The Paratheo-Anamethamystikhood of Eris Esoteric officially and without possibility of reprieve Excommunicate Joe Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict is firmly opposed to birth control, supports the celibacy of the priesthood, and is against the ordination of women. He has said that anyone who supports the "grave sins" of abortion and euthanasia should be denied Communion. He has also spoken out against homosexuality, and once denounced rock music as "the vehicle of anti-religion".

As head of doctrine under the former pontiff, Ratzinger had called lesbian and gay people "intrinsically evil", had urged Catholic politicians to block or repeal legislation giving same-sex couples legal rights in the name of their religion and spoke out against lesbian and gay people being given rights in "the consignment of children to adoption or foster care, in employment of teachers or coaches, and in military recruitment".He advised lesbian and gay people to seek psychological help for their "illness" and tried to block attempts to publicise the child sex abuse scandals in the US branch of the Catholic church.He also called for Catholic pro-choice politicians - who support a woman's right to abortion - to be refused communion during the US presidential election last year.

Cardinal Ratzinger ran the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This Vatican department, a descendant of the Holy Inquisition, protects Church orthodoxy. The job earned him unflattering nicknames such as "The Pope's Enforcer" and "God's Rottweiler" and the "Panzerkardinal.". He has a reputation for stifling dissent, and one of his early campaigns was against "liberation theology" in Latin America. Some priests became involved in fighting poverty through social action, but to Cardinal Ratzinger it smacked of Marxism.

Pope Benedicts who had less happy tenures in office include:

* Benedict VI (972-974), whose tenure came to an abrupt end when he was strangled by a priest after the Roman citizens rebelled against him

* Benedict IX (1032-1045), who appears to have assumed the papacy at the age of 12. Notoriously corrupt, he was eventually excommunicated

* Benedict XI (1303-1304), whose pontificate ended suddenly when he died of suspected poisoning in Perugia, reportedly on the orders of William of Nogaret. He was beatified in 1773
 

Rev. St Syn KSC