RedZepperin

What do I think? I'm in no position to defend the Vatican on that subject as I have insufficient evidence. I'm prepared to admit it. You should have the grace to admit that you do not have sufficient evidence to attack it either.

Just to help you along there, Aizoon. Pope Pius XII (before being Pope) did speak out against Nazism through the encyclical. You didn't know that but chose to attack him anyway. During the war, we all, all let down the victims of the Holocaust. One Archbishop of Canterbury did speak out, his successor (during the war) did not. The US press was extremely quiet on the subject. The list goes on. What baffles me is that the Catholic Church comes in for such a particular bashing on the subject. Also: look up how many members of the Catholic clergy were murdered by the Nazis, and look up the Nazi leaders' views on the Catholic Church.

Aizoon: I'm still at a loss to see what backs up your assertion that: There are good reasons for believing that the motivation for the Holocaust was Catholic hatred of Jews, and the inaction of Pope Pius XII would tend to lend credence to that. Where is your evidence?

Signed by Pius XI, drafted by Mr Pacelli who went on to become Pius XII and was in the know, because he had been papal nuncio to Germany. He was credited by Pius XI for having drafted the encyclical ("Mit brennender Sorge") which criticised Nazism. It caused the Catholic Church no end of problems in Germany (a mainly Lutheran country, by the way but it's not fashionable to criticise Lutherans apparently).

Did he not condemn it in the encyclical "Mit brennender Sorge" in 1937 (the authorship of which he was credited with)?

So the Pope didn't act because his faith motivated the Holocaust. Is that what you are saying?

An expert on Spanish history as well? Please go on.

The Irish are made of sterner stuff. We didn't dare to in England. But we got beaten up anyway! Happy days.

Has it not occurred to you that there are other factors involved, Edward?

A non-believer would not have felt out of place at an RC school 30/40 days, I can assure you. And the level of violence you received was not proportionate to your degree of faith.

You are also content to say that you have a hedgehog that talks.

And before you say it, Aizoon. I suspect you are a lapsed Catholic anyway. That hedgehog thing has a distinct "guardian angel" feel to it.

I'll be honest with you, I haven't really read through this thread in detail but there appears to be a chap on here whose religion is being insulted. I would regard that as bullying. On a separate point, I do find the attitude of people who these days call themselves "atheists" to be a lot more aggressive than (I imagine) they are aware of. Why say "left-footers", for example? How many derogatory terms are there for religious people? How many are there for atheists?

No.

I'm confused. We can bully any religious person because of appalling acts perpetrated by a minority of religious people but the same does not apply to Australian painters?

I'm not sure how this thread started but it appears to consist of pinpointing some outrageous behaviour by someone, relating it to their religion or nationality or something and then blaming everyone else in their religion or nationality for the same behaviour. Is that how it goes? OK. Any Australian painters on here?

Crikey. And I thought it was tough being a Catholic on here!

Surely Corinthians get a mention...?

Is anyone actually taking a note of these cock measurements?

You'd probably kill SC after a couple of weeks but have topped yourself after a couple of hours in SOD's company.

I remember reading a post by NickJ on ziderheads, during the SOD honeymoon period when most of us still had the horn, saying that SOD would not be successful here. That thread probably disappeared in one of the frequent ziderhead crashes.

I can't be arsed to read through all this thread (sorry, but it goes on a bit), but, if not stated already, this is not the first time that SC has said "I'm a winner". He said it in a recent interview too. It's part of his repertoire. Enjoy.

Some people seem more concerned about supporting their "forum reputation" than their football team.

Good bloke to go with. Just won a penalty for City I think.