The proviso
The pontiff said religions had to be treated with respect, so that people's faiths were not insulted or ridiculed.
So this is the official line
"You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others. There is a limit."
Faith and religion being the same from the proviso
Yes, but you can try and cover up the actions of pedophile priests.
Yes, you try and make the lives of millions of women miserable.
But you cannot mock the church?
Yes the dear old church has been issuing edicts for the last couple of thousands of years whilst it has tortured, incited holy wars and aided abetted some of the worst kings and autocrats retain power. The history of this kind religion is bathed in the blood and suffering of millions.
So you cannot mock a group of men wandering about in robes whilst swinging incense whose soul[sic] credibility lies in millions believing in the snake oil they have sold?
You are not allowed to mock them?
Seriously?
Says who?
The head of a pie in the sky cult?
They can tell me that my soul can be punished for all eternity if I don't uphold their mumbo jumbo yet...
I cannot mock them?
Only men are holy enough to be ordained? Sounds as bad as some of London's "Gentle"mens clubs where women might be allowed a secondary type of membership, if not completely excluded.
It's like asking me not to mock someone saying "I'm not a scientist and I do not understand anything about the subject but I believe that .... is not the case"
We are told on the one hand that there is only one true faith, by most of them.
This contrary view has cost many lives.
Pardon me, but which one of you lot is right? Can I mock the others?
When most of them declare that their organization is one of peace, yet history often does not bear this out to be true. When god is claimed on both the sides during a war as their main fan, which one is telling the truth?
I have a proposal, when organized religions start taking themselves less seriously, I'll stop mocking them.
Now if you could work out which one of you is actually telling the truth between yourselves, then we can probably have a reasonable discussion.
Or we can wait for the first god to make a prime time appearance and settle the matter for good.
Until then, mockery is the least of your worries, did you pick the right one, if not, you may burn for all eternity depending if the right religion has that type of after life care plan.
Watching the news some of the faithful and/or just plain bigoted are doing tit for tat desecrations. If you get upset by a cartoon, if you get upset by mockery, then perhaps your faith isn't strong enough.
Between you, screaming clerics and the frothing at the mouth evangelicals.
What is there not to mock?
Perhaps some of you might actually support women's rights and support equal rights for all and if all of you actually followed what you preach, then perhaps.
There would be no reason to mock?
It's the abusers of faith for their own gain that deserve mockery.
If you separated faith from organized religion, we might have a start.
Just a thought
Or we could all resort to the Papal solution:
"If my good friend Doctor Gasparri [who organises the Pope's trips] speaks badly of my mother, he can expect to get punched," he said, throwing a pretend punch at the doctor, who was standing beside him.
Positively "old testament".