#73 Matt -

I’m guessing to some extent here, but your entire post sounds to me much like “submit to the authority of the Catholic Church”. Even if I called myself a Christian, which I do not, I would disagree with that.

This is a Church that arranged for people to burned at the stake for the heinous crime of allowing people to read the Bible in a language they could understand; that burned Guirdano Bruno at the stake for questioning doctrine; that submitted Galileo to twenty years of house arrest for uttering the truth; that stood by while thousands of people were tortured to death for the non-existent crime of witchcraft; that to this day continues to cover up the disgusting crimes of its own priests (who by the way are breaking their own sacred vows) in their wholesale molestation of children; that condones systematic torture of vulnerable children (of whom I was one) by sadists who call themselves monks and nuns. And that’s just a start. One might also mention the election of an unrepentant Nazi as Pope.

Vatican City is somewhat less of a pesthole than Mecca. But not by very much. Even Catholic doctrine against effective contraception is more of a political ploy (attempting to gain more power by having more worshippers) than a religious one.