I think Cardinal Keith O'Brien would do a wonderful job.

http://thejesuitpost.org/site/2013/02/habemus-me-or-twelve-reasons-why-i-should-be-pope/

I'd go for this guy any day of the week and twice on sunday.

I'd put in a shout for Tony Blair. He's Papist, so he qualifies, and if he does half a good a job as Pope as he's done as Middle East Peace Envoy there's a good chance it'll lead to interesting times :)

How many people on here are actually Catholics?

Not me that's for sure. And if I were, the minute I'd heard about the child abuse scandal I'd ran out of that church like the building was in fire. Surely it's a club no one in good conscience wants to be remotely associated to anymore.

The catholic church, having lost all of its moral authority, can be safely ridiculed and criticized until it breaks. I declare hunting season to be opened! :D

http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2013/02/25/paus-verandert-regels-zodat-conclaaf-eerder-kan-beginnen/

Image caption
"I have a new apprentice, much more powerful than the last one"

@octavious - I'm all for civil debate and mocking religions and generally, well anyone, including our beloved ex-leader Blair. But I think calling him or anyone the 'P' word is beyond the pale.

I withdraw my vote for ex-cardinal Keith O'Brien btw.

I didn't act for discussion of the moral problems with the church by the way. There are plenty. Who would you like to see as pope (serious only).

No catholic, but surely it should be someone from one of the few catholic nations left. Mexico? Philippines? Brazil? Anywhere but Europe.

redhouse, very few religions can escape a close inspection.

I am catholic, but for me it is more of a cultural string that keeps me attached. I was born and live in an area that is 70% baptist, so I know both sides of it.

Are muslims innocent? Sure not. They make a tradition of raping boys in places like Afghanistan and other Muslim heavy nations

Jews? of course not

Catholics are a BIG religion, so they are easy to point the finger at, but I do not think the crimes of those Priest Rapists are my crime.

@stressedline - I used to clean the football (soccer) boots at a reasonably sized club. I had wanted to be a player, but injury put paid to that ambition. However, even from my lowly position as boot boy I shared the teams successes and celebrated with them all when we won the league and cup double one year. The chairman actually thanked everybody who made the jubilation possible from the first team coach to the tea lady, and most importantly the fans. I welled with pride at my own small contribution.

Years later, i was still working there when the club dropped down 3 divisions. Like everyone else I blamed poor management, owners who wouldn't put their hands in their pockets and lazy players.

At least I can sleep soundly knowing the club's demise was nothing to do with me.

@Stressed
The crimes of the institution are certainly not yours. However, the Catholic Church should immediately, if not sooner, end the rule that priests can not get married. That way priests can find a way to a partner with whom to have a normal sexual relationship, rather than using young boys for this. As long as they don't, the church has only itself to blame for the negative criticism it attracts.
As for muslims, don't even get me started. :-)

@ maniac - are you sure all those losses weren't due to dirty boots?

I want Darth Vader to be pope. As long as you don't rebel he'll totally let you have an abortion.

He also finds my lack of faith disturbing.

You all would triple your tithing under Vader.

@flem - maybe on occasions the boots weren't 100% clean, but I blame the type of mud rather than my cleaning techniques

Wouldn't it be brilliant if during a Star Wars episode suddenly God would walk onto the scene and tell Vader he found his lack of faith disturbing.
"Deal with it"

"redhouse, very few religions can escape a close inspection..." For that matter, all the self-righteous Athiests are not immune from prosecution, either. I always love when those that deny God and claim some sort of humanistic-righteousness (we do it for humanity) want to bash religious people and claim some sort of high ground, as if there are no atheist villains!

"Oh...but we don't do it in the name of our religion" they cry with shrill voices.

And for the 99.9% of religious people that go about their lives in a relatively harmless manner, and most of whom actually are caring human beings, we don't believe religion is about evil actions, despite the ancient history of churches, or the actions of a very few.

I say it high time some brave soul started an "Athiests Suck and Are Evil and this is Why" thread to point out all the human atrocities associated with self-righteous atheists...(no...don't do this...just kidding...because it's pointless to point out the obvious to the willfully ignorant.)

That being said...Darth Vader the Redeemed (i.e. just moments before he plummeted down the shaft with the Emporer) would be an excellent Pope, for he has, at that moment, seen all of Evil, in fact has been Evil incarnate, and has come to reject it in favor of destroying Evil.

krellin you should be that brave soul. Please. I'm BEGGING you.

Pass. Though I am oft the One Who Seeks Abuse, I shall exercise a modicum of common sense on this day and keep my comment contained within this thread.

@ Maniac

What's wrong with Papist?

The 'P' word is definitely derogatory at best. If he's a catholic, call him a catholic.

papist has a long history of being a bad word when referring to a Catholic.

It is an old word, used back when England left the Church. Usually only used by Protestants in those days, all thru Europe.

It does not offend me PERSONALLY, but I know in some areas you would get get your teeth knocked out for using it (i.e, South Boston), then again, in some of those places, knocking teeth out is a cultural thing. lol

Papist - ick...whenever I see the word I think of a woman in stirrups get’s scoped out for dripping things…

As in shmeeeer...

The trouble with 'catholic' is it's included in the official names of half of all Christian churches. The Church of England is a catholic church. Calling them Roman Catholic would work, but it implies I have some respect for that Church when I don't. Papist is a useful shorthand, doesn't carry the baggage of respect, and identifies them for what they are, being 'them what is loyal to the Pope'.

If I wanted to insult them I'd use the f word, but such things are uncalled for in the modern age.