The Style of the New Pope

[Goat]

Well it might be a small thing, but the New Pope decided NOT to attend a concert that was planned even before his was elected.

So far, the new Pope has not spent a night in the papal suite, but rather a much plainer and busier suite in the Vatican guest house.. and he take communal meals,and says Mass in the house Chapel rather than private Chapel the old Pope used.

Do you think the thrust away from the 'princely' attitude, a more humble approach is proper? Personally, I am impressed with his attitude, and think it's much healthier than the direction the Vatican has been going in for a long time.

Do you think it's the right direction, and do you think his efforts will mean anything in the long run, or even the short term?

[Divine Insight]

Do you think it's the right direction,

The "right" direction with respect to what?

I personally feel that much of what this Pope seems to be doing is far more "right" in terms of being compatible with the teachings of Jesus. But then again, I'm not sure if this is true of everything he does. It's my understanding that he still holds the view that women should not be given authority within the Church. I'm not so sure that would be in harmony with Jesus, but I guess it's hard to tell.

Are his choices and actions "right" for the Catholic Church? I don't know. I'm not sure if there is anything that could be right for the Catholic Church other than its own demise.

and do you think his efforts will mean anything in the long run, or even the short term?

I'm sure he's going to leave a major imprint on Catholicism for future generations. He is basically changing the face of Catholicism. This is what all Popes do albeit perhaps not in such radical ways.

As far as the Catholic Church itself is concerned, I think his efforts will actually cause further division. Some will fall away from Catholicism in disagreement with his views, others may find his views more attractive and so he could potentially attract new members to this "New Catholicism". That could potentially be a good thing for "The Church". But will it really be the same "Church"? Or will it be a new version of an old religion?

It also appears to me, based on the views of some prominent catholic nuns, that if the Catholic church isn't quick to embrace women in roles of religious authority the Catholic Church will ultimately die anyway. Because women are pretty much fed up with being treated as second-class citizens within the Catholic Church. And this obviously includes many of the Catholic nuns.

Pope Francis seems to be totally oblivious to the importance of this issue. So even if he turns the Church around to be a bit more in harmony with the character of Jesus, he's still not going to save it from it's male-chauvinistic demise.

IMHO, it's basically impossible to "save Jesus" whilst simultaneously trying to "save the Old Testament" bigotries and chauvinism.

But at the same time, because Jesus was nailed to the Old Testament as the demigod son of that dogma it's pretty much impossible to save him as a stand-alone God. Jesus has no feet of his own. Jesus only has meaning in Christianity when he is sitting on the shoulders of Yahweh. Take Yahweh and the Old Testament out of the picture and Jesus becomes nothing but a mere mortal man with an opinion like the rest of us.

So Christianity is impossible to "save" IMHO. But clearly there are many people who ignore this fact and worship the religion anyway. So that's clearly in Pope Francis' favor. He win some followers, and he'll turn others away. And that's pretty typical of how it always goes.

For me personally I'm not the slightest bit concerned about it. Obviously I don't believe in this religion so for me, Pope Francis is just another mortal man playing a part on a social construct based on an ancient mythology that has serious problems from a rational point of view no matter what direction it is taken in.

I mean, if someone could make out like Zeus was a really great God do you think people would then start believing in Zeus again? I seriously doubt it. They have already accepted that it's absurd.

And this kind of awakening is occurring with the Hebrew mythology as well.

You can only keep a demigod alive for so long before people start to realize that these old superstitions are truly absurd.

But I'm sure that many Catholics are hoping that Pope Francis can somehow save Jesus and keep the myth alive.

[dbohm]

[Replying to post 1 by Goat]

He has made the right noises. He even prefers to be called the Bishop of Rome than the Pope. He also seems to be determined to clean up the corruption of the church and the causes that led to so much sexual abuse inside of it.

I hope he does. Regardless of your beliefs - and they are extremely varied on this forum, a strong advocate for the poor and needy and those crying out for justice can only be a good thing in this world. Just as I may disagree personally with much of what Bill Gates believes, I still cheer him on with his dedication to philanthropy and the eradication of poverty.

[Falling Light 101]

[font=Arial].
The first step to ending poverty is to sell the Vatican estate, property, stocks and bonds and give it to help the poor.

But the poor are told that they can create unlimited amounts of children and Americans will pay the bills.

But the Popes and Priests and nuns would not give everything they own away because they would be poor too and the poor are not willing to take responsibility for their own selves,
\SO
How would the poor take care of the Roman Catholic Leaders once they handed them the Keys to their church.

But the Roman Catholic leaders know this - This is why they have not given away the Vatican and all their business holdings of trillions of dollars around the world.

Instead, the Roman Catholic Church has handed the Keys To The Roman Catholic Church to the homoseXual community and It has raked in a good financial profit for the Roman Catholic Church worldwide.

The homoseXual community has opened many doors for the Catholic Church.

Thousands of Gay men were allowed to use their positions and power and status as a ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST to conduct a personal literal Gay Quest .

Billions and Billions of dollars in OUR AMERICAN TAXES and DONATIONS CHARITIES.

OUR TAXES and DONATIONS and GIFTS contributions, presents and handouts and offerings.

Billions have been lost and thrown away

Money, property and land and buildings that The Catholics across the planet have lost that could have been used to help the poor and needy-

Even could have helped the dreamers and undocumented children immigrants of DACA.

But instead, the billions have all been thrown away into the legal system to pay the seXual bills and fees, fines and court costs and settlements for the seXual adventures and pleasures and seXual pedophilic raptures, joys and journeys of the Gay Community worldwide.

Having seX with a child can be very, very eXpensive and the Gay community eXpects You and I to pay this bill.

Millions of Good, Loving, Caring and Helpful Roman Catholic have been robbed of Billions Of Dollars as they can not cover the cost.

The Catholic Church has to choose between continuing to use the homoseXual community around the world to do their bidding and every now and then just pay out a percentage of the cost of the bills of their homoseXual, seXual joys, pleasures and lusty raptures with little children.

or it seems that The Pope is making Large Pronouncing Speeches and Dictates DEMANDING that the homoseXuals are no longer a part of the Church.

As if Catholics actually truly care about what the Pope says. What Can They do

There are no reliable statistics on the number of priests in the United States who are gay, Roman Catholics would equate the task and operation of making an honest count equivalent to the rounding up of jews again.

They simply do not have the moral compass to even make the journey.

The Pope would have to pay Catholics a high costly salary to count the homoseXuals - Then the Catholics would raise or lower the count of their findings to get more money.
.[/font]

[Falling Light 101]