What will the new Pope bring to the church?

[Katzndogz]

inserting random query here-->

Isn't the Episcopal church the only denomination that is close to including gays/lesbians---not certain about leadership roles. I read some Episcopal churches now perform a blessing ceremony--not the sacrament of marriage.

The Episcopal church has split over the ordination of a gay priest. I heard recently that presbyterians split over gay marriage with the formation of the evangelical presbyterian church which forbids same sex marriage.

If anyone thinks this guy is going to go against traditional values they will be sorely disappointed.

That is what I thought. There are individual churches in my area that seem to be very inclusive. The formal position of the denomination I don't believe can be changed in the near future --if ever.

Anyway--Pope Francis strikes me as pragmatic. Do what you can do and leave the rest to God.

He is extremely socially conservative and calls abortion the death penalty for the innocent.

 

[BecauseIKnow]

The Pope can't bring anything to the table, nothing will change unless the people change.

 

[LeftofLeft]

Should the Catholic Church abandon its anti-woman, anti-gay policies

just to be more popular? Or should it stay a few centuries behind the times in the name of principles?

Should The Muslims follow the same?

 

[t_polkow]

Everyone knows of the pedophilia rampant in the Catholic Church and how the leading members of their clergy have hidden it for decades, or even centuries. Will this new Pope bring the church more in line with the laws of today, or will the Catholics remain living in the Dark Ages?

If it is true that God sees all and knows all, the Catholic leaders are only fooling the very devoted members of their flock. Their lies and cover-ups of these heinous acts by the sick individuals they call priests only means God has judged them to be the sex criminals they are. Whether they committed the crime or were active in hiding the perpetrators, in God's eyes they are all equally guilty, or very well should be.

It's about time for some small reality check by the Vatican. With over a billion followers, the new Pope should finally leave the fifteenth century behind and face the twenty-first century and all of its problems.

The new Pope has the opportunity to help hundreds of millions of people around the world, this responsibility of a true leader. The future will show if this man is the leader the Roman Catholics need, or if he will be another in a long, long line of Pontiffs who do nothing more than the daily recitations of an outdated dogma.

.

Let's hope that this Pope sets example for all the secret sins sexual and elsewhere rampant in world wide evangelicalism and fundamentalism to be brought forth, held up, and thrown figuratively into the sins of repentance.

A true catholic universal leader is needed for ecumenical Christianity and I think of all the denominations only the Catholic (not mine, by the by) is best suited for leading the way.

I'm sure you'll kick his ass if he doesn't do exactly as you demand, right Jokey?

Moron.

The Catholic church and the new Pope was complicit in dreadful crimes in Argentina.

in the week before Christmas in the city of Córdoba Videla and some of his military and police cohorts were convicted by their country's courts of the murder of 31 people between April and October 1976, a small fraction of the killings they were responsible for. The convictions brought life sentences for some of the military. These were not to be served, as has often been the case in Argentina and neighbouring Chile, in comfy armed forces retirement homes but in common prisons. Unsurprisingly there was dancing in the city's streets when the judge announced the sentences.

What one did not hear from any senior member of the Argentinian hierarchy was any expression of regret for the church's collaboration and in these crimes. The extent of the church's complicity in the dark deeds was excellently set out by Horacio Verbitsky, one of Argentina's most notable journalists, in his book El Silencio (Silence). He recounts how the Argentinian navy with the connivance of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, now the Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires, hid from a visiting delegation of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission the dictatorship's political prisoners. Bergoglio was hiding them in nothing less than his holiday home in an island called El Silencio in the River Plate. The most shaming thing for the church is that in such circumstances Bergoglio's name was allowed to go forward in the ballot to chose the successor of John Paul II. What scandal would not have ensued if the first pope ever to be elected from the continent of America had been revealed as an accessory to murder and false imprisonment

One would have thought that the Argentinian bishops would have seized the opportunity to call for pardon for themselves and put on sackcloth and ashes as the sentences were announced in Córdoba but that has not so far happened.

But happily Their Eminences have just been given another chance to express contrition. Next month the convicted murderer Videla will be arraigned for his part in the killing of Enrique Angelelli, bishop of the Andean diocese of La Rioja and a supporter of the cause of poorer Argentinians. He was run off the highway by a hit squad of the Videla régime and killed on 4th August 1976 shortly after Videla's putsch.

Cardinal Bergoglio has plenty of time to be measured for a suit of sackcloth – perhaps tailored in a suitable clerical grey – to be worn when the church authorities are called into the witness box by the investigating judge in the Angelelli case. Ashes will be readily available if the records of the Argentinian bishops' many disingenuous and outrightly mendacious statements about Videla and Angelelli are burned.

 

[BecauseIKnow]

What change do people want to see anyways? And change from what?

 

[wavingrl]

The Episcopal church has split over the ordination of a gay priest. I heard recently that presbyterians split over gay marriage with the formation of the evangelical presbyterian church which forbids same sex marriage.

If anyone thinks this guy is going to go against traditional values they will be sorely disappointed.

That is what I thought. There are individual churches in my area that seem to be very inclusive. The formal position of the denomination I don't believe can be changed in the near future --if ever.

Anyway--Pope Francis strikes me as pragmatic. Do what you can do and leave the rest to God.

He is extremely socially conservative and calls abortion the death penalty for the innocent.

I don't know how he could be expected to say otherwise.

Clarifying again that I am not a Catholic and have a very meager understanding of the history of the religion and all that has gone on for centuries --right or wrong.

I googled fyi on the Episcopal churches in Atlanta---they seem to be moving in the other direction. I can only assume that Christianity allows for this.

He seems to be a rather brilliant man. Speaks 4 languages, has written 10 books and taught at a university--among his other accomplishments.

 

[crussmith2]

There is little evidence for these claims of complicity in the junta's crimes by Bergoglio . The charge here is that a maximum dictatorship in total control of a whole country needed to use a priests property to jail prisoners. That seems extremely far fetched. The two people the junta was persecuting here were priests themselves. They were liberation theology priests and as big a threat to the junta as armed gorillas. I don't believe the Pope helped the junta. He seems more a fellow traveler with liberation theology than it's opponent. I suspect this story was concocted to discredit a church that the junta and right wingers in South america have grown to hate. Only time will tell!

 

[Avatar4321]

Should the Catholic Church abandon its anti-woman, anti-gay policies,

just to be more popular? Or should it stay a few centuries behind the times in the name of principles?

Anti-woman? Last time I checked they weren't anti-woman in the least.

Anti-gay? You mean telling people that homosexual behavior is a sin? not likely. Why should they lie to make people happy?

 

[Avatar4321]

The Pope can't bring anything to the table, nothing will change unless the people change.

That's very true.

 

[BreezeWood]

He is extremely socially conservative and calls abortion the death penalty for the innocent.

he begins the same as the previous mistake(s) a hypocrite, denying the life for those he requires of others celibacy not to mention his own denial of life of others he has himself "chosen" as a celibate himself and then castigating others for making the same decision.

the natural Religion is the Ordination of everyone.

 

[Avatar4321]

He is extremely socially conservative and calls abortion the death penalty for the innocent.

he begins the same as the previous mistake(s) a hypocrite, denying the life for those he requires of others celibacy not to mention his own denial of life of others he has himself "chosen" as a celibate himself and then castigating others for making the same decision.

the natural Religion is the Ordination of everyone.

That doesnt even make any sense.

 

[GISMYS]

At first glance the new pope looks like a good choice!!! I expect to see millions of good bible believing catholics in heaven,but those that ignore god's word and follow man's ideas and opinions ??????? Where will they be?? Hot spot!!!

 

[AmyNation]

The Episcopal church has split over the ordination of a gay priest. I heard recently that presbyterians split over gay marriage with the formation of the evangelical presbyterian church which forbids same sex marriage.

If anyone thinks this guy is going to go against traditional values they will be sorely disappointed.

That is what I thought. There are individual churches in my area that seem to be very inclusive. The formal position of the denomination I don't believe can be changed in the near future --if ever.

Anyway--Pope Francis strikes me as pragmatic. Do what you can do and leave the rest to God.

He is extremely socially conservative and calls abortion the death penalty for the innocent.

The Popes agaisnt abortion? I'm shocked.


His views fall very much in line with Cathlioc doctrine. However he tempers them with a wealth of compassion, he's been known to kiss the feet of those dying from aids, and is vocally agaisnt corruption and pompousness within the church.

 

[NoTeaPartyPleez]

What will the new Pope bring to the church?

Ha, better question is why the last one skeedaddled out of town.

Why begin with "ha"?

Because the Catholic Church is a joke. Unless you're an altar boy with a cute butt or a woman who doesn't want to get pregnant.
Why the hell did Benedict leave town? Can't stand the heat in the Vatican kitchen.

 

[JakeStarkey]

sigh. haters just hate.

 

[Avatar4321]

What will the new Pope bring to the church?

Ha, better question is why the last one skeedaddled out of town.

Why begin with "ha"?

Because the Catholic Church is a joke. Unless you're an altar boy with a cute butt or a woman who doesn't want to get pregnant.
Why the hell did Benedict leave town? Can't stand the heat in the Vatican kitchen.

He made a decision he thought was good for others. I know you probably dont understand that but I hope you learn someday.

 

[Avatar4321]

sigh. haters just hate.

“He drew a circle that shut me out Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win We drew a circle that took him in” -Charles Edwin Markham

We have to control our passions and love others despite their hate. The only way to stop evil is to return good for it.

 

[Unkotare]

Sex before marriage is only forbidden because of the religious perception that anything that gives pleasure must be sinful. .

No, that is not true.

 

[Avatar4321]

Sex before marriage is only forbidden because of the religious perception that anything that gives pleasure must be sinful. It hasn't but a couple of decades ago that rape victims in this country were afraid to accuse their attacker without being victimized again by the court system putting the victim and her past on trial.

It is those same people that maintained that atmosphere toward rape victims that, to this day, look down on unwed mothers and their "bastard spawns." Many Christian conservatives are not yet open-minded to see a single mom as just a mom.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

The First commandment given by God to man is to have sex: To Multiply and replenish the earth.

Have you ever talked with a single mother? Do you have any idea how tough that lifestyle is? They struggle through a heck of a lot. There is a reason God commands us not to have sex before marriage. It's because life is difficult enough with two parents to support & raise a family. God is encouraging us not to disadvantage ourselves and our children. God is teaching us how to be happy.

But you've never actually thought about it. Have you? You just make assumption and never bother asking why?

You guys keep telling me religion was designed so a few could gain power on others. Tell me, if I want you to voluntarily give me power, why the heck would I tell you to stop doing something you want to do? If I wanted to enslave you, I'd tell you to keep doing things you enjoy. I'd lie and tell you there are no consequences to your actions.

That wouldn't change the fact that actions do have consequences. Nor would it change the fact that encouraging people to make choices that lead to good consequences rather than bad ones is a good thing.

But sure, religion bans anything that's pleasurable. Much easier to just make ridiculous statements than have to actually think about why people would encourage restraint and self control.

 

[Unkotare]

He is extremely socially conservative and calls abortion the death penalty for the innocent.

He's right.