I am far from the most religious man around. If I had to describe myself in that way, then probably, the popular decriptive line "spitual, but not religious" would apply. Yes, I definitely have had problems with organized religion in general, and perhaps Catholicism and the pope in particular. It's just that the pope is seen as God's representative here on Earth, and thus, he is seen as infallible. The problem with that is that nobody, no human being, is infallible. And just in case anyone forgets that, there have been no shortage of examples of this throughout the history of the Papacy and the Catholic church. What the Church did to those who believed differently than they did, particularly against names like Copernicus and Galileo, still resonates.
For that matter, getting along with Hitler and the Nazi regime would tend to discredit it, as well. Some may cite practical political considerations, and perhaps even with some validation. But then again, Catholicism is a religion, and thus, is supposed to aspire to higher morals than mere politics. The fact that it did not shows, far from infallibility, severe, and very human, limitations.
These same limitations have been under the microscope now for well over a decade, as one scandal after another involving Catholic priests abusing young boys keeps being swept under the rug, and largely ignored, by the Vatican.
Also, the Vatican owns a tremendous amount of wealth. I mean, it's obscene! There are priceless treasures all over the Vatican, to the point that it is almost unfathomable. To think of all of that wealth, and the Pope sitting on his golden throne, while a huge percentage of the faithful have traditionally lived, and continue presently to live, under severe and even grinding poverty, just seems to run counter to the very spirit of what Jesus taught.
These paradoxes have seemed glaringly obvious, and have left the Church seemingly guilty of severe paradoxes and contradictions. The only ones who do not seem to ackowledge this are believers and church officials themselves.
But that said, this pope, Francis I, was supposed to be different. He was supposed to be more of a common man himself, not so much an elitist. Also, he had a strong and long record of speaking in defense of the poor, and being critical of the rich. Whatever other positions one (such as myself) might disagree with, perhaps the most critical of them is at least ackowledging some measure of the hypocrisy between high ranking church officials who seem to like their privileges a little too much, versus the supposedly core Christian doctrine of helping those who are less fortunate, as Jesus clearly said in the Sermon on the Mount, and the Beatitudes.
The new pope, Francis I, is supposed to be different. He has gained the nickname the "slum pope".
Francis I seems to truly be more sympathetic, more kind, to those less fortunate. He does not simply and conveniently turn a blind eye to the masses of poor. He not only addresses them and tries to give them hope, but he criticizes the larger "culture of selfishness", as he calls it, and calls on those with far more resources to do more to help out. Not to hog the wealth, in other words, but to make life more bearable for those under the grinded under the economic wheel, those who find themselves under the heel of crushing poverty.
A couple of days ago, during his visit to Brazil, Pope Francis I visited Varginha, one of the most decadent and poverty infested sections of all of Brazil. He urged young people not to give in to despair and hopelessness, and even urged them to shake up the church, in order to gain a better focus on poverty, which is one of the key issues for this pope.
He blasted what he called the "culture of selfishness", and the richest trying to horde all wealth and privileges, and tried to counter that with Christian doctrines of fairer wealth distribution, and treating all people as neighbors, and helping the poor.
“The measure of the greatness of a society is found in the way it treats those most in need, those who have nothing apart from their poverty!”, he told those assembled.
"Let us always remember this: Only when we are able to share do we become truly rich," he said. "Everything that is shared is multiplied!"
Here is one article about the Pope's visit to Rio. It is titled "'Slum Pope' Visits Brazil's Poor, and was written by Eric Marrapodi, Shasta Darlington and Miguel Marquez, of CNN:
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/25/slum-pope-visits-brazils-poor/
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