Somewhere in this same paper I read about a voodoo curse on human traffickers by the president of Benin, where this amounts to a serious danger to the soul of the cursed. Could the Pope, please, please, do the equivalent on killers, rapists, abusive priests, sex offenders, gun smugglers and, yes, human traffickers in Mexico, a very catholic country?? Excommunicate them ipso facto?
Till then, everything is the same talk we hear everywhere else.
2
pope francis has totally betrayed survivors of clergy sexual abuse.
and their families.
shame on him !
9
“I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security."
-Pope Francis
Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralised workings of the prevailing economic system.
“Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting”.
-Pope Francis
My two favorite quotes by the Pope.
30
In a recent post, I was referring to Pope Francis cow towing to the Chinese Communists which I feel is wrong for those who have sacrificed their lives while praying underground. I do not think that Pope John Paul II (now St. John Paul II or Pope Benedict would have behaved in this manner.
3
When one is part of the power structure and speaks out against that structure that one is truly a Saint. Bravo Francis.
16
Love this Pope! Not perfect but closest to how Jesus was! I’m not Christian, Buddhist actually but appreciate the simple message of love an compassion to all beings! People forget that Jesus would be more of a socialist than the odd right wing money talks kind of Christian, something about a rich man not entering heaven and meek shall inherit the earth, glad I am a beta male because I know what is coming! Keep going your Holiness, we can build a better world!
26
Francis is the best Pope we have seen since John XXIII. His stand on the environment is praiseworthy, and so is his recognition of the dignity and needs of the poor the disabled, and immigrants. Nevertheless, he has not acknowledged that women are equal to men. I cannot fathom why the Catholic Church hangs onto male-centered rules made up by men centuries ago. I prefer attending a church that has both male and female ministers, ministers who can marry if they wish, that views women as equals, and recognizes that women have a right to birth control. Until the Catholic Church does the same, it will continue to lose women, especially the younger generation who are the future.
28
"On priestly sexual abuse, for example, he has acted like a highhanded cleric of old instead of taking firm, clear action."
Until the pope makes a concerted effort to prevent the rape of children by the church and the cover-up of those crimes, he is simply just another culpable failed leader, irrespective of his token humility.
7
The wealthy and authoritarian church and its power-, violence- and wealth-hungry acolytes have a terrible problem.
Their problem is Jesus as described in the readable, short, and repetitive gospels. Ever since people learned to read it and think about it, the church has struggled with renegades who actually - gasp! - try to follow Jesus.
[My fellow atheists, please please stop trying to abolish religion: it's here to stay. Go to the texts and point out the hypocrisy. All the world's biggest religions, particularly the monotheistic ones, have teachings about community and caring for each other at their cores. Go for that, and the hypocrisy. Your belief in unbelief will only harden them, but if they are persuaded to review their own texts, maybe they'll open up their hearts. Hatred and anger are poison, though I say it who shouldn't, being quite temperaceous myself!]
9
You won't change an opinion when it comes to religion and politics. (same thing) But look at the fun we have trying.
2
High marks for symbolic acts and choices--nothing but "same-old" with respect to the Church's failure to firmly, consistently, and actively oppose the ruling world order. No claim here that firmness, consistency and 'activism' are easy to do within the ossified bones of an organization that has billions invested in worldly pursuits. But "soft power," in the context of a Church found irrelevant and power-less, is not sufficient; now matter how long his papal service, Francis seems destined to deserve little more than an asterisk in the painfully slow history of Church progress.
4
Thanks to Paul Elie and to the Editors to include this piece on the Holy Father and the papacy. I often regret, when reading Ross Douthat's "take" on the church. To me it appears that he views NOT the church of Jesus and the apostles, but the post-Constantine "imperial make-over," by which the church mimiced (and continues to do so in large measure) the concept of an empire. Elie's piece here is much more consisten with the Sermon on the mount (see Mt. Ch. 5) and the Christ who humbled himself (see Phil. 2: 5-11) than anything I've read in Douthat. When I read that Jesus' church is to be "contrast structure to worldly forms of authority" in Elie's piece, it's obvious that this is what Francis I is trying to bring about. Note to Ross (whom I see as a Christian gentleman with wrong emphasis), please join me in praising Elie's op of March 25.
29
Today is Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey to the adoring crowds who greeted him waiving branches.
In less than a week, after standing up to power, the religious leaders poisoned the minds of the people with propaganda so powerful that it alienated not only the masses but the remaining eleven of his disciples.
Later, when given a choice between releasing Barabas, a murderer who had opposed the Roman "swamp in Jerusalem," and Jesus, who had done nothing but perform miracles and teach them the power of love, they chose Barabas rather than Jesus.
In 2016, many of my brothers and sisters who call themselves Christians chose Barabas, and what saddens me most of all, continue to do so.
At the beginning of his ministry, after performing many miracles which had attracted the attention of the multitudes, Jesus went back to Nazarus only to be rejected, causing him to remark, "A prophet is honored everyone excepted among his country, his kin, and in his own house."
So, Pope Francis, the faithful know that you and we are not living the life he taught us without provoking the wrath of the powerful as did he.
23
I don't buy it. It seems like he would be the sort of kind open decent person I have come to expect from countries south of our border and yet he falls short of unambiguous declaration.
In Chile he showed us all that he is first and foremost a Vatican First sort of cleric as all clerics at that level are and always have been and have to be to get to that level. Telling the victims of a pedophile that of they cannot prove the Bishop protected him and hid his crimes they have no standing was RCC Protect Your Own 101. He showed us there is no materiel difference in his papacy from any that preceded him. What is described here as change etc is in fact no different that Trumps Trans ban for the military, fodder for the faithful that is meaningless in the real world as it will never actually be applied.
5
Pope Francis matters in the same way Pope John 23 mattered: Francis drives conservative Roman Catholics absolutely batty just as John 23 drove conservative Roman Catholics absolutely batty.
The present conservative battiness will only grow more frantic, and will result--like the previous conservative battiness--in a further splintering of the church. If there's a downside to that, I can't imagine what it might be.
10
"...carrying his own briefcase onto Shepherd One: Here was a pope with both feet on the ground."
Really? That gets people excited?
Does the author know how much other luggage the Pope didn't haul by himself? A lot. Enough that demands the use of power equipment to move. (Do the Kardashians even need such powered aid for their luggage?)
Im still not sure how much raw power this Pope actually possesses, or how much real influence he has on Roman Catholics. His house cleaning has been less then sweeping. And his condemnations are wholly weakened when there is still tolerance of sexually abusive priests. OR - those clergy (active or retired) living in extreme luxury while say...RC nuns (active, and esp.retired) live in abject poverty. Which IMO, are human rights violations compounded by the vigorous sexism within The Church. (often called Mother Church, but which remains wholly sexist)
Francis is right, he is a sinner...one who refuses to do the proper penance.
Either fix it, or stop playing a Fixer on TV.
7
I say this as a practicing Catholic, but I think Pope Francis has socialist tendencies which were probably formed in Argentina which tends to tilt leftward in its politics. He seems to favor progressive Catholic viewpoints regarding marriage and the family which may be harmful in the long run. We want to show compassion but we do not want to destroy the one foundation that is important to our society. If the family is affected adversely, then we have failed as Catholics. What will he want to soften next in the way of Catholic doctrine?
As some others have said, his siding with the Communists when it comes to the Catholic Church is foolish and unwise. Cardinals with knowledge of the Communist regime have begged him to not give in to the demands of this brutal dictatorship. He should listen to them and heed their advice. The sacrifices made by those Catholics who have been underground for years will be in vain. Please Pope Francis rethink this position and listen to these cardinals.
4
Please don't conflate humanistic tendencies with Communism. As we saw, Communists actually subjugated the people to poverty. This Pope has an open mind, and seems to think that all people deserve a chance. Kindly don't conflate the two, because they are NOT the same.
22
In reality, Catholics didn't embrace the notion of family you're defending until 1,000 years after Jesus died, remember?
So there's nothing inherently "destructive" in adapting to new social evolutions, quite on the contrary. The only way a religion can maintain itself is to apply its essential notions to every new kind of society, rather than to try to stick to some fixed, outdated rules.
Concretely, that means replacing obsolete measures such as rejecting rather than loving divorced human beings, with new measures that truly imitate Jesus.
In other words, it means leading through example, rather than through "the law", because that's precisely what Jesus blamed contemporary Jews for, remember?
14
On "anti-strongman": surely a subterranean bar for someone presenting himself as a holy man to cross.
"I am a sinner": that's like riding in a small Fiat instead of a grand SUV, preceded and followed by several grand SUVs.
This anti-strongman sinner-poseur has never clearly and firmly spoken out against, or unequivocally apologized for, the abuses of his house, or taken clear and needed action toward rectifying the wrongs and evils of his house.
5
Really? He has in fact spoken out quite a lot. Quite unlike his immediate predecessors this Pope has chosen to live in modest circumstances, and has preached kindness and loving and generosity. I am certain that he would be the first to say that he doesn't have everything right. But he's also the first, in several centuries, to advocate for the disenfranchised and the unpopular. Dominic I don't know where you get your information, but it might be worth examining your sources. Pace.
19
Tell that to the Chilean children victimized by a priest that Francis lionized. Protecting other strongmen and people who prey upon others to the detriment of their own people is something authoritarian regimes do quite well...
7
Now that Trump picked Bolton and Pompeo, these days the words "strongman", "hawkish", "hard-line" etc. constantly reappear in the media.
Anyone who studied the past of both men, however, cannot but notice that they've been systematically excelling in poor judgment and taking decisions that ended up producing the exact opposite of what they were supposed to.
So what exactly is the "strength" of this kind of men ... ? In what sense are they comparable to a hawk - a bird that precisely excels in perspicacity and being able to take the "height" needed to have a large overview of what is going on before deciding to pick a prey and go down fast to get it?
And even worse, what exactly is "hard" here ... ?
All these metaphors date back to not only patriarchal societies where being "viril" was supposed to provide all the symbols projecting strength, they also date back to a time when those same men imagined that being smart wasn't necessary to "win", muscle power would be enough.
Finally, they unfortunately also date back to a time when Christian theology only had one advice to offer, in order to deal with vital emotions: suppress them, even though that means hurting yourself.
In the meanwhile, thousands of scientific studies have shown that that only creates more violence and even less intelligent action, whereas it's precisely having the courage to face your emotions and accept them in a kind, loving way that creates great inner strength.
Time to change our vocabulary ...
4
I can’t understand why any self-respecting woman would remain a Catholic. The church (even with a relative progressive like Francis) totally supports exclusive male dominance in its leadership and objects to responsible and effective family planning. That, and the never-ending scandals involving sexual abuse by clergy, should be enough to make thinking women shun Catholicism.
8
Many self-respecting women continue to follow the Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox Judaism, and Islam despite scandals, attacks and general disdain of women. I’m a self-respecting woman who lives in the United States despite its current president and his attacks on women, minorities and other disenfranchised groups.
We do our best to use what matters to us and to fix what we can.
14
" Let man who has not sinned cast the first stone ". And Francis is a living embodiment of what Jesus said. He is the Pope but his papacy is not being King of the Catholics. His simplicity, kindness and inclusiveness of people not their situations is what Jesus preached and died for. The dogmatic Catholics who have completely veered away from this basic simplicity and message of their Prophet, therefore are chagrined and discontented Pope Francis. He acknowledges his own shortcomings, compromises and does not hide behind his robes. There are no decrees. Instead he has a democracy where different views and opinions carry equal weight to come to an agreement. He has made the Vatican more representative of Catholics around the world. What is wrong with demoting the strident American Cardinal, Raymond Burke who expects his power in the Vatican to carry more weight because he comes from a superpower state? When has a Cardinal from India represented where 10% of the 2 billion population are Catholics? Yes, Pope Francis is anti-strongman who is the real strongman. He is a human being first!
9
It's continually astonishing to me that a man who appears perfectly comfortable with the ongoing subjugation and oppression of half of humanity is so widely hailed as a change agent.
6
Because if you don't change a millennia old worldwide institution entirely and overnight, you cannot be called a "change agent" ... ?
That's not very credible (it's even an idea that helped Trump get elected, as it turns citizens into cynical critics standing at the sidelines rather than engaging and working hard to accomplish the next step towards real change).
As Saul Alinsky explained, all real, radical, lasting, democratic, change is step by step change.
Not knowing this, is a form of "political illiteracy", as he called it, and that is the main cause of why change happens much slower than it could have happened ...
Pope Francis IS clearly changing certain things, and faster and in a more radical way than many of his predecessors did. THAT's why it's correct to characterize and hail him as a "change agent".
12
Best pope in my lifetime.
9
While I do not agree with Pope Francis on a few of his statements, I am thrilled at so much of what I do agree with him about, and about his openness, frankness, and actions on how we are supposed to treat each other and our planet - I suspect, EXACTLY what Jesus did and would be doing today.
12
Your article is interesting but exposes your lack of historical information about the various Popes. Most of the 15th and 16th Century Popes were heads of armies in charge of protecting their lands and their riches. They were not expected to preach communal kindness or examine individual morality. That is a much older and even more a post-Enlightenment idea. There has never been, ever since Saint Peter, the first Pope, a uniform idea of what the position means.
6
I am not religious and do not attend any church. Still, i thought Pope Francis was a Pope of hope for all the world. However, after he made the statement that there will never be, absolutely never be women priests, my feelings about the Pope are, to say the least, melting. And i do feel very sad and i will continue to hope he does good for the world. He is, mostly on the right track, but iwould like to ask him if the first words Jesus spoke, after his resurrection, was to a woman, and it was his women who stayed by the cross and didn't flee, my God, Pope Francis, how could you say such a thing?
29
Suggest you not give up on Francis. In both heart and mind he will soon put someone in place to move the church into the 21st century. Remember, he still has a foot in the 20th. Most of the men who surround him in Rome have mind, heart and both feet in the 19th. Paul
11
I think you should look further, and consider reality. Pope Francis has bowed to the limitations of what he can accomplish. Armchair and rockstar-rally idealists don't have to cope with real opposition. We have to be grateful to those who endure the strictures of limitations to their power to try to change the system from within.
8
Thank you Friar Paul Berube. In the 50's, at age 16, i went to a funeral Mass for a distant relative. The Mass, said in Latin of course, was beautiful. I didn't need to understand the actual words. It washed over me like poetry. Obviously i never have forgotten that.
1
I agree with what had to be the motivation for this piece - a belief that Trumpian infatuation with dogmatic strongman is wrong - but this would have been a lot more persuasive if Francis were actually accomplishing something or influencing the matters he cares about
6
It's heartening to hear this Pope decry the evils of poverty, the excesses of capitalism, the suppression of civil liberties and even in small measure the sickness of homophobia. But where is he when the women of Poland protest that country's attack on reproductive rights. And as that illustrious dictator Stalin said to Churchill and Roosevelt, how many troops has the Pope?
10
You ask where the Pope is when the women of Poland protest abortion, but you fail to realize the long lasting stance the Church has had on the subject. Although Pope Francis is an extremely progressive individual (when compared to past Popes), we will most likely never see a Pope rallying for abortion rights. Here's an AWESOME quote about his stance on abortion taken from The Christian Science Monitor:
"I wish to restate as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin, since it puts an end to an innocent life," said Francis in the Apostolic letter released Monday by the Vatican. "In the same way, however, I can and must state that there is no sin that God's mercy cannot reach and wipe away when it finds a repentant heart seeking to be reconciled with the Father. May every priest, therefore, be a guide, support and comfort to penitents on this journey of special reconciliation."
Pope Francis holds firm the ideologies of the Catholic Church but excels in permitting his Bishops and Priests to forgive and comfort those who have dealt with or are dealing with these issues. Forgiveness is a key trait of the Church and is something that many love to see pushed by Pope Francis.
I hope this wasn't too lengthy and I hope you have a blessed Sunday!
Conner
7
Pope Francis,
Please don't give and inch to the Chinese Communist Party, and please meet with the Dali Lama,
9
A nice valentine to the pope. But his authority comes from God,
not the people. The last thing the world needs is to have a
religious leader put forward as a solution to political problems.
For the West, that would be nothing less than an attempt to undo
the Enlightenment.
The current pope may be a nice guy, but he leads an archaic
institution that has no place in the modern world. Its pernicious
doctrines about marriage and fertility have contributed to the world's
population burden. The Cold War, in a way as yet undocumented,
may turn out to have been basically a religious war. The historian
William McNeill pointed out that the line of the Iron Curtain
coincided with the ancient division between the lands of the
Roman and Eastern churches.
As with any opaque institution, though, there could be surprises.
The fact that a pope would resign caught the world's attention.
Perhaps there's some Dan Brown-ish plot in the works for the
Church to dismantle itself.
3
St. Francis was so different.
Pope Francis is so different.
And so good. I’m not religious.
The measure of Pope Francis is his treatment of people less fortunate, his modesty and decency. He’s good.
He is much loved. His challenge is immense. He knows this. He is good.
I’m rooting for Pope Francis.
He’s a good man.
May he lead the autocrats, kleptomaniacs and killers to a better place.
He can start with our president.
61
'Anti-strongman' is hardly the way I would describe this Pope. He is like FDR, a strongman in his own right - a people's strongman, a people's Pope. The previous popes were strongmen for guarding Church institutions and their own prerogatives. This Pope wants be a strongman who guards the Christ and his people, not the Church.
39
I have to disagree. Yes, it's a powerful position. Though much less so than during the times of the Counter Reformation. This pope seems genuinely humble. It seems that he really had a sympathetic imagination. He expresses real hope for betterment and has battled against entrenched Vatican strongholds who are ipso facto corrupt. Let's see how this plays out against our homegrown villain.
6
Why is the NYT constantly exalting Pope Francis?
He and his archaic, organizational religion are all about the subjugation of women, especially by forcing them to give birth to unwanted children. Nice.
Just what we need in our exceedingly, over populated world.
26
I don't see how you can call Pope Francis the anti-strongman when, by all accounts, he is eager to cut a deal with Xi Jinping that would throw real, loyal, persecuted Roman Catholics in China under the bus and recognize the leaders of the Communist front Catholic Church.
4
The Roman Catholic Church was organized to become the state religion of the Roman Empire by the Nicene Council three centuries after the life and death of Jesus. It supports statism and adherence to authorities.
8
@ Steve Bolger
None of the canons of the First Nicene Council (the one you're referring to, I suppose, as the second one only took place in the 8th century...?) has to do with politics, let alone support "adherence to authorities". And it certainly didn't install Christianity as a state religion either.
That only happened half a century later, during the Edict of Constantinople.
The Nicene Council was the first "ecumenical" council in the history of Christianity, trying to find one single, common doctrine that all different Christian sects could embrace (called "orthodoxy").
At the same time, the various Roman emperors all made laws related to which religions were legal and which weren't, but THAT isn't typically "Christian", as it's what Roman emperors had always done, long before they became Christians themselves (and even after the Nicene Council, some weren't Christian at all).
Right after the Nicene Council (a theological council of bishops), the different co-existing Roman emperors accepted the Nicene doctrine as the only "valid" one for all Christian citizens. The Edict of Constantinople, however, was a political decision, where the three Roman emperors ruling at the time (Theodosius I, Gratian and Valentinian II) declared Nicene Christianity would become a state religion, turning all those who didn't adhere to it into "heretics" and heresy into a political crime.
Many Christian churches, however, refused, so there is no black and white story to tell here...
7
After reading Henry Sire's "The Dictator Pope," which is much more plausible and believable than this piece (I won't say "puff piece"), you have the feeling that this article was "inspired" by someone in the Vatican.
5
Calling the Pope 'a Dictator' is pretty much like the alt-right accusation of Obama for being 'a Dictator' flouting the US constitution!
15
I highly value Pope Francis. He is a breath of fresh air for all who value kindness and humanistic values —including those that remind us our responsibility to care for all, including the most vulnerable. And I fully acknowledge that he leads a powerful Catholic hierarchy that is full of white men who are conservative and will fight innovation in the Church.
However, if a key goal is to bring back lapsed Catholics and others to the church, he must recognize and enhance the role of women in the Church. No easy task. But the Church must understand that mothers (and fathers) value their daughters and will not pick a church that diminishes their worth.
A first step would be to promote women as deacons in the Church. This leadership role is currently denied. And it is unfortunate. Women are no longer satisfied to clean the priests living quarters. It is time for change.
43
So here's what I just don't get. The American Church is desperately in need of more priests. What about women? I can't find anything in the Bible prohibiting women from becoming priests. I am told that it is because of longstanding church tradition. Well, wasn't that also the case for the Latin Mass? Tradition should not be adhered to simply because it is tradition. Women have been able to upend tradition in all major fields -- except the Catholic priesthood. Pope France -- please!!!
7
This essay confuses form and substance. The restrictions on the Pope’s power were created by him and can be abolished by him. So he is a benign dictator. Trump detests the checks and balances on his power imposed by our democratic system. So he is a would’ be dictator subject to democratic checks and balances
1
humility might well turn out to be contagious
12
As a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs at Georgetown ought to know, foot washing is part of Holy Thursday worship, not a Good Friday tradition. This being Holy Week, keep an eye on Francis. Also, I wonder if this piece was intended to counter Ross Douthat’s opinion essay that appeared in last week’s Sunday Review?
9
This column should be required reading for Douthat and his fellow Feeneyites and Jansenists who long for the return of Pius IX.
61
You have forgotten Mr Erdogan in your list of strongmen.
3
Francis is said to be anti-strong man but he is demoting bishops who oppose authoritarian Xi Jinping's attempt to rule over the Catholic Church. John Paul II is said to have sided with supporters of authoritarian Franco, but he is on history's short list of people who had the greatest influence in Europe's overturning 70 years of Soviet domination. Mr. Elie has an interesting perspective.
I think Francis is a flawed Pontiff whose very foolishness has brought the unexpected light of hope to our dark world, Catholic and non-Catholic alike.
The fact that there are seven comments on an article about a man of faith as over against the hundreds, sometimes thousands, on the likes of our current secular leaders, is reflective of the darkness of the world that Pope Francis challenges.
3
"The fact that there are seven comments on an article about a man of faith as over against the hundreds, sometimes thousands, on the likes of our current secular leaders, is reflective of the darkness of the world that Pope Francis challenges."
-------
The number of comments isn't necessarily reflective of anything.
Comments are moderated. There is a relatively small staff of moderators. This op-ed appeared on the weekend. Moderation tends to be slower on the weekends (allowing some of the moderators to have a day off, maybe!).
The number of comments isn't necessarily reflective of anything.
9
When the Pope is conservative and traditional, clerics like Cardinal Burke remind us sternly that he is infallible. But when there is a Pope who dares to let a little light in, the hardliners like Burke feel free to tell us he's wrong.
25
A good article, although with errors concerning Opus Dei. Opus Dei was founded in 1928, before the Spanish Civil War and when Franco was a minor officer superintending a military academy. And Opus Dei was always to the right of Generalissimo Franco when he was Dictator.
The article describes well why so many GOP leaders, including the New York Times' Douthat, are so opposed to Pope Francis.
6
From the point of view of an orthodox Catholic Pope Francis is a disaster. He is the apotheosis of Vatican II when the Catholic Church decided to become Modernist, i.e., secular and Protestant in it's relation to morality and worship.
“We must strip from our Catholic prayers and from the Catholic liturgy everything which can be the shadow of a stumbling block for our separated brethren; that is for the Protestants.”
- Archbishop Annibale Bugnini, L'Osservatore Romano, March 19, 1965
Today, my guess is that 80-90% of Catholics are effectively Protestant in their action and beliefs. And Pope Francis appears hell bent to bring the Church totally in line with secular morality as regards marriage, contraception, gay marriage, etc. He is also hell bent on bending the Church to desires of Communist governments at the expense of faithful Catholics, e.g., China.
All in all Pope Francis may be the worst Pope in the history of the Catholic Church.
2
And the folks who came before him accomplished what? They nearly demolished their clergy with the pedophilia scandals. Maybe if they allowed priests, who drink coffee and eat meat and other spicy foods that fuel sex drive instead of a sattvic diet closer to eastern aescetics, to marry and have sex and realationships with women, none of these would have happened. It is important to respect tradition, but to continue on with it for it's own sake when it's exacerbating problems and not look at it with clear eyes is simply insanity. Most of my family, devout catholics all, were joining an activist group of former catholics who had decided to divest from Rome - because of the pedophilia.
Sometimes you need to change what you are doing if it's WRONG, even if you have been doing it for 2000 years - like washing your hands before surgery. How difficult would it have been to let priests marry and have sex? Honestly? I think it would have been FAR better to allow that then to loose your flock who are disgusted at the child-molesting activities of the clergy. YA THINK?
21
In the early stages of this papal reign I was hopeful for the future. Now, Francis is a disappointment. As a man of science and an environmentalist, he has failed his flock by not speaking for the recognition of birth control. The vast majority of Catholics practice birth control in Western countries. In the poor and developing countries of the world, the flock is still chained to unplanned reproduction and resulting poverty.
Secondly, he and the Bishops and Cardinals have again failed to recognize the reality of failed marriages among the faithful and therefore driving them away from the church. Human relationships are faulty, but that does not mean that the individuals are sinful. This hypocrisy has resulted in the current state of no-fault annulment in the US.
And finally, the ignorance of Celibacy must be faced, recognized and abolished. A better clergy, no longer under the taint of being sexual deviants in hiding, would go a long way in eradicating our shameful history of abuse.
33
at the end of the day Roman catholic pontiffs claim to speak on matters of faith for God without check by dissenters in the fold. that is an unlimited claim of power, rejected by protestants, some of whom also claim to speak for God but whose pronouncements are subject to the right of dissent or doctrinal disagreement. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
3
Reminding us that Christ was kind first, and judged with mercy is a message I can bear. Taking on the mantle of St. Francis, rather than one of his predecessor Popes, signaled his intentions.
Pope Francis tells us he is a sinner, and his weaknesses and failures attest to that. But Pope Francis knows what he is, and tries to change, which is more than we see from world leaders or even most moral leaders.
Give the man his due. In the position of enormous pomp and power, Francis chooses to remind of us of the humble carpenter, who died at the hands of the arrogant, for spreading a message that God and people matter more than pomp and Pharisaical grasp on power and tradition.
72
Hush, Hush, Whisper who dares, but Brother Francis is saying his prayers for You, for Us and Ours wherever you are, across the Globe from America to All Nations under one Sun.
It is his humanity and quiet fervor that gives some of us a renewal of hope this Spring, and he remains a Pope and Visionary for All Seasons. Wishing him ongoing Faith and remembering his words: 'Let us not succumb to temptation', he shows amazing Grace in the midst of Chaos and offers food for the Soul.
Papa Francesco has asked that we pray for him, and it is the inspiration of a friend from Africa who will be celebrating Ramadan in May, that is the cause of a renewal of belief in All Creatures Great and Small.
34
Authoritarianism itself rests on the presumption that there is some kind of "lord" running the universe, whom earthly authoritarians purportedly represent.
Nature doesn't have any personality at all. Praying is a bad habit invented to project a human personality onto it. It takes the name of an imaginary being in vain.
1
Praying is a conversation. It is not a Santa Claus list. Prayer can be meditative and uplifting. Why knock something that works for so many in the search for peace of mind.
16
The demands for legislation respecting what people claim "God" thinks have profoundly corrupted politics in the US.
6
Pope Francis realizes that there are a lot of empty church pews (and churches themselves). His views on being more open and encouraging to church members show his concern.
Personally, I do wish he'd permit priests to marry and stay in the priesthood. It would make a nice four century jump. Other issues might follow, but why can "Eastern rite" priests marry and others not -- except for Anglican/Episcopal?
26
The notion that a priesthood should be ignorant of the single topic that most obsesses their flocks is ridiculous.
3
"Then Francis set out to point the synod discussions in a progressive direction on the issue of whether divorced-and-remarried Catholics in certain countries may receive communion at Mass. Traditionalists accused Francis of flirting with heresy."
I have no viewpoint on this column other than to observe that heresy in the Catholic Church appears to involve marriage and divorce. Those topics are certainly not heretical in the US, but regulations on guns are almost deemed heretical by the head of state in Washington, D.C. Trump seeks not to be first in fidelity or ethics, but in deaths by gun. He has a good start as the US has a huge lead.
8
"Heresy" is claiming to know what "God" thinks. It is all human projection.
3
Pope Francis is a good and kind man but his papacy has not been without its flaws. He was elected Pope because he was supposed to bring Catholics back into the pews. So far, Church attendance has not increased in western countries except for the African nations. His papacy is not the reason for this increase but the thirsting for a faith. His liberalism has not seen higher attendance in Africa but has occurred in spite of it. These nations are very conservative and still practice a traditional style of Catholicism.
3
In my streetwise South Side Chicago world the most infuentia potent street kingpins were always calm, invisible and quiet. That was the source of their strength. Restraint is the ultimate power. Seeing and listening educates and informs human affairs and relationships much more than ordering and talking.
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The highlight of Francis' papacy is his call for environmental stewardship.
Speaking with the authority of both a trained scientist and a moral leader, Francis asks us all to be responsible in our treatment of this one shared planet.
Further, the Pope also made clear that the poorest, most vulnerable countries pay a steep environmental price for the damage done by wealthier nations.
That approach is a sea change for world figures and religious figures.
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Population growth outpaces technological progress to reduce environmental impact. The pope is silent on this issue.
13
First, I'm a relatively satisfied atheist. But, this Pope gives me hope for the future, and for humanity. Thank you, papa.
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I was looking for something to say after reading this and reading the article on Bolton. You said it nicely, however you might want to review a quote by George Orwell on the definition of Political Power. Our history as the human race is not a very peaceful one, to each other or the planet.
But thank you.
6