Pope Francis says lots of awesome things in new interview

[hey_kayla_jay]

Six months into his papacy, Pope Francis sent shock waves through the Roman Catholic church on Thursday with the publication of his remarks that the church had grown “obsessed” with abortion, gay marriage and contraception, and that he had chosen not to talk about those issues despite recriminations from critics.

His surprising comments came in a

Comments

[rainbow_fish]

Okay I feel kinda torn.

On the one hand, I obviously think him preaching the whole "it's not my place to judge people" thing is great. Hopefully it will do some good.

But on the other hand, I still feel really gross about giving out cookies to someone for meeting the basic minimum of human decency.

And then on the other other hand (wait, what?)I know what a huge deal it is that the leader of the catholic church is saying these things. And this is def a step in the right direction

But then on some other hand from the grave, I still get impression that this is the "no guys, it's okay if you think the gays are icky and abortion makes women awful, but we really should just stop saying so often bc it's giving us a bad rep" thing. And I aint got time for that either.

Idk. I'm also super sleepy so this is probs super incoherent.

[doverz]

I feel the exact same way.

[nutmegdealer]

this is precisely why i don't get everyone's excitement over this.

[hawkward]

Totally off topic, but your avatar made me lawl.

[hammersxstrings]

Ia. At first I was oh well that's an improvement; but its stuff you still believe.

Idk I guess since he seems to be advocating for getting it away from an institutionalized thing tho-ie, these things in govt-I guess that's why I like it better. People can and should believe whatever they want, but once it starts being a part of my life? No.

[brittlesmile]

I'm with you except for your last point. Considering Francis's biography & also him being a Jesuit, I think that his desire to focus more on poverty & other issues comes from a genuine place. Though I'm fairly certain he never signed on to Liberation Theology (and I think that, from a doctrinal perspective, he isn't really less conservative than Ratzinger or JPII), it does seem to have influenced him at least a bit in terms of his priorities & social teaching.

However, your reasoning could be a part of why he was elected, as I can imagine the Church in general wanting to backpedal quickly away from Ratzinger's divisive papacy.

I also have extremely mixed feelings about this. :/

[grimmerlove]

I completely agree with you.

[yeats]

idk, i think that the people in the church who over-emphasize contraception and homosexuality don't give a shit about whether it gives them a bad rep -- in fact, they're eager for it. being vocal is sort of the point for them, so i really do think this is a more significant departure than you're implying. especially given since he's coupled it with comments about changing the decision-making hierarchy of the church and not using the vatican as an intstrument of censorship on the local level.

[chaya]

Much like when Obama finally ~~evolved, I was excited for the outcomes of his stated position, not excited to give Obama cookies for finally getting on board with reality. I'm less concerned with how I feel about this pope and more interested in how his behavior, which is more human than all the previous popes I can remember, could help erode the foundations of a lot of the religious excuses that homophobes hide behind.

ymmv.

[skellington1]

I love your hands descriptions.

And it does seem backwards to be *celebrating* a state they should've reached decades ago, doesn't it? But, at least as far as I'm concerned, any change he's able to effect in his massive organization is for the good, and it's less about cookies for the one dude and more about 'this might have a slim chance of making an actual difference for a whole lot of people.' I'm not about to profess love for any pope, but it IS nice to see them start to delicately sidestep away from *some* of the awful.

I'm also not entirely sure about the thinking versus saying stuff -- it's possible he's edging towards more of a doctrinal change (in which case he'd deserve congratulations when he gets there, not before). There are certainly liberal Catholics who will have a bit less cognitive dissonance now. But far be it from me to actually guess what's going on in their heads. :P

[redstar826]

But then on some other hand from the grave

I'm sitting in a starbucks and I just did that giggle/snort thing and a whole table of people next to me stopped their conversation and stared D:

Now, more to the point, I totally see where you are coming from.

[margerydaw_s2]

I agree completely.

[roseofjuly]

I thought the same thing, but I thought about it not as giving out cookies but just being genuinely happy that the new pope is not as huge a douche as the prior popes. Because the pope office has a long, long history of being held by a douche.