New boss same as the old boss. Fuck religion.
Yes. And with a 76-year-old conservative Jesuit with one lung, they’ve just pushed off confronting their problems for a few years. If they’re lucky. I was kind of rooting for that cheerful-looking Filipino cardinal, but he was too liberal and too not-white to be chosen. Of course what would really have been preferable is for them to just admit they have no divine charter and dissolve themselves, but yeah, Imagine…
Was judgefloro in the running?
And apparently the Vatican just scooped up $30 million in real estate in Rome, including the largest gay bath house in Europe. Of which, they are now the landlords.
I mean, seriously?
If only. I’m sure he would have won too; all he would have had to do is show those photos of Luis and the dwarfs to the cardinals or maybe just curse one or two of them.
Uh oh
However, his election is more than a little surprising, given his past. Bergoglio was the head of the Jesuits in Argentina during the military dictatorship of 1976-1983, during which the military murdered upwards of 30,000 people (as well as kidnapping hundreds of children whose parents the regime had tortured and murdered). Unlike Catholic officials in neighboring Chile and Brazil, where priests, bishops, and even cardinals spoke out against human rights abuses and defended victims of abuses, in Argentina, the Catholic Church was openly complicit in the military regime’s repression. Bergoglio was not exempt from this involvement: military officers have testified that Bergoglio helped the Argentine military regime hide political prisoners when human rights activists visited the country. And Bergoglio himself had to testify regarding the kidnapping of two priests who he stripped of their religious licenses shortly before they were kidnapped and tortured. This isn’t just a case of Bergoglio being a member of an institution that supported a brutal regime; it’s a case of Bergoglio himself having ties, direct and indirect, to that very regime. For those who hoped for a Pope who might represent a more welcoming and open path for the Catholic Church, the selection of Bergoglio has to be a let-down.
Yeah was just coming to post this. Looks like a smart choice by the Church…
That tie has been a stain on Catholicism in Argentina ever since. The Argentine Catholic Church issued a document in 1996 admitting they had made “insufficient efforts” to prevent atrocities. When Pope John Paul II issued a blanket apology for church abuses throughout the ages in 2000, Bergoglio — by then the archbishop of Buenos Aires — insisted that Argentine Catholic officials wear garments symbolizing penance for sins committed by the clergy during the military dictatorship.
The Vatican shoots…and scores!
BerGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLio!
Though I prefer Chick Hearn for this one: The mustard is off the hot dog!
Well, the last dude was a member of the Hitler Youth… (Yeah, he was young and that was what young Germans did and all, but still…)
One wonders if the reason all these cardinals and bishops have sketchy pasts is that they are all assholes.
They are all politicians once they reach that level.
Truer words …
Does anyone have a good link that goes through one of the standard talking points that he is a champion of the poor?
I, for one, would be willing to forgive his conservative stance on social issues and his past compliance with a brutal dictatorship if he starts diverting large amounts of Catholicism’s revenues to food aid. He could call it “The Feeding of the Five Hundred Million”.
Actually in his speech today he warned that if they didn’t return to their its religious fundamentals, the church might become nothing more than a compassionate NGO. Ah… if only…
The most disappointing thing is that his real name/chosen name/birthplace/etc., can in no way be construed to be ‘Peter the Roman’ at all. Sigh.
Thanks for that, but is quite a bit of a stretch (moreso that with most previous popes - and yes, I know it is all hooey anyway). I sometimes wonder if the church specifically went for someone with as little connection as possible just to shut people up about it :)
Apologies if there’s a “proper” Pope Francis thread and I missed it, but: Pope Francis comes out swingin’ against poverty - and, not so indirectly, Republicans:
Using sharply worded phrases, Francis decried an “idolatry of money” and warned it would lead to “a new tyranny.” And he invoked language with particular resonance in the United States, attacking an economic theory that discourages taxation and regulation and which most affiliate with conservatives.
“Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world,” Francis wrote in the papal statement. “This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.”
“Meanwhile,” he added, “the excluded are still waiting.”
BOOM! HEADSHOT!
Pope Francis is also adamantly opposed to Abortion.
So there’s that.
Liberation Theology is many things, you may like the anti-poverty rhetoric, but then you may not like the lectures on sin, or the emphasis on traditional family values. Pope Francis in particular would decry our economic policies here in the states and the way they favor the wealthy. He would also take issue with our consumer culture and the emphasis on gross consumption. Neither are particularly moral in his book.