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[Shadow780]

Declining membership.

Need to release new expansion asap.

 

[Emwitus]

Man, everything this guy says is encouraging until you realize that all he really wants to do is shift the focus off what he still really believes: women are inferior, homosexuality/non-procreative sex is sinful, abortion is murder, and we live in a world of superstition and intrigue where we occasionally eat the body and drink the blood of a long dead zombie Jew.

Until he actually speaks out against those beliefs, Francis is merely an upgrade to the church's marketing.

You mean until he becomes an atheist and shuts down the catholic church.

 

[bonercop]

Man, everything this guy says is encouraging until you realize that all he really wants to do is shift the focus off what he still really believes: women are inferior, homosexuality/non-procreative sex is sinful, abortion is murder., and we live in a world of superstition and intrigue where we occasionally eat the body and drink the blood of a long dead zombie Jew

when an authority figure like the pope is forced to adopt softening rhetoric like in the OP, it helps to de-legitimize those beliefs.

I can understand not being on board with the guy himself. but whether his words are sincere or not doesn't really matter. when the pope says "eh, maybe we shouldn't focus so much on the gays" it's a big deal.

 

[Piecake]

I like this guy. The dude has his priorities straight, helping the poor instead of bitching at people's 'moral failings'.

I really don't get the backlash that this guy gets from some social liberals (i am also very socially liberal). I mean, what the hell do you expect? He is a 70 year old in charge of a very bureaucratic conservative religious institution. Do you expect him to hold the values of today's socially liberal 20-30 year olds? Do you expect him to dramatically change the catholic church with the snap of his finger? I mean, come on.

Would I like him to go a lot farther, of course! But the steps that this guy has been taking and the change in tone have definitely been positive and he seems like a good dude overall. Out of all the realistic choices that the conservative cardinals could have elected, I think they easily made the best choice.

when an authority figure like the pope is forced to adopt softening rhetoric like in the OP, it helps to de-legitimize those beliefs.

I can understand not being on board with the guy himself. but whether his words are sincere or not doesn't really matter. when the pope says "eh, maybe we shouldn't focus so much on the gays" it's a big deal.

Yup, that too.

 

[Toxi]

As a somewhat practicing Catholic, I happy eating the body and drinking the blood of a long-dead zombie Jew.

 

[AlimNassor]

Declining membership.

Again, why would the Vatican give a shit about us "sinners"? They sure as fuck dont want us to join up again.

 

[Erigu]

Again, why would the Vatican give a shit about us "sinners"? They sure as fuck dont want us to join up again.

? Of course they do.

 

[Videoneon]

Re: OP

These aren't comments that inspire much from me, but I guess it's something of a shift for the "slumbering" feminist undercurrent and more progressive segments of Catholicism. Perhaps it's a way for these previously shut up people to at least take away the right-wing Moral Majority dominance from this organized religion.

Why would the church care about good PR? They never have before, and they sure as hell would not want "sinners" to love them. The Church doesn't need any "good PR" when they have hundreds of millions of followers still devoted. To the Vatican who fucking cares if a minority of sinners hates them? They really wouldn't care what us "sinners" think. As far as they care we're already damned.

Nah, they do. They made some sort of comment on their recent corruption scandals, as opposed to nothing. They do want more converts too.

 

[GillianSeed79]

Two months ago, Francis caused a sensation during an inflight news conference when he was asked about gay priests. "Who am I to judge?" about the sexual orientation of priests, as long as they are searching for God and have good will, he responded.

Right on man. This is the best Pope ever....

Francis noted in the latest interview that he had merely repeated church teaching (though he again neglected to repeat church teaching that says while homosexuals should be treated with dignity and respect, homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered."

Fuck off. I'm straight. What the fuck does intrinsically disordered mean? Do you know what I've masterbated to pope guy? There's a reason why they don't have double mint gum commercials anymore. I'm watching you pope. You got rid of the evil-looking throne, but I got my eye on you.

 

[Chichikov]

Dude is wrecking shop. I wonder if some cardinals feel like they made a mistake by electing him. And he's young enough to hang around for a long time too.

To the naysayers, no, the Catholic Church is not going to change its core beliefs to suit "modern times". The point is that the "core beliefs" never had anything to do with excluding people because of X, Y and Z. If this pope can even lean the Church in that direction, he will have done a lot to reverse its influence and decline.

First of all, those things are hardly core beliefs of the Catholic church, nor are they particularly old, for example, the church position on contraception was only officially formed in 1968.
The church (or any religion for that matter) had changed its position on bigger issues than these.

That being said, such changes are never easy and like you I applaud the Pope's move in the right direction.

 

[Angelus Errare]

That's the core principle of Jesus's teachings / New Testament.

Maybe one day thing's will turn around. I mean, it's already been 2000 years, how much longer could they take?

Getting rid of the Old Testament.

 

[Sickboy007]

A couple of interesting snippets:

“My authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions led me to have serious problems and to be accused of being ultraconservative.” The pope insists, “I have never been a right-winger. It was my authoritarian way of making decisions that created problems.
...
The complaints of today about how ‘barbaric’ the world is—these complaints sometimes end up giving birth within the church to desires to establish order in the sense of pure conservation, as a defense. No: God is to be encountered in the world of today. God manifests himself in historical revelation, in history. … We must not focus on occupying the spaces where power is exercised, but rather on starting long-run historical processes.
...
If the Christian is a restorationist, a legalist, if he wants everything clear and safe, then he will find nothing. Tradition and memory of the past must help us to have the courage to open up new areas to God. Those who today always look for disciplinarian solutions, those who long for an exaggerated doctrinal ‘security,’ those who stubbornly try to recover a past that no longer exists­—they have a static and inward-directed view of things. In this way, faith becomes an ideology among other ideologies.

 

[alfredofroylan]

It begins ...

Chris Cuomo’s Friday interview on CNN’s “Ncw Day” with Catholic League president Bill Donohue quickly changed from the Pope’s latest statements about shifting the focus of the Catholic Church away from its “obsession” with gay marriage, birth control and abortion to Donohue’s thoughts on homosexuality and the role of the Jews in Hollywood.

Spoiler alert: Donohue’s not keen on either of them.

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/catholic-league-president-rants-gays-jews-hollywood-during-145921029.html

 

[Choppasmith]

You know whats fucked up? I was thinking the same exact thing when I saw the headline.
Some fanatic is going to kill this man, because of tolerance promotion.
practicing what 1000's of years have preached.

Just having a look at the comments at Yahoo where there's actually a good handful of people calling for his quick death had me worried to. I'm just flabbergasted that people actually say stuff like, "He refers to those disgusting gay people as if they're our equals? WHAT MADNESS IS THIS?!. Everyone knows gay people are lower than dirt and an abomination to God. This pope is a fraud!"