Danny:
   I think your animosity is ill-advised; I certainly oppose very
strongly any attempt at "crushing" (whatever
that means) because it would only cause the "circling of the wagons" by
the faithful. Catholicism must be allowed to die peacefully, and it is
my serious opinion that you and your generation will live to see that
happening if you only leave it alone and let it expire by the weight of
its own internal absurdities and prevarications. The election of
Ratzinger was in my opinion an excellent step because it will only
accelerate this process. I was actually trembling that they might elect
a "moderate" Pope who would make concessions with  the superficial
problems such as celibacy (closely associated with priestly pedophilia)
exclusion of females,  
and so forth which would keep the simpletons happy and thereby add a few
decades to the moribund agonies of the church. In the meantime, of
course, the core problems (tri-une God, Virgin Birth,
transubstantiation) would remain untouched. Seeing that this is not what
happened (and how promptly!) almost makes me believe in the Holy
Spirit!  
   To answer your questions: All militant religions are equally evil;
Islam has in our time a slight edge because it blows up buildings which
Catholicism has outgrown. I don't begrudge any cleric to think that his
religion is the only true one and all the others are false; history
shows that the smaller the difference the hotter the fury. Remember the
"one iota" difference (homousion vs. homoiusion) between the Anathasians
and Arians at the Council of Nicea? 50,000 people were massacred in one
night which was quite a feat in the 4th century. Given the advances in
weaponry even Osama has a lot to learn. --Grandpa Andrew 



Daniel Reeves wrote:
> 
>  Seriously, is there a greater force of evil in the world than the
> catholic church?
> 
> Couple blurbs from CNN about the new anti-gay, anti-feminist,
> anti-contraception, anti-catholicity pope:
> 
>   Ratzinger has said modernity led to a blurring of sexual identity,
>   causing some feminists to become adversaries of men. He labeled
>   homosexuality "an intrinsic moral evil."
> 
>   He argued that Muslim Turkey did not belong in Christian Europe and
>   issued a document saying that Catholicism was the only true religion,
>   questioning the validity of other religions, even Christian ones, even
>   as his Pope John Paul II was trying to reach out to other faiths.
> 
> --
> http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves  - -	google://"Daniel Reeves"