Is the Pope a Catholic?

Does the Catholic Church really not want power and tax breaks? Er, well, does the Pope shit in the woods? When we see him do that, we’ll believe all bears are Catholics and the Catholic Church really doesn’t want economic privileges. Until then, however . . .

Christ’s Vicar on Earth is meant to be infallible, isn’t he? Well, in some things, anyway. At least, given where his divine authority comes from, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you were supposed to view him as a Good Man. So would he tell a lie when, speaking this week after the European Commission sought details on tax breaks for the RC Church, he said the church did not want economic privileges? And when he said that the church “does not seek power, nor does it demand privileges or aspire to positions of social or economic advantages”?

Given the so-called Holy See’s quasi-state status within the UN, its interference in countries’ policies on birth control and same-sex unions, the influence it wields over millions, many of whom are dying because they are coerced by the church’s foot soldiers into believing condoms are wrong, there are all sorts of ways the Catholic Church holds power over others.

Given the tax breaks it gets (the Italian government alone forgoes upwards of €700 million to the parasitical Catholic Church in tax revenues, according to some estimates) in several countries and automatic charitable status, which any religious organisation can hold, it seems, here in the UK, would it be willing to give all that up and say the money could be put to a better cause, such as a country’s own treasury to help the health service or education, or redistributed to other charities that don’t need to support the plush lifestyles of cardinals and other bloodsucking prelates in the Vatican?

Is the Pope not a Catholic?