALL WE WANT Pope Boy.

So here goes:

The pope is a ****, a ****er, a lying hypocritical hatemonger, a catholic (!!!), a paeodophile - protecting ****head, a dark-ages throwback, an apologist for a nazi-supporting predecessor AND an ugly bastard to boot.

Unreal PopeTournament should be the new succession rite under Vatican II imho. That'd rule. Not least for the fact that a lot of old priests would get bumped off.

Anyway, the Pope's already dead. That's why they've got a backup Robo-Pope on that motorized sledge thingy. It was too complicated to get the legs working so they thought "eh, let's sling him along on a pallet instead."

Big Ears

Originally posted by Tusky
the popes a muppet, hes also ghay

He's against homosexuality so are u calling him a hypocrite

tman

Originally posted by Big Ears
He's against homosexuality so are u calling him a hypocrite

so was Hitler...

Ryvita

Why are people so Anti the pope? Fair enough if you don't agree with Catholicism but he's not a bad man. As for saying he's a nazi sympathiser? Bit off the mark.
He's spoken out about the war big time.

Wanting him to die is a bit harsh people!

Anyway ... I vaguely remember being outside mass the day the pope was in Ireland ... my parents had gotten a framed photo of him off someone ... it was in my bedroom for years. That's all I remember though ... I was only 5.

Clinical Waste

Originally posted by Ryvita
Why are people so Anti the pope? Fair enough if you don't agree with Catholicism but he's not a bad man. As for saying he's a nazi sympathiser? Bit off the mark.
He's spoken out about the war big time.

Wanting him to die is a bit harsh people!

Anyway ... I vaguely remember being outside mass the day the pope was in Ireland ... my parents had gotten a framed photo of him off someone ... it was in my bedroom for years. That's all I remember though ... I was only 5.

Woohoo! ranting season open........

Because he is the current leader of one of the worlds longest running suppressive evil empires that has never paid any retribution for its past (and current) wrongdoings.
No innocent gets to the top of any organisation. Just cause he is an old fragile (living?) shell now, doesn't mean he wasn't a ****er in his day.

Kiss my ring old man.

ChipZilla

Originally posted by alleepally
it's a bit late in the date but it's Pope John Paul II's birthday today. 84 today.

To sum up, who gives a ****? Nobody who replied to the original post had anything good to say about the old b**tard, so I'd say you're definitely not preaching to the converted alleepally.

Stark

Originally posted by Ryvita
Anyway ... I vaguely remember being outside mass the day the pope was in Ireland ... my parents had gotten a framed photo of him off someone ... it was in my bedroom for years. That's all I remember though ... I was only 5.

There's a framed picture of the pope in my bedroom, left over from when myself and my parents swapped rooms. These days I masturbate in front of it

Ryvita

Originally posted by Stark
There's a framed picture of the pope in my bedroom, left over from when myself and my parents swapped rooms. These days I masturbate in front of it

Nice ...

Ryvita

Originally posted by Clinical Waste
Woohoo! ranting season open........

Because he is the current leader of one of the worlds longest running suppressive evil empires

*sigh* :rolleyes:

alleepally

Originally posted by ChipZilla
To sum up, who gives a ****? Nobody who replied to the original post had anything good to say about the old b**tard, so I'd say you're definitely not preaching to the converted alleepally.

I didn't expect it and I wasn't preaching. All I was looking for was a few memories from 1979 about an event that happened in the country.

pork99

Originally posted by alleepally
All I was looking for was a few memories from 1979 about an event that happened in the country.

I saw him in Sean McDermott St. Had to wait from 3 or 4 in the afternoon until about 8 or 9 in the evening for him to show up. As far as I remember he looked a bit like a waxwork on the back of his Popemobile.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Originally posted by Ryvita
*sigh* :rolleyes:

good argument

Mossy Monk

El Papa

Guten Tag

Sleipnir

I'm no fan of the Catholic church and I probably wouldn't even stop walking if i saw him on the street but you can respect the man without respecting his office (if that's what you call it)

All this "he's a catholic therefore he a paedophile and a liar and a......" blah, blah, bullsh*t is a tired auld tirade from people who couldn't argue their way out of a cardboard box.

He's done a lot of good things and also done a lot of bad things but, again, it's not the man that did the bad things really, they were done/said "in the name of the catholic church"
Anyway, he's just a puppet now, a mouthpiece for the people standing behind him but that's just old age.

The Man should at least get the respect deserved by someone who has always striven for what he believed in, even if you don't believe the same thing.

Plus he was a better goalkeeper then most of you lot could ever hope to be!

ChipZilla

Originally posted by Ryvita
*sigh* :rolleyes:

*sigh* what? The friendly folka at the vatican are evil b**tards. In just the last 50 years alone they've:

Protected, and failed to help/allow child abusers to be brought to justice.

Protected, and failed to help/allow war criminals to be brought to justice - Nazis, Croatian Ustashi

Did their best to help kick off the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, thanks to the poison dwarf, Pope Pius XII.

Endorsed Mussolini as "a man sent by god" - Pope Pius XI.

Excommunicated people who voted for communist parties in Italy in the late 40s/early 50s

Anybody else care to go back further and add anything?

ChipZilla

Originally posted by Sleipnir
you can respect the man without respecting his office

Yeah, I'm sure people said the same thing about Hitler. Why respect someone who disapproves of homosexuality, the right of women to choose what they do with their own bodies, contraception, etc.

I think I'll wait until the Dalai Lama's birthday to do a similar post, and see how he stacks up in comparison.:rolleyes:

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Originally posted by ChipZilla
Yeah, I'm sure people said the same thing about Hitler.

say what you want about hitler, that man did *wonders* for moustache-fashion in his time

Why respect someone who disapproves of homosexuality, the right of women to choose what they do with their own bodies, contraception, etc.

what if they cured cancer?

ChipZilla

Originally posted by Mordeth
what if they cured cancer?

Nah, still wouldn't respect him...:eek:

ixoy

Originally posted by Sleipnir
He's done a lot of good things and also done a lot of bad things but, again, it's not the man that did the bad things really, they were done/said "in the name of the catholic church"
Anyway, he's just a puppet now, a mouthpiece for the people standing behind him but that's just old age.

Huh? So he should be praised for the good things done during his tenure but the bad things weren't his fault? To quote Spiderman - "With great power, comes great responsibility." A person in a position of authority is responsible for those beneath them. This should include his Holiness the Pope.
Personally, I got to love the guy for once again, recently, condemning people like me who lead a gay lifestyle, despite fresher lines of thinking among the clergy. Well done Popey.

The Man should at least get the respect deserved by someone who has always striven for what he believed in, even if you don't believe the same thing.

Now that's a ridiculous argument. There's a lot of other people who strove for what they believed in, even when I didn't believe the same thing. Goerring, Hitler, Torquemada, Genghis Khan.....

Sleipnir

Originally posted by ChipZilla
Yeah, I'm sure people said the same thing about Hitler. Why respect someone who disapproves of homosexuality, the right of women to choose what they do with their own bodies, contraception, etc.

I think I'll wait until the Dalai Lama's birthday to do a similar post, and see how he stacks up in comparison.:rolleyes:

so you disagree with the position of the Catholic church? Well done, you're a crusader. Your opinion really makes a difference :rolleyes:

Yeah, I'm sure people said the same thing about Hitler

Hitler had the respect, admiration and devotion of millions.

See "cardboard box" comment above.

TwoShedsJackson

Hypocritical bastard. Cheek of him calling for Muslims to treat women with more respect last week. There isn't pot & kettle big enough for the comparison.

Manach

For the 1979 visit I remember on TV (black and white),massive crowds lining the route to the Pheonix Park, and the mass which was said there.

I wish him well on his brithday, and recognise that his doctrines have been a bulwalk in support of progressive conservativism.

ChipZilla

Originally posted by Sleipnir
Well done, you're a crusader.

Au contraire dumbass. That's one thing I'm not. Crusade/crusader comes from the latin word crux, meaning cross. A crusade is a holy war, sanctioned by a pope. Let me see - the only crusades which come to mind are the ones in which the christians tried to get the "holy land" from the muslims. Read a dictionary or a history book some time.


Argue that out of a "cardboard box".

Ryvita

Originally posted by ChipZilla
*sigh* what? The friendly folka at the vatican are evil b**tards. In just the last 50 years alone they've:

Protected, and failed to help/allow child abusers to be brought to justice.

Protected, and failed to help/allow war criminals to be brought to justice - Nazis, Croatian Ustashi

Did their best to help kick off the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, thanks to the poison dwarf, Pope Pius XII.

Endorsed Mussolini as "a man sent by god" - Pope Pius XI.

Excommunicated people who voted for communist parties in Italy in the late 40s/early 50s

Anybody else care to go back further and add anything?

*sigh* I think calling the Catholic Church "one of the worlds longest running suppressive evil empires " is a small bit over the top.

I completely disagree with a lot of what he/catholics believe in - especially considering I'm a woman. Their attititudes to homosexuality are unchristian in my point of view.

However calling them "evil" and quoting stuff that's happened over the last 50 years is selective to say the least.

They HAVE done a lot of good. There are priests and nuns all over the world giving up their whole lives to help those less well off. Yet people only have time for the bad stuff.

The Church isn't by any means perfect, I'm not at all saying they are. Saying they are evil seems to suggest they have bad intentions. I'd be of the opinion that their intentions are good for the most part.

Ryvita

Originally posted by ChipZilla
Au contraire dumbass. That's one thing I'm not. Crusade/crusader comes from the latin word crux, meaning cross. A crusade is a holy war, sanctioned by a pope. Let me see - the only crusades which come to mind are the ones in which the christians tried to get the "holy land" from the muslims. Read a dictionary or a history book some time.


Argue that out of a "cardboard box".

cru·sade
1. often Crusade Any of the military expeditions undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims.
2. A holy war undertaken with papal sanction.
3. A vigorous concerted movement for a cause or against an abuse. See Synonyms at campaign.

I think he was going for meaning number 3.

neXus9

Originally posted by TwoShedsJackson
Hypocritical bastard. Cheek of him calling for Muslims to treat women with more respect last week. There isn't pot & kettle big enough for the comparison.

Nowadays, the catholic religion is not dangerous for women. The same can't be said for the muslim religion.

If you were a woman, which religion would you pick if you had to??

ChipZilla

1. I never called the catholic church "one of the worlds longest running suppressive evil empires ".

2. I wasn't being selective in my little list. They were the first things that came into my head. I'm sure that if I had time I could come up with some better examples. although, being in league with (and protecting) war criminals is enough in my book.

3.

They HAVE done a lot of good. There are priests and nuns all over the world giving up their whole lives to help those less well off. Yet people only have time for the bad stuff.

Yeah, converting all those "black babies", communists and other assorted heathens, who didn't need converting.



Come on bible-bashers -- you can all do better than that...

Doc

The pope is not an Evil man. It is ridicules to say that he is because of his beliefs.
He may believe that gay relationships are wrong but its not as if he’s called for all gay people to be killed.
He is Intituled to his opinion even if others disagree with it. Not all Christians however followed his teachings but this doesn’t make him evil.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. POPE

Sarky

I can see a poll forming: Which is the one true faith? Vote here!!!!!1

ixoy

Originally posted by Doc
He may believe that gay relationships are wrong but its not as if he’s called for all gay people to be killed.

Umm his word goes out to a lot of other people. He's very recently talked about how he views homosexuality itself as wrong (not evil, but wrong and unnatural). Millions of people absorb these words and assimilate them. These thoughts brew, fester, and further solidify the conservative stance on gay rights. When he pontificates (and if ever anyone can use that verb, it's him), he's actively regressing some social progress that's been made. Look at the States, where the religious right are, fuelled by religious zealotism, trying to block Massachussetts gay marriages. Similarly the Pope's words can have a far reaching effect, right into the heart of many political systems. People are responsible for their actions, of course, but that doesn't disavow society's leaders from their responsibility of decent guidance, particularly when it's spiritual leadership.

Ryvita

Originally posted by ChipZilla
1. I never called the catholic church "one of the worlds longest running suppressive evil empires ".

I never said you did. You commented on my *sigh* which was a response to another post.

2. I wasn't being selective in my little list. They were the first things that came into my head. I'm sure that if I had time I could come up with some better examples. although, being in league with (and protecting) war criminals is enough in my book.

My point was that you were being selective in only viewing them in terms of the bad things.

3.
Yeah, converting all those "black babies", communists and other assorted heathens, who didn't need converting.

Do you really believe that's all they did? Mother Theresa was just in it to convert some hindus? Do you really believe that they are in places like the congo risking their lives to convert people. You don't think that maybe, just maybe they are going out there to help people because it's a fundamental part of Christian belief to help the poor. I don't think anything I say will change your mind but maybe you should be a small bit more open minded. You seem to only be willing to see bad in these people.

Come on bible-bashers -- you can all do better than that...

Bible-basher? Em ... no. Can you do better than that? I mean all you seem to be capable of is sweeping generalisations: the church is evil anyone who disagrees with this is a bible basher?

As I have mentioned before I disagree with a lot of the beliefs of Catholicism but a lot of the teachings are inherently good: love thy neighbour, thou shalt not kill, turning the other cheek etc.

I just think this church bashing thing is a bit pathetic. It's easy to take a pot shot at the church. From the point of view of a woman anyway there is a lot to be annoyed with. However, calling them evil? Wanting the pope to just die? I think it's a bit over the top and a little bit childish (sorry)!