The ninth episode of HBO’s The Young Pope, which aired February 12, featured an anti-Catholic view of abortion, a conversation about orgasms, and (surprise!) another corrupt, lecherous clergy member.
At the start of the episode, the Pope and his past mentor, Cardinal Spencer, argue over the Pope’s new rule making abortions unforgivable. Cardinal Spencer argues that the Pope is “wrong about abortion,” before explaining that one past Pope limited “excommunication to the abortion of an ensouled fetus, introducing a distinction that argues against lumping together disparate situations.” What disparate situations? Ensouled fetuses v. non-ensouled fetuses? This “distinction” that Cardinal Spencer mentions is nonexistent, as the Catholic Church believes that life begins at conception.
Yet he continues, “Abortion was said to take place only after the ensoulment of the fetus, and that occurs in the third month of pregnancy.” When the Pope responds, “Abortion is saying no to life,” Cardinal Spencer spurts, “Who gives a damn about life? Life is not some stupid centerpiece on the side table of nothings. Life is meant to be used. And to be used well, to love, and be loved. And let me remind you what Saint Alphonsus said about abortion. In an abortion, everyone is guilty except for the woman.”
Cardinal Spencer manages to interject into the conversation, for seemingly no good reason, that before the discovery that “ovulation is spontaneous,” “it was considered a sin not to give a woman pleasure.” “The cost was several billion female orgasms,” Cardinal Spencer adds.
Cardinal Spencer- And yet, in 1591, Pope Gregory XIV, with the Sedes Apostolica Bull, restricted excommunication to the abortion of an ensouled fetus, introducing a distinction that argues against lumping together disparate situations.
The Pope- I'm sick and tired of distinctions.
Cardinal Spencer- Even for Saint Thomas Aquinas and right up until the middle of the 19th century, abortion was said to take place only after the ensoulment of the fetus, and that occurs in the third month of pregnancy.
The Pope- Science is the gift of God, and God taught us that ovulation is spontaneous.
Cardinal Spencer- Ask a woman about that. Back when it was still believed that there were two kinds of insemination-- male insemination involving sperm, female insemination involving eggs-- it was considered a sin not to give a woman pleasure. But then, when it was discovered that ovulation was spontaneous, the cost was several billion female orgasms.
The Pope- But it made psychoanalysts rich.
Cardinal Spencer- The one profession that involves no work and a great deal of money that we let slip through our fingers. I implore you, Lenny, reconsider your position on abortion. Tough in principle, soft in practice.
The Pope- Abortion is saying no to life.
Cardinal Spencer- Who gives a damn about life? Life is not some stupid centerpiece on the side table of nothingness. Life is meant to be used and to be used well, to love and be loved. And let me remind you what Saint Alphonsus said about abortion: In an abortion, everyone is guilty, except for the woman.
Somehow the show has twisted the Catholic Church to be pro-abortion, if it's early enough. The only problem is that they cite beliefs that are hundreds of years old and have been corrected after much modern scientific discovery about biology.
Apparently the writers of this show have never met a single decent Catholic; yet another Catholic clergy member guilty of sexual misconduct is introduced. The very powerful Archbishop Kurtwell is suspected of a slew of sexual abuses in New York, while either paying his victims into silence or threatening to blackmail them. The priest in charge of investigating is finally able to gather evidence against Archbishop Kurtwell once the Archbishop’s alleged son comes forward, and sexually explicit pictures are obtained of a young man performing a sexual act on the Archbishop.
Additionally, one scene shows a flashback of the Pope as a young boy praying to God to heal a sick woman. He uses the same words and actions he used in the last episode when he called upon God to smite a woman.
According to HBO, not believing in God is not only enough criteria to become Pope, but to perform life-taking/saving miracles as well.
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