The following excerpt is from a news report on huffingtonpost.com:
Pope Francis is a conservative who is anti-gay marriage and anti-gay adoption. He has described same-sex marriage as the work of the devil and a “destructive attack on God’s plan.” He has also said that gay adoption is a form of discrimination against children.
In 2010, Francis championed against a bill for same-sex marriage and gay adoption, according to the National Catholic Register.
“[T]he Argentine people will face a situation whose outcome can seriously harm the family," he wrote to the four monasteries in Argentina. "At stake is the identity and survival of the family: father, mother and children. At stake are the lives of many children who will be discriminated against in advance, and deprived of their human development given by a father and a mother and willed by God. At stake is the total rejection of God’s law engraved in our hearts.”
He went on to describe it as a "‘move’ of the Father of Lies who seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God" and asked for lawmakers to "not act in error." In John 8:44, the Father of Lies is the devil. "
Unless you are male and Catholic, I fail to see why the pope is relevant at all. Of course, I feel the same way about the mormon "prophet" -- also largely irrelevant unless you are both male and mormon. And even then, you might not give much of a flip about whatever these old dudes have to say.
I suppose unless a hermaphrodite gets into power, any prophet/leader type is automatically going to be "irrelevant" to 1/2 of the human race, by that reasoning. Do you require all leader-type figures to be exactly like you in every respect before you pronounce them "relevant?"
John XXXIII helped end the Cuban Missile Crisis and JPII was instrumental in bringing down Communism. That was relevant to people who were neither male nor Catholic.
bona dea Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > John XXXIII helped end the Cuban Missile Crisis > and JPII was instrumental in bringing down > Communism. That was relevant to people who were > neither male nor Catholic.
Does the Catholic Church believe in the bible? What do they stand for? What oath do they take? I believe that they are suppose to be MORALLY CLEAN. They have sure had their problems in the past! Maybe this guy can pull the true Catholics together. For all of the true Christians in this world, I hope that he stands strong in his beliefs and his true Catholic faith.
But I think we can probably agree that it would be good for the world if he actually accomplished some things during his tenure. Maybe he can institute reforms that will stop the child sex abuse. Maybe he can go a little further than Benedict XVI and end the Catholic ban on contraception -- because although it is routinely ignored in the West, it is still contributing to overpopulation in other parts of the world. So I really hope he is successful in ways that will benefit the world -- not because I want him to have personal accomplishments to be proud of, but because he's the head of a powerful church whose actions affect all of us.
Some posters want him to fail just so they can keep on mocking. To hell with the people involved. With all these anti Catholic threads, I feel like I have stumbled on a hate group.
Catholics for Choice are critical of the Catholic Church. They are also -- Catholics. Be nice if it were acknowledged here that one can be both -- among a few other things.
I still think that out of a barrel of rotten apples, he was the least decayed. Sometimes it takes baby steps to get to the ultimate outcome you want. In general, I think he's a step up from the last pope.
And exactly how much did Argentina listen to the pope on that particular matter?
To expect the leader of the Catholic church to bend on gay rights at this time is probably expecting more than such an individual can deliver. Change will probably have to come from the ground up, as parish priests see gay couples attending mass together with their children, and they realize that the sky hasn't fallen.
Parish priests would first have to "allow" gay couples to take the communion.
I don't know about Argentina, but judging from my personal experiences in both Asia and California, most Catholic priests, who took the vow of obedience, woud not do that--not if they know for sure that you and your partner are gay.
The ones that sympathize with gay people are frowned upon and often are marginalized among priests.
I couldn't have hoped for anything better: another out of touch, homophobic, tradition driven, near octogenarian pope. Hopefully it will help with the decline of religious belief in the world. Gays and gays marriage is almost universally accepted as a normal lifestyle by secular humanists and free thinkers throughout the planet. Long live the pope.
Francis is part of a religious culture of murder, repression, torture, pedophilia, homophobia, mythology, misogyny, misappropriation, genocide, that held back progression, knowledge, science, and culture of civilization for a couple of thousand years. It is a church and a culture that needs to be flushed down the toilet of civilization.