Reply to Rogue Pope

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "Rogue Pope"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When I saw the thread title I thought it was going to be about Pope Francis, who is considered rogue by most in the Church establishment. For shocking things like saying Catholic women who had abortions could be forgiven, that God loves gay people, that atheists could enter the kingdom of heaven.

I doubt very much there will be another Pope as rogue as Francis anytime soon. I suspect the next elected Pope will be far more conservative than he is.[/quote]

I've often wondered how he got elected in the first place - or how he got to be Cardinal with such progressive ideas.

As I recall, he doesn't live in the papal apartments - too fancy for him.[/quote]

The availability of forgiveness and absolution to the truly penitent for abortion or indeed any sin certainly is nothing new with Francis.  The Church has long made clear that God’s love is absolute and that the problem with sexual and indeed any other sin is the sun not the person. While the Church rejects “universalism” (the idea that all will be saved no matter what), Vatican II made clear that salvation is available to all who seek the truth with a sincere heart. As for the Vatican apartments and various other things like carrying his own briefcase (and grabbing it back from anyone who tries to carry it for him, Francis likes symbolic gestures. And if you look at what he actually does, rather than just what he says or is reported to say, once all the “accompanying” and “dialogue” and “synodality” is finished, he may not be all that “progressive” in the greater scheme of things.

As for how he got elected, one at least partial explanation is that some critical mass of Cardinals (reported by some to have had McCarrick in the lead) may have hoped to repeat in Latin America what happened in Poland and the Eastern bloc when John Paul was elected.  The US bishops have long looked to culturally-Catholic Latin American immigrants to fill pews and coffers left empty by others, despite the inroads of various Evangelical and other sects in that part of the world. The strategy has not been a rousing success. Cultural Catholicism does not always translate into active practice, particularly in a new country where parish life (even with language and other accommodations) looks very different than it did in people’s countries of origin. [/quote]

I deplore pretty much everything about Sam Harris, but he was right about one thing —- wishy washy, watered down religion that tries to accommodate the modern world is generally not faithful to the doctrine of the religion.  PP illustrates authentic religion, and why it’s so entirely off-putting (aside from the obvious “stories invented by men to extract wealth from and control others” issue).

Thanks PP![/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics