Striking a child is not out of place, childrens may live in a sphere of privilege where nothing may literally touch them. One single strike in the face may lower then to this world,like all of us. Lets remember here that kids are assholes, its their parents job to put them on his place, so they become good citizens. I said their parents, not any random person… but they may get what is coming, and it would be a accident they caused.
Yep. Sadly, that’s about the best one can aspire to if they hold fast to Biblical teachings, particularly those from Paul. It’s an intolerant, assholish book.
Well, to counterbalance the last comments on this thread, it seems this guy is really different in how he approaches certain issues to previous Popes. In particular, his approach towards greed and corruption seems more… strict?
Paraphrasing and translating from Spanish:
Note that his approach has already radically changed the Church leadership here, changing, when possible, reactionary conservatives with people closer to this new way of thought…
Speaking of changes in leadership, John Allen (far and away the best reporter on Catholic matters in the English language) reported awhile back that Francis’ most radical change to the Church may have come earlier this month when he named 20 new cardinals. He skipped a lot of the usual traditions (like naming as cardinals anyone who is bishop of this or that major city) and named a lot of bishops from the southern hemisphere. JPII and Benedict made small moves that direction, but Francis has just given it a major push, and helped to bring the make-up of the cardinalate more in line with the make-up of the lay church.
Theres still europeans in the clergy? is my impression nobody want to enter there, except people from the south of the planet.
The college of cardinals is dominated by Europeans and always has been. As of 2013, they made up 58% of the college despite the fact that European Catholics comprise only 26% of the world’s total
The pope is an economic liberal but a social conservative. I don’t expect the head of a church to be socially liberal, the economic liberal is a good change, and as such he gets my support. We’re not going to get a better pope.
The Pope issued his encyclical on the environment yesterday. If you have a lot of time on your hands, you can read it here. Here’s a summary of some of the central points.
Jeb Bush converted to Catholicism eleven years ago, and is unimpressed:
“I don’t get economic policy from my bishops or my cardinal or my pope,” Bush said this week. “I think religion ought to be about making us better as people and less about things that end up getting in the political realm.”
Pataki disagrees with Bush… though whether he agrees with the Pope is a little unclear:
The idea @JebBush @marcorubio & @RickSantorum espouse that @Pontifex has no standing on climate change is absurd. #climatechange
The Democrat contenders universally praised the message… at least in theory.
The idea that Catholicism in particular and religion in general should not be political is absurd. It is political in the sense that it’s fundamentally an ethical spirituality, and ethics have practical applications in both personal behavior and politics. Jeff Bush might not get economic policy from his Pope, but given than this Pope (and others before) were indeed very interested in economic policy, that might say more about the kind (or degree of) Catholicism Jeff Bush practices than about the Church.
The question on whether a rich man can be a good Catholic is something that it’s still discussed by many Catholic congregations.
Religion shouldn’t be political… when it doesn’t agree with my platform. When it does, I’m going to get out my Bible and beat you over the head with it.
It’s very strange to see “Catholic” Republicans denounce the Pope.
The leader of the Catholic church, the leader of their Religion. Nope, he’s wrong and bit of a loon.
Then again I suppose worshipers of Mammon need to hide their true religion from others.
Why not Catholic?
I was having a discussion with someone about this yesterday, a fairly left leaning Catholic.
With a very few exceptions, the Pope’s statements are not considered infalible. It’s only when speaking with papal infalibility, something that’s only been done maybe 3 or 4 times in the history of the church, is the Pope’s word considered coming down from God (and generally these cases have all been about Church canon, maybe even always about Mary? I’m not sure in this regard).
So you don’t need to agree with everything the Pope says to be a good Catholic.
However, some of these guys are definitely crossing the line. Essentially walking out on the Pope demonstrates not simply a disagreement with his statements, but a disrespect for the office itself. And this is really not acceptable. The Pope is not simply an elected official. He’s not like the President, where you can say “Well I didn’t vote for this guy… I’m just gonna wait until the next guy gets into office.” (although that’s not really a healthy view to take with the President either)
If you’re a Catholic, then you should believe that the Pope was chosen by divine influence. He’s a pretty big deal. He deserves your respect, minimally. And if his statements are at odds with your beliefs, and you’re a catholic, then maybe you may want to reconsider those beliefs. Maybe God is trying to tell you something.
What’s crazy about all this is that Francis hasn’t made crazy statements. He’s not some kind of crazy radical. He’s simply nudged the tone of things a bit.
And the guy isn’t a partisan in American politics. He’s never been to the US. He’s not “Obama’s Pope” any more than JPII was “Reagan’s Pope”.
People need to stop being so hyper-partisan that they try to apply this political bullshit to every god damn aspect of their lives.
On the flipside, people disagreeing with Popes (and Church leadership in general) got us the delightful diaspora of Christianity we all enjoy today. It’s certainly been the case, via the magic of hindsight, that there have been thoroughly and irredeemably bad popes in days gone by, and I don’t think anyone would fault a contemporary Catholic for being wary of John XII at the time, for instance.
Presumably today’s defenders of “the faith” are sure they’ve got someone nearly or equally as dangerous on their hands.
If folks get a chance, I would highly recommend listening to the Pope’s speech to Congress today, as he really is an impressive man. And it’s made all the more impressive given his extremely soft-spoken nature.
My kid is there (well, the West Lawn - not many tickets were available to actually be inside). He’s not even Christian, but wanted to be a part of the moment. He’s fairly impressed by the guy, and shared a humorous story about some protesters from earlier in the morning; a collection of (as he put it) “WBC types” were there calling the Pope a Muslim and making other odd statements. They looked at my kid (probably randomly) and one of them said “this is what’s causing the youth to be whores!” My kid replied with “It’s hard to be a whore when I’m a virgin,” to which there was a roar of laughter. The speaker stumbled a bit and then went on ranting, but switched to calling Obama a Muslim.
I’m just saying, can’t ol’ Francis drop the pacifist schtick for just one second and go all D&D Cleric on us and call down a highly targeted Storm of Vengeance? I feel like the Old Testament god would really have his back on this one, at least.
Just for clarity’s sake, I’m recommending the WBC-esque nutjobs be divinely vaporized, and not Dan’s kid. I sort of figure that is clear, but you know, P&R and all. . .
To the Republican, the Kochs are the real pope and Francis is an antipope.
I really wish Francis would lay down some excommunications.
LOL - That would be pretty damn awesome
Pope Francis’ address to Congress highlighted the example of four Americans (the second two less predictable than the first two) in order to address a broad array of topics:
[ul]
[li]Abraham Lincoln (fundamentalism/ideology vs solidarity and cooperation)
[/li][li]Martin Luther King (justice for indigenous and immigrants, refugee crisis, defense of life and the abolition of the death penalty)
[/li][li]Dorothy Day (fighting poverty and protecting the environment)
[/li][li]Thomas Merton (peace and dialogue, denouncing the arms trade)
[/li][/ul]
Stayed pretty high level and somewhat platitudinous, but worth reading if you’re interested. (I wouldn’t recommend watching the video; his English comes slowly as well as with a thick accent. I think it reads better than it sounds.)