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

[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.

[romp]

Christ-like and not what we expect for someone who's attained a high position in a powerful organization. Certainly is appealing.

[hammersxstrings]

Especially since he's been walking the walk mostly too...

[lied_ohne_worte]

The pope’s interview did not change church doctrine or policies

And that, I think, is the part people should remember, as it's unlikely that things on the ground will change just because this pope seems nicer than the last, as long as he doesn't change anything else.

[scolaro]

I'm kind of hoping (against all odds) that this is just the first step. That he will follow through and change some of the doctrines and policies now.

[lied_ohne_worte]

I doubt that very much - they would lose large sections of the conservative members and probably also priests and bishops. While Catholics in countries like Germany and I think the US too are very liberal and tend not to care much about many of the rules (you can bet the German ones are using contraception and having pre-marital sex), there are other regions where things look very different.

To be cynical... any changes would have to move so slowly that he wouldn't live long enough to see them through. Almost all current cardinals have been appointed by the last two Popes, and John Paul, regardless of the fact that this community seems to have decided he was a kind old grandfather, was just as conservative as Benedict. So the Cardinals can just elect another Conservative the next time if they want to stop changes. The church as an organisation, if you look at the power structures on the top, is quite self-maintaining.

[scolaro]

Yeah, that's what I meant when I said "against all odds". You're likely right and nothing will change the monster that is the catholic church. Even if Francis tried it, they probably have ways to get rid of him quickly.

But...leave me a little bit of hope in this new unexpected superhero, would you? ...*sniff*

;)

[zombieroadtrip]

“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.”

even if you bait a mouse trap with really good food, it still comes down

nhf "we'll just get to your homosexuality later"

tl;dr ex-Catholic thoughts

[brittlesmile]

To be honest, I think this is as good as anyone can reasonably expect a statement from the pope on homosexuality to be. It's certainly better than Ratzinger's (admittedly pre-papacy) On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons. However, Church doctrine has not changed at all (in fact, Ratzinger's Pastoral Care is still influential in the Church's position