How do you practice humility from the most exalted throne on earth? Rarely has a new player on the world stage captured so much attention so quickly—young and old, faithful and cynical—as has Pope Francis. In his nine months in office, he has placed himself at the very center of the central conversations of our time: about wealth and poverty, fairness and justice, transparency, modernity, globalization, the role of women, the nature of marriage, the temptations of power.
At a time when the limits of leadership are being tested in so many places, along comes a man with no army or weapons, no kingdom beyond a tight fist of land in the middle of Rome but with the immense wealth and weight of history behind him, to throw down a challenge. The world is getting smaller; individual voices are getting louder; technology is turning virtue viral, so his pulpit is visible to the ends of the earth. When he kisses the face of a disfigured man or washes the feet of a Muslim woman, the image resonates far beyond the boundaries of the Catholic Church.
I will admit to being more than a little impressed with this new Pope, and I think he is great for the image of the Catholic Church.
However when it comes to the Catholic church, and really ANY of the established religions, I am short on trust and long on skepticism.
The church is suffering immensely these days and what they need more than anything is a make over.
The question to ask is whether the new Pope is a sign of a real revisiting of their Christian roots by the church, or simply a whitewash to hide their numerous crimes and manipulate those who want so desperately to believe?
time will tell........or not.....
ReplyDeleteHave to agree with you G. I'm impressed also,too with Pope Francis. And the fact that he is exposing the fake xtian cult that is the teabaggers and xtian domminists is awesome! I don't follow Catholic or any religion... but I'm just really happy its bugging the shit out of the RW fakers!
ReplyDeleteLove it! And Good for Pope Francis for actually TRYIN' to live & preach "the word" as "he perceives" Jesus would. The Religion of "I got mine" "What's in it for me" Greed, fuck the 47% has GOT to go.
And so do the teabags.
I think this Pope is the real deal. That's why the faux Christians are so up in arms. Palin - the one true Christian - says he's a liberal. Gotta be good!
ReplyDeleteMrs. Palin wuld launch a direct attack on Jesus Himself if He were to appear on Earth. He would be branded a Marxist and a Terrorist to the established order.
DeleteSorry, it's a whitewash.
ReplyDeleteCase in point: "In July, Pope Francis announced a law making it a crime to abuse children sexually or physically on Vatican grounds." July? 2013? This past July? Less than five months ago?? So..... up until then... it... wasn't... a crime? Yikes.... Or is the message, "don't do it here"?
He's also called for a shifting of focus from the judicial (or 'criminal') aspects of the hundreds-year old church child sex abuse scandal to the pastoral care, healing and compassion for victims. Yeah, it's about time, because, you know, they've really been cracking down on the perps for... months now.
And to show how serious they are about this, they've empaneled a new Vatican commission to have meetings. And talk about the issue. And study the issue. And did I mention they plan to talk about the issue, too?
There need be only one standard response to suspected child abuse by priests, rabbis, nuns, imams, pastors, preachers, carny folk, congressional aides, or anyone else: pick up the phone, dial 911 and report it.
There, Pope Francis, I fixed it!
Thanks, especially the "on Vatican Grounds", kind of ignoring a lot of orphanages, parishes and rectories around the world where the pedophiles were left to their own devices.
DeleteSomewhat OT, but interesting: http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/alec-brags-all-politicians-two-state-legislatures-are-members?akid=11260.302809.wbbOAj&rd=1&src=newsletter935053&t=17
ReplyDeleteM from MD
This article really gets my blood boiling! Politicians should be only accountable to the electorate, not to a corporation that is in place to support the top 1% and to hell with the rest of us! This sounds like it should be against the law.
DeleteThese politicians should be tossed out of office. They betrayed the electorate.
DeleteM from MD
I think the guy is sincere, he's making a lot of people inside the church and out more than a little nervous...
ReplyDeleteSarah can now read up on the Pope! Remember when she said she hadn't done her homework on the Pope and called him a "liberal" and later had to apologize? Well Sarah, you dumbass doofus, all you have to do is buy a Times magazine and read!
ReplyDeleteShe didn't apologize, she blamed it on media!
DeleteShe's too weak to "Google", poor thing! She never "follows through" unless there's something in it for her.
Delete"...The church is suffering immensely these days..."
ReplyDeleteThanks for the laugh, G. All the suffering being done is in their ornate quarters counting the daily income from the investments.
The wealth of the Catholic church is undamaged. The oppression of women is still a tenet of faith. The earth is still well populated with poor people to be held in ignorance and milked for pennies.
"The church" is wealthy men with great power not suffering one little bit.
I like this guy and am a fallen away Catholic - now in my 70's and got out of the Church in my teens! I hope his influence permeates the United States of America and especially the Republican party!
ReplyDeleteOoooooh, lookie lookie, $arah! The TOO LIBERAL won! I'll look for you on the cover of "High Times."
ReplyDeleteIf Jesus walked the Earth in the US of A, not only would He cry, but he would be targeted as a Marxist and thrown out of the country.
ReplyDeleteWho would do such a thing to Jesus?
The GOP. And the false Christians who populate our Nation.
As a former Catholic, having turned away from its lies and hipocrisy a long time ago, I find that although I cannot believe in "a" or "their" god, I admire his public espousals of the best of what Catholicism is supposed to be.
ReplyDeleteThe RC Church has billions upon billions of dollars.
ReplyDeleteThey obtained this money through power and crime.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vatican/vatican_billions.htm
They won't give it up. Even if they parted with a billion dollars, (they won't), they have all the money in the world.
As a former Catholic, I do have to say that "Jesuits" are one order that focuses on the plight of the poor. They also have their own brand of wine called "Christian Brothers", which was sold off to raise money for "Angry Priests and their Lawyers", and is now of much lesser quality than my College years.
ReplyDeletePope Francis seems like a pretty nice guy, but time will tell. Old habits die hard, and the Church is extremely slow to embrace change. In other news, GM hires it's first Female CEO.
I am Catholic and have turned away from the church more than once because of the lack of equal rights for women in the Church but more importantly, the child abuse that has permeated the Church for decades.
ReplyDeleteI made the decision to stay and try to make a change within the Church.
Women must fight for their rights within the Church, as well as children's rights and gay rights to make an impact for change.
If women had been in authority, the child sexual abuse scandal would not have continued.
The Church is currently trying to silence our nuns who pastor to those whose voice is weakened by either AIDS or poverty.
I hope this Pope will change the Church but until then I will continue to fight & support any injustice I find.
The church will continue to do as it has for 2000 (roughly) years - ignore you if you are female. That is, of course, unless they order you to shut the hell up as has been done to some of the nuns who DO speak out.
DeleteOne of the basic tenets is that MALES are all powerful and demand that women follow orders.
Why? Eve.
Sorry.
ReplyDeleteThe pope is a joke and so is the church.
Too much water under the bridge for a few token niceties to mean a damn thing.
I am not a Catholic but do listen to what the Pope has to say. This Pope appears to being trying to put Christ back into Christianity. I hope he is successful.
ReplyDeleteWhy Pope Francis Is Time Magazine's Person of the Year
ReplyDeleteTime magazine has named Pope Francis "Person of the Year" connecting the Pontiff with only two other Popes John Paul II, Pope John XXIII who have been given that title. In the 91 years of Time, there have been only five, now six, religious leaders who have been named Person of the Year; the other three being Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr, Ayatollah Khomeini, and Gandhi.
This latest 'win' is not a complete surprise (although I hear Miley Cirus was surging towards the end) as Pope Francis was also the most talked about name on Facebook, the most powerful person on Twitter and the most talked about name on the internet. And now he has gathered one more 'prize.'
Time Editor Nancy Gibbs, who met Pope Francis in Rome last week wrote about their decision:
Rarely has a new player on the world stage captured so much attention so quickly -- young and old, faithful and cynical -- as has Pope Francis. In his nine months in office, he has placed himself at the very center of the central conversations of our time: about wealth and poverty, fairness and justice, transparency, modernity, globalization, the role of women, the nature of marriage, the temptations of power...
He is embracing complexity and acknowledging the risk that a church obsessed with its own rights and righteousness could inflict more wounds than it heals... For pulling the papacy out of the palace and into the streets, for committing the world¹s largest church to confronting its deepest needs, and for balancing judgment with mercy, Pope Francis is TIME's 2013 Person of the Year.
What Ms. Gibbs seems to be saying, is that Pope Francis is the religious figure that the world has been waiting for.
Everyone is talking about Pope Francis on- and off-line. I can't go to a party or meet with a friend without them commenting on Pope Francis -- he has captivated the imagination of the world in a way that I haven't seen before in my 50 years. Lapsed Catholic, atheist and people of other religions have all declared themselves a fan of this Pope. And, as a Baptist minister so have I.
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But why? I think it is because he is so refreshingly different from what people have become accustomed to associate with religious leaders. Religious and non-religious people alike have been bitterly disappointed with the judgmentalism, the sectarian righteousness, the unabashed commercialization, banal spirituality and otherworldly concerns of so many religious leaders and their followers in all different traditions.
ReplyDeletePope Francis resonates with so many people because he actually lives up to the highest ideals of religion which challenges us to think both about our personal spiritual life alongside the concerns of the "other." Pope Francis is viewed as authentic, the real deal, a true religious leader because he proclaims a radical call to justice for those most vulnerable and peace between nations and individuals in this world within the framework of an orthodox religious faith. Pope Francis combines the the social gospel with personal piety in a complete package of the religious ideal.
While many local religious leaders live humble spiritual lives while preaching justice and performing charity in churches, synagogues, sanghas, temples, gurdwaras and mosques around the world, Pope Francis has done it from the highest pulpit in the world, preaching from the seat of power at the Vatican. His humility of lifestyle while leveraging the enormous power of that pulpit for good is part of why we love him so much. He speaks for many of us who wish to promote a positive, productive religious voice for justice in the 21st century, but who feel our voices has been drown out by violence, greed and enmity caused by too many religious figures and followers around the world.
HIs forthright statement like "Who am I to judge" gay people; acknowledgment that atheists can work alongside religious people for the common good, his outreach to people of other faiths, and his amazing critique of economic systems that leave so many in this world hungry and homeless have been like a salve for the global community.
I join the millions, perhaps billions, of people around the world who applaud Time magazine for their choice of Person of the Year, and extend my heartfelt thanks to Pope Francis who continues to inspire so many of us.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-raushenbush/pope-francis-time-person-of-the-year_b_4424913.html