Posts by Jeffro

90

What does the Catholic church think of JW?

by Halcon in

on a trip to rome a few years ago i asked my friend (who is roman and jw) what the catholic faith thinks of jw.

he simply stated that jw is tolerated by the church but that really not much thought is given to them.

is there an official stance on jw by the catholics?

Jeffro

I am aware of the renewed interest in the Canberra Times' (Brzakovic's local regional newspaper) story that arose when Ratzinger visited Australia in 2008, which elicited some interest from a few regional European newspapers. The story still all hinges on the claimed conversation reported only by the lady, without any independent verification, and with the relationship changing from ‘first cousin’ to ‘second cousin’, an even more tenuous connection. The story was never verified by the Vatican or by Ratzinger.

(It is amusing, though, watching people 'finding' these other sources that I already found on my initial verification.)

90

What does the Catholic church think of JW?

by Halcon in

on a trip to rome a few years ago i asked my friend (who is roman and jw) what the catholic faith thinks of jw.

he simply stated that jw is tolerated by the church but that really not much thought is given to them.

is there an official stance on jw by the catholics?

Jeffro

People’s standards of evidence are truly abysmal, I’m sorry that some people can’t make the distinction between the existence of a story and whether the story is actually true (though it’s not surprising to find a higher proportion of such people on a forum related to religion). There’s no evidence that the lady’s story is actually true. There is no verified record of the phone call, no transcript of the conversation, no established relationship between the two people, it’s just a story a lady told. And even if she really was his cousin and that he phoned her (tracking her down to a small town on the other side of the planet after decades without contact), it only means Ratzinger thought about his cousin, not that he thought much about JWs..

As the initial GPT response correctly indicated, there is no indication that this anecdote was widely reported, and the story that was reported contains no verifiable details.

90

What does the Catholic church think of JW?

by Halcon in

on a trip to rome a few years ago i asked my friend (who is roman and jw) what the catholic faith thinks of jw.

he simply stated that jw is tolerated by the church but that really not much thought is given to them.

is there an official stance on jw by the catholics?

Jeffro

We can't be certain the photo in the newspaper was real

This is irrelevant misdirection. the fact that a lady exists is entirely mundane. It adds nothing to the veracity of her tenuous story about the pope ringing a ‘cousin’ he hadn’t seen in decades to talk to her about JWs. 🤨

whether the Catholic church thinks much about JWs

Even if we assume the lady’s story is true, without any verifiable evidence, it only establishes that Ratzinger thought about his ‘cousin’, not that he thought a lot specifically of JWs (shifting the goal posts) or that his alleged understanding of JWs (based only on the lady’s version of an alleged private conversation) meant anything about the Catholic Church’s position on JWs (a false equivalence). It also wouldn’t be without precedent for a JW to embellish a story to make someone sound more interested in their religion than was actually the case.

90

What does the Catholic church think of JW?

by Halcon in

on a trip to rome a few years ago i asked my friend (who is roman and jw) what the catholic faith thinks of jw.

he simply stated that jw is tolerated by the church but that really not much thought is given to them.

is there an official stance on jw by the catholics?

Jeffro

Oh no… someone… disliked my comments. How will I go on.

90

What does the Catholic church think of JW?

by Halcon in

on a trip to rome a few years ago i asked my friend (who is roman and jw) what the catholic faith thinks of jw.

he simply stated that jw is tolerated by the church but that really not much thought is given to them.

is there an official stance on jw by the catholics?

Jeffro

The lady might have made it up but if you think that's more likely than the pope having a JW cousin (an entirely everyday and somewhat mundane circumstance) I think you have poor judgment.

It’s entirely more likely that a lady made up a story for attention. The source of the story is entirely based on the claims of one lady with no verification. My judgement is just fine.

Again all of which is beside the point considering you/ChatGPT originally claimed there was no media report

No, it didn’t say there was ‘no media coverage’, it said there wasn’t widely available documentation or media coverage. You just can’t parse a clause properly.

Earlier you quoted "significant coverage" whereas what I wrote was "some media interest".

No, I didn’t. You may like to learn the difference between double and single quotes. Single quotes indicate a paraphrase rather than an exact quote, as distinct from the double quotes you used when you lied about me saying “extensive coverage”.

The actual statement was “There is no widely available documentation or media coverage to verify this story.” The original story contains only unverified claims from the lady. No verification has been provided whatsoever.

90

What does the Catholic church think of JW?

by Halcon in

on a trip to rome a few years ago i asked my friend (who is roman and jw) what the catholic faith thinks of jw.

he simply stated that jw is tolerated by the church but that really not much thought is given to them.

is there an official stance on jw by the catholics?

Jeffro

As for being widely available I found it on multiple sites in seconds, as.did you apparently, the second time of looking.

Congratulations, you can use Google too. The quality of the sites you ‘found it on’ speaks volumes about the supposed veracity of the tale that some lady made up. None are reliable sources and the puff piece in the paper is just some lady’s story. The paper makes no claim of verifying any part of the story. The story isn’t available from the newspaper’s website.

90

What does the Catholic church think of JW?

by Halcon in

on a trip to rome a few years ago i asked my friend (who is roman and jw) what the catholic faith thinks of jw.

he simply stated that jw is tolerated by the church but that really not much thought is given to them.

is there an official stance on jw by the catholics?

Jeffro

You really are tedious.

There is no widely available documentation or media coverage to verify this story.

90

What does the Catholic church think of JW?

by Halcon in

on a trip to rome a few years ago i asked my friend (who is roman and jw) what the catholic faith thinks of jw.

he simply stated that jw is tolerated by the church but that really not much thought is given to them.

is there an official stance on jw by the catholics?

Jeffro

Yes, a photo of a newspaper article in one single newspaper that can’t be found online is not ‘widely available media coverage’.

Also you misquoted me. I said “some media interest” which you changed to “significant coverage”.

There is no functional difference between ‘widely available media coverage’ and ‘significant coverage’. You claimed that it was given wide coverage. It wasn’t. My reply to your incorrect claim was accurate.

Plus you give no apology for misquoting me as claiming "extensive coverage". I won't hold my breath.

At no point did I use the term ‘extensive coverage’.

90

What does the Catholic church think of JW?

by Halcon in

on a trip to rome a few years ago i asked my friend (who is roman and jw) what the catholic faith thinks of jw.

he simply stated that jw is tolerated by the church but that really not much thought is given to them.

is there an official stance on jw by the catholics?

Jeffro

What’s ‘In the media’ is a single tabloid-style piece that explicitly attributes the anecdote to ‘Brzakovic’ without any verification of the claimed details. Your standard of evidence is abysmal. Additionally, a Google search for pages consisting both "brzakovic" and "ratzinger" returns a total of 6 results, none of which are news sites.

GPT said there was no widely available media coverage, which is correct, and it was also correct that what is available is unverifiable. Your claim that “GPT … said there was no media report at all” is simply wrong.

90

What does the Catholic church think of JW?

by Halcon in

on a trip to rome a few years ago i asked my friend (who is roman and jw) what the catholic faith thinks of jw.

he simply stated that jw is tolerated by the church but that really not much thought is given to them.

is there an official stance on jw by the catholics?

Jeffro

That’s wrong, it was in the Canberra Times (clipping linked above), described as a “compact” broadsheet not a tabloid, and can still be found, including the clipping, on many sites

It can be found on a smattering of JW related forums. I checked. The story tracks back to one lady’s unverifiable claim.