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

[alexvdl]

I really hate it when someone does good things, because I feel like they should be doing MORE good things. It's not enough to do good things, to change the status quo, they must immediately and irrevocably change the status quo in order for me to appreciate the good things they are saying/doing.

[poetic_pixie_13]

I'm super excited about this. I don't think it's about giving him cookies for not being an asshole, but for the Pope of the Holy Roman Catholic Church to say this, it's a bfd. I'm happy not that he as a person is saying this, I'm happy that in his official role as Pope when he knows full well this is going to get a lot of people pissed. Especially since it seems like this is a very intentional message that he wants to send out. While I'm not saying he's an ally but it's what allies are supposed to so, use their power to advocate for folks who don't have said power

[redstar826]

and even for those of us who are former Catholics, it's a pretty big deal. A lot of us still have cultural connections to Catholicism even if we no longer practice. The Catholic Church will always play a big part in my life because so many rituals (baptisms, weddings, funerals, etc) of people I love will take place in the church. So many of the most emotional moments of my life are associated with Catholic ritual and even as an atheist, my first reaction when extremely scared or anxious is to start praying my "Hail Marys"

[brittlesmile]

Yes. It'd one thing to recognize objectively that the Catholic Church is institutionally oppressive and quite another to actually get out and away from it. I'm pretty far removed from the Church at this point, but realistically there's never going to be a point where I can be emotionally indifferent to what the pope says. So I feel like, if nothing else, for LGBT folk who were raised Catholic it's a weight off to know that he's not going to be talking about it as much.

[elialshadowpine]

FWIW, me too. While I posted about being bothered by the analogy used -- and yes, I am still bothered by it, but this is probably my own issues -- the probable intent behind what he's saying is good, and certainly leading the Church in a better path.

I know not everyone feels the same way on this, but for me, I can't say I effectively care if someone thinks something I'm doing or who I am is sinful. If it's from people close to me, it will still hurt, and I'll probably wish they didn't follow a religion that had these teachings, but if they don't say anything about it, and don't treat me differently, then... well, whatever. The point being made about believing one thing but not causing it to treat people different or deny them aid or be outright cruel to them is major, even if it's worded in a way I dislike.

[yeats]

for people who are interested, here are his full quotes on social issues from the interview

[redstar826]

This pope seems to grasp the public relations thing much, much better than the one before him did. I was sitting with a group of people on monday none of whom are Catholic (a mix of non-religious folks and Jews) and somehow the subject of the pope came up and everyone agreed that they were feeling pretty optimistic about Pope Francis.

Obviously, this is a small step, but I think it's a step in the right direction, and the fact that he seems more concerned with poverty and injustice than he does about the 'culture war' stuff is a good sign.

and if you get the Catholic church away from the gender and sex stuff, they are pretty good on a lot of other issues. Very pro-worker rights/anti-poverty (much better than any protestant church I've been a part of), pro-immigration, anti-war, anti-death penalty, etc. I did anti-sweat shop work as an undergraduate, and one of my biggest allies was the Catholic center on campus. I'm not sure if we would have won our campaign without them.

[maynardsong]

Great. So the Catholic Church is like liberal college men. Liberal except when it comes to women. I'm supposed to be content with that?

[redstar826]

I'm a lesbian who is an ex-Catholic and likely won't return in large part because of these issues. You don't have to 'be content' with any of this. I'm speaking for myself here.

a baby step in the right direction=/=be content, everything is fine now

[wrestlingdog]

This pope sounds more Episcopalian than Catholic.

[moonshaz]

He does, doesn't he? :)