Well, this medievalist puts him in the top ten of useful popes but it is still early days and he is still resisting any ideas of more gender inclusivity in the Church. But the bad ones are far more entertaining to read about, and a lot of them took the moniker Leo. Leo III, who in a desperate move crowned Charlemagne as "emperor" on Christmas Day 800, died after a particularly strenuous session with his over-vigorous mistress. Leo X, who along with his uncle Clement VII were the two Medici popes, got the job at the advanced age of 18 (Daddy was Lorenzo the Magnificent) and was possibly the stupidest pope on record. To say he was singularly unqualified for the job makes the election of Jay Clayton as the entirely misnamed Director of National Intelligence look like the Senate elected a stable genius. And then there's my favorite, Boniface VIII. Dante hated him so much he put him in Hell BEFORE he died (in the timeline of the Commedia).
I love this comment, Linda Mitchell, KCMO! (PS my subject at University of St Andrews Scotland was Med Hist, taught by Prof Lionel Butler). I am a direct descendant of Charlemagne, according to the Colonial Dames of America's genealogy work on my family. So I was interested to know what people in this line had been up to. :-)
When my husband and I visited the Vatican on our wedding trip, we looked at the big room of mosaics, all high up all around the room, showing all the portraits of past Popes. Deck, who knew a lot about the subject, told me "That Pope was a pederast, and this one was a known crook", etc etc. I asked him how he could continue to be a devout Roman Catholic, given the facts. He said "It isn't the Roman Catholic Religion itself, that is the problem. The Church delivers the only Word that comes in a straight line from Jesus Himsel, in the only Church founded on this. It is just the human beings, and the Popes are human beings, who are always flawed and mess up even something as pure as the Word of God".
As a Quaker, I thought about this for a long time, and still do. Would like your thoughts on this...
My late husband was a Jew who attended a Quaker high school from 7th grade on. He appreciated the high quality, coed education he got there in the late 1940s. And continued to support the school with donations as do I. Although raised Lutheran, I too admire the Quakers and donate to the American Friends Service Committee. His best friend went on to become headmaster at his school and then at Sidwell Friends in DC, where the head of China visited him before Nixon when he came to the US, because my husband's friend started a program in Chinese. Another interesting thing is that the headmaster's family in Roosevelt's government was responsible for legitimizing my husband's mother's citizenship as a Jew who came into the US though Canada from Ukraine!
I know several people at St Andrews; it's an excellent program! I'm afraid I am far more cynical about the Catholic Church--indeed about any organized religion anywhere--than your husband. I would also beg to differ with him as to the origins of Christianity, as the "New Testament" was written in GREEK, not Latin, and the original churches were all in the eastern half of the Mediterranean: Alexandria, Antioch, Corinth, Constantinople (eventually: it was a bit of a latecomer). And Emperor Constantine, for all his Western Empire connections, was a Greek emperor more than a Latin one. I could go on, but this is not the platform. Pope Gregory the Great, who really was the architect of the Latin Church, in fact cut his teeth as a nuncio from the bishop of Rome in Constantinople and lived there for so many years that his palate for wine was ruined by drinking retsina (a Greek thing: wine mixed with pine resin) and had to have it imported from the east when he returned to Rome. He was far more attuned to the Greek Church's way of doing things than what was going on in the West.
My opinion, for what it's worth (I'm not a Christian, let alone a Catholic), is that the Catholic religion is doing very well, but the Catholic church is in bad shape. Better shape with the new pope, but still bad.
He was Peter Thiel's rent boy for a while. He just bought a house - I think he plans to park Usha, the kids, and her Turkey Baster there, and act as the sperm donor from afar.
They're likely to keep the civil courts busy changing their names in a few years. The man's name (if that's what he is--I have my doubts) is a common synonym for BASTARD.
I have said this before, but it bears repeating, if you had told me I would be supporting the Pope and the King of England over the President of the US twenty years ago, I would have said you on something. (Meth, we are on it) But as a godless mystical progressive social democrat scientist, that is as far as I will go. But I will say Andy and my fellow TBRs are the best!
True A/B but… What started out as having a brass set of Vatican balls to straighten out the flock about Americas favorite Christen leader, he fizzled,failed and was silenced. Shouldn’t the leader of all Christianity be picking his favorite horses in extreme cases instead of allowing said flock to be manipulated and lied to by the unholiest of them all ?
Obviously she’s not there yet but once he looses a bid for the presidency and becomes a screaming preacher she will realize fully how she destroyed her own life. That’s when she’ll be hitting the road jack.
Pope Leo should provide plenary indulgences to men who get vasectomies. JD you should lead by example in this instance. I gotta wake up earlier, I’m reading TBR before taking my meds.
Ivermectin is the perfect medicine for the brain worms that inhabit the craniums of this administration. For the rest of us, a daily dose of Borowitz is required to stay sane.
Sarah McAuliff-Bellin, if you are immobile in your chair from giggling at TBR and can’t work, just call in that you’re “McConnell’d”. I hear it works every time.
I have to read TBR as early as possible so I have time to read it and the comments, and then write my comment and replies to all the wonderful comments everyone writes.
I've got to stop drinking my coffee while reading your posts, Andy.
This one today is great. Thank you so much for my laugh of the day during this dark time in which we live. And, inspiring your readers to be humorous and pointed.
Who looks forward to the mornings usually? We all do because of you and the TBR posts
So pathetic. Vance sitting there praying in earnest. hahaha. as he prays for the deaths of all those "illegal immigrants" and anyone who doesn't believe that Jesus was the son of god. Even though he does everything against what Jesus would say and do.
That’s it, in a nutshell! Complete hypocrisy and co-option of what should be legitimate religion — just as he and his do with politics.
Sincere religious beliefs are not the same as those of Vance, and certainly not his boss. They use them to con gullible zealots who blindly follow these cults like drunken frat boys!
WWJD? Certainly not keep them from going directly to HELL!
There are way too many hypocrites in our government and businesses today. As a child it was the one thing I abhorred. I cannot. Hypocrisy is lying to yourself and everyone else. It's bullshit. I do not take it. Ever.
After complex negotiations with Iran, Vice-President J.D. Vance has announced today that he has converted to Islam. ‘it’s good to be on the winning side. I gave catholicism a shot,’ he said, ‘ but found Pope Leo XIV had an insufficient understanding of Christian theology.’
The Vice-President went on to admit that youth was on his side. ‘I am young enough to convert to Buddhism, Hinduism, or Judaism later in life. Druidism looks pretty interesting too,’ he said.
Best Pope ever.
Best Pope and best Satirist this rainy morning! 😂I hope Jesus is now personally protecting Pope Leo from our creepy Veep ! 😂💕
Creepy veep :)
Absolutely! 😉
Well, this medievalist puts him in the top ten of useful popes but it is still early days and he is still resisting any ideas of more gender inclusivity in the Church. But the bad ones are far more entertaining to read about, and a lot of them took the moniker Leo. Leo III, who in a desperate move crowned Charlemagne as "emperor" on Christmas Day 800, died after a particularly strenuous session with his over-vigorous mistress. Leo X, who along with his uncle Clement VII were the two Medici popes, got the job at the advanced age of 18 (Daddy was Lorenzo the Magnificent) and was possibly the stupidest pope on record. To say he was singularly unqualified for the job makes the election of Jay Clayton as the entirely misnamed Director of National Intelligence look like the Senate elected a stable genius. And then there's my favorite, Boniface VIII. Dante hated him so much he put him in Hell BEFORE he died (in the timeline of the Commedia).
I love this comment, Linda Mitchell, KCMO! (PS my subject at University of St Andrews Scotland was Med Hist, taught by Prof Lionel Butler). I am a direct descendant of Charlemagne, according to the Colonial Dames of America's genealogy work on my family. So I was interested to know what people in this line had been up to. :-)
When my husband and I visited the Vatican on our wedding trip, we looked at the big room of mosaics, all high up all around the room, showing all the portraits of past Popes. Deck, who knew a lot about the subject, told me "That Pope was a pederast, and this one was a known crook", etc etc. I asked him how he could continue to be a devout Roman Catholic, given the facts. He said "It isn't the Roman Catholic Religion itself, that is the problem. The Church delivers the only Word that comes in a straight line from Jesus Himsel, in the only Church founded on this. It is just the human beings, and the Popes are human beings, who are always flawed and mess up even something as pure as the Word of God".
As a Quaker, I thought about this for a long time, and still do. Would like your thoughts on this...
My late husband was a Jew who attended a Quaker high school from 7th grade on. He appreciated the high quality, coed education he got there in the late 1940s. And continued to support the school with donations as do I. Although raised Lutheran, I too admire the Quakers and donate to the American Friends Service Committee. His best friend went on to become headmaster at his school and then at Sidwell Friends in DC, where the head of China visited him before Nixon when he came to the US, because my husband's friend started a program in Chinese. Another interesting thing is that the headmaster's family in Roosevelt's government was responsible for legitimizing my husband's mother's citizenship as a Jew who came into the US though Canada from Ukraine!
I know several people at St Andrews; it's an excellent program! I'm afraid I am far more cynical about the Catholic Church--indeed about any organized religion anywhere--than your husband. I would also beg to differ with him as to the origins of Christianity, as the "New Testament" was written in GREEK, not Latin, and the original churches were all in the eastern half of the Mediterranean: Alexandria, Antioch, Corinth, Constantinople (eventually: it was a bit of a latecomer). And Emperor Constantine, for all his Western Empire connections, was a Greek emperor more than a Latin one. I could go on, but this is not the platform. Pope Gregory the Great, who really was the architect of the Latin Church, in fact cut his teeth as a nuncio from the bishop of Rome in Constantinople and lived there for so many years that his palate for wine was ruined by drinking retsina (a Greek thing: wine mixed with pine resin) and had to have it imported from the east when he returned to Rome. He was far more attuned to the Greek Church's way of doing things than what was going on in the West.
My opinion, for what it's worth (I'm not a Christian, let alone a Catholic), is that the Catholic religion is doing very well, but the Catholic church is in bad shape. Better shape with the new pope, but still bad.
He was Peter Thiel's rent boy for a while. He just bought a house - I think he plans to park Usha, the kids, and her Turkey Baster there, and act as the sperm donor from afar.
He will, of course be carefully supervising all furniture purchases.
Especially the seating apparatus.
Maybe he should talk to his boss about remodeling it for him.
We can only imagine his stance on Elon Musk!
You beat me to it! I was just about to mention Leon MustF*uck. The guy has 9 or 14 children; I have lost track. Well done.
They're likely to keep the civil courts busy changing their names in a few years. The man's name (if that's what he is--I have my doubts) is a common synonym for BASTARD.
He has lost track, too. And not just of his offspring!
The poor kids! Not financially, of course
Musk not a Catholic. Anyway, too late for him: Haveth Childers Everywhere.
I have said this before, but it bears repeating, if you had told me I would be supporting the Pope and the King of England over the President of the US twenty years ago, I would have said you on something. (Meth, we are on it) But as a godless mystical progressive social democrat scientist, that is as far as I will go. But I will say Andy and my fellow TBRs are the best!
right back at ya! from a kindred spirit
I agree 100%!
True A/B but… What started out as having a brass set of Vatican balls to straighten out the flock about Americas favorite Christen leader, he fizzled,failed and was silenced. Shouldn’t the leader of all Christianity be picking his favorite horses in extreme cases instead of allowing said flock to be manipulated and lied to by the unholiest of them all ?
And nobody can say his words were mistranslated, or that he misunderstood JD's remarks blah blah blah, because English is his first language.
Relaxingstance on birth control…or…imposing celibacy. Either way, the right thing to do.
Yep
Of course he's the best Pope ever
He's from Chicagoland!
JD Vance is a great example of why we shouldn’t be so quick to judge mothers who abandon their children in favor of drugs.
Ouch!
JD Vance-bad seed, or amoral shape shifter?
Yes
All the above.
Hahahaha
Obviously she’s not there yet but once he looses a bid for the presidency and becomes a screaming preacher she will realize fully how she destroyed her own life. That’s when she’ll be hitting the road jack.
Pope Leo should provide plenary indulgences to men who get vasectomies. JD you should lead by example in this instance. I gotta wake up earlier, I’m reading TBR before taking my meds.
Isn’t laughter the best medicine? I mean, besides Ivermectin?
Ivermectin is the perfect medicine for the brain worms that inhabit the craniums of this administration. For the rest of us, a daily dose of Borowitz is required to stay sane.
🤣
Sarah , If you read TBR first thing , you won’t need any meds ! 😂💕
But I’ll never get out of my chair which might be a good thing.
Sarah McAuliff-Bellin, if you are immobile in your chair from giggling at TBR and can’t work, just call in that you’re “McConnell’d”. I hear it works every time.
I have to read TBR as early as possible so I have time to read it and the comments, and then write my comment and replies to all the wonderful comments everyone writes.
I also read the comments! High quality! and Dave Barry reads the comments to his own column, in appreciation.
The world has too many sofas already
Sofa king funny
You win the Internet for the day!
Thanks for the belly laugh! 🤣🤣
never enough for jdv
It will be a vas deferens for the entire world.
I see what you did there!
√+
😂 There definitely needs to be a lifeguard on duty in that gene pool.
Maybe the coating will peel?
I've got to stop drinking my coffee while reading your posts, Andy.
This one today is great. Thank you so much for my laugh of the day during this dark time in which we live. And, inspiring your readers to be humorous and pointed.
Who looks forward to the mornings usually? We all do because of you and the TBR posts
Pope Leo rapidly convened a Vatican
Council to annul the sainthood of Pope John Paul II who failed to seize the opportunity to prevent the birth of JD Vance.
I am 100 per cent behind Leo on this one. Progressivism with a purpose, for the betterment of the species! You are my sunshine, Andy!
So pathetic. Vance sitting there praying in earnest. hahaha. as he prays for the deaths of all those "illegal immigrants" and anyone who doesn't believe that Jesus was the son of god. Even though he does everything against what Jesus would say and do.
That’s it, in a nutshell! Complete hypocrisy and co-option of what should be legitimate religion — just as he and his do with politics.
Sincere religious beliefs are not the same as those of Vance, and certainly not his boss. They use them to con gullible zealots who blindly follow these cults like drunken frat boys!
WWJD? Certainly not keep them from going directly to HELL!
There are way too many hypocrites in our government and businesses today. As a child it was the one thing I abhorred. I cannot. Hypocrisy is lying to yourself and everyone else. It's bullshit. I do not take it. Ever.
In the news: A couple who were deported to Guatemala were murdered, found with their toddler beside them.
All JD's sperm should be sent to Mars, accompanied by Elon Musk. What happens then is up to the Martians.
Methinks that's kinda disrespectful to Martians. But they might have some science to do with 'em.
Another great one, Andy
J D VANCE CONVERTS TO ISLAM
After complex negotiations with Iran, Vice-President J.D. Vance has announced today that he has converted to Islam. ‘it’s good to be on the winning side. I gave catholicism a shot,’ he said, ‘ but found Pope Leo XIV had an insufficient understanding of Christian theology.’
The Vice-President went on to admit that youth was on his side. ‘I am young enough to convert to Buddhism, Hinduism, or Judaism later in life. Druidism looks pretty interesting too,’ he said.
He's already nailed Onanism.
Andy, many thanks for making me laugh each morning. It keeps me going in all this craziness.
Way to go, Leo! You’re the protector of your faith.
Thank God!
😂😂😂😂😂