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

[elialshadowpine]

"“I see the church as a field hospital after battle,” Francis said. “It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars. You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else.”"

I personally dislike this metaphor. I'm not sure if he meant it that way, but it still suggests that things like abortion and homosexuality are problems. Cholesterol and high blood sugars are still considered as illnesses to be treated in the medical field, even if they aren't emergent.

So, to me, what the pope is saying is that the Church's priority should be on emergent issues, but that these are still non-emergent issues that are still considered something to treat. I could be looking at this from an overly medical perspective, though. (Ten years of disability next summer, my head is in medical shit too much.)

OTOH, he's saying that these things shouldn't be the primary focus of the Church, which they have been for a long time, and that the focus should be on helping people (which is good!) regardless of who they are (which is good!) and what they have done (which is good), and that people should STFU and help them rather than judge them. I can't take any argument with that, and it's certainly more than the last pope did.

It's a step in the right direction? But it seems like the same underlying issues are there, just the same.

[lied_ohne_worte]

I agree - he's just saying they have "worse problems" than homosexuality etc., not that those aren't problems.

And while abortion and contraception might not be "problems" for the church, the church's stance on these things creates lots of real problems for people in countries where the church has great influence on society and/or politics. They also have a great effect on issues like poverty, which he does seem to care about at least.

[muizenstaartje]

Let's hope the next step is "To fight poverty you need proper sex ed and access to safe contraceptives." My hopes are probably too high.

[tinylegacies]

2000 years of doctrine isn't going to change in an instant. As a bisexual who was raised Catholic and denied the bisexual part of my existence until my early 30s in large part because of the religious teachings I was raised with, I am perfectly content with baby steps in the right direction.