Swords, Roses, and Feminism!

agentsama:

friendlyatheist:

(via Scumbag Pope - Imgur)

It’s called a mitre, specifically a mitra pretiosa (and a lovely one at that), and it is a part of his vestments as a bishop and a sign of his office. Not only that, but it is required in the rubrics of the Mass when he celebrates it, as are the rubrics for any bishop celebrating the Mass (in this case, the mitra pretiosa is required on the days the Te Deum is chanted in the Divine Office).

If you went back to ancient Israel, you wouldn’t deprive the Kohen Gadol of his priestly breastplate, would you? It was costly, inlaid with gold and precious jewels, and yet it was necessary for his office as the High Priest of the Lord. You wouldn’t deprive Patriarchs of the Orthodox Church of their crosiers and their own specific mitres or the Lamas of Tibet of their crowns, would you? These are signs and marks of their office, and in cases, necessary for proper worship and ritual. I would no sooner deprive to the Pope of his episcopal privilege of wearing a mitre than I would strip an Orthdox Jew of his right to wear a tefillin.

furthermore, 

Harvard has 691 acres in three campuses. The Vatican has 110 acres. So Harvard is 6 times larger than the Vatican. The Vatican employs about 3,500 people, Harvard has about 21,000 students and about 11,000 employees… And now here’s the kicker: the Vatican, at least in 2007, had a surplus of $10 million dollars. ($10,000,000) Harvard has an endowment of $27.4 Billion ($27,400,000,000) so in a certain sense, Harvard is 2,740 times richer than the pope. Next time someone says to you why doesn’t the pope do more to help the poor, just say, ‘Maybe Harvard could kick in a little.’