LGBT News Pope Bluntly Faults Church’s Focus on Gays and Abortion

I get the feeling this Pope is going to be ousted soon on some technicality.

 

That or someday soon retconning everything he's said up till then.

 

Or murdered, i mean... They already killed jean paul I and attempted twice to kill jean Paul II...

 

I'm sure some nuts going to yell "he's the anti-christ for preaching that we should tolerate them!" and attempt an assassination. And seeing how this Pope actually walks amongst the people rather than riding in a bullet-proof car it has a pretty good chance of happening. *sighs*

 

I don't know why the pope's opinion is relevant.

 

Its still my opinion that we care too much about this church. Its nice that he's making tolerant noises, but they still don't affect my life. Now, if they could stop preaching against condoms in Africa, that would be nice.

 

Good on him! It's about time to take the church into the 21st century. I'm not surprised that a pope from Argentina is fairly liberal.. considering Argentina is a progressive country with gay marriage.

 

This is probably my pessimistic side taking over but: "When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend." ~ William Blake.

 

Until he addresses the damage papal influence is doing to Africa with the HIV/AIDS crisis, I won't consider him a good Pope. And by address, I don't mean a pathetic apology. I mean a fully funded aid mission and a change of doctrine. That's what I'd consider Christian charity. I think that the Vatican has sufficient donations to do that. Two thousand times over.

 

This doesn't directly affect most of us, but there are millions of people listening to him. Even just 2 percent of the population changing their opinion because of what he says can make a huge difference in a vote.

 

Well it's my understanding unless someone assassinates him, he too decides to retire or he dies a young death, there's no way for him to be ousted.

 

What do you expect? he is a jesuit, and if there is one thing you can say about jesuits is that they are one of the only catholic sects that actually puts the teachings of jesus to work. the other sects within the catholic church are basically in it for the sense of power, prestige, and in the case of the previous pope, expensive red leather italian hand chaised loafters.

you can't emapthise with the sufferings of the poor, the sick, the oppressed, or the outcasted if you believe yourself in any way above them. Jesuits preach that no one is above you but god, and no one is below you.

 

This. He is not to be trusted.

 

While I would like to think his intentions are noble, I kind of wonder if all this isn't financially motivated...I mean the Catholic church along with many other churches experience a steep decline in membership each decade due to most young people citing themselves as atheist/agnostic/irreligious/spiritual but against organized religion.

Something to at least consider. I hope the Catholic Church isn't just doing this to get a surge in membership just to recant and go back to old teachings; to me, it seems possible as the Catholic Church has been historically known for wanting control, manipulating and corruption. But once you say the things he has been saying, I do think it would be hard to go back on them. He could truly understand there is a wide acceptance of gays in most developed countries and women, even Catholic women, want and need contraception (we're just not living in a time in history where it is smart to have 10 kids--that notion is just out of touch with reality and would seem almost irresponsible in a world of over 7 billion people).

 

Nobody ever needed permission from an old man, even a nice old man, in a funny hat, to be gay or love their children or raise a family or anything the church lords over its participants.

 

I think he's just trying to stem the defection from the church. The defection is occurring because younger people tend to be more questioning and just aren't interested, certain groups, notably GLBT, have been marginalized by the church, and missionaries from other religions are trying to recruit members over to their religion. It's more of a tactic to keep Catholics from straying and to appear more up to date.

 

His opinion is relevant because of the 1.5 billion or so Catholics around the world who take his words very seriously. The gradual dilution of the rhetoric coming from the Vatican has been ongoing for quite some time now, as I've said many times before, and this is just the latest example. Obviously I'm not jumping up and down over this, but it's certainly a sign that the Catholic Church is realizing that it is losing touch with the new generation and is taking a long and hard look at itself, which can only be good news for everyone.

 

Plenty of LGBT catholics out there.

 

Something tells me a new pope will be on the way soon, either through him being kicked our or murdered by some lunatic.