Being neither gay nor Catholic, my interest in the intersection of those two groups isn’t very profound. I’m not going to say that I don’t care, because I care about how gays are treated by all world religions and in all societies. But how the Catholic Church deals with homosexuality or marriage or even contraception are not things that I have any immediate vested emotional investment in. If I see progress, I applaud it, and then I move on.
But the spectacle of watching old school Catholics losing their shit because their pope doesn’t share their hatreds? That’s pretty entertaining. As an old philosophy major and something of a secularist, I get a real charge out of watching theological dissonance in real time. This isn’t Galileo in a history book.
Still, no offense to my countless Catholic friends and acquaintances, but the one thing I never doubted from my protestant upbringing was that the whole reformation thing was settled almost 500 years ago, and not in the Church’s favor.
So, I did get a little tingle up the leg here just watching people squirm but my overriding feeling is boredom.
You missed the good part, Boo. Cardinal Burke ran his mouth off to Breitbart’s Mausoleum Of The Unemployable.
Is the pope going to be throwing the closets open?
I think he put the stone throwers in the glass house.
Wait until the United Methodists start dealing with this issue in earnest. That should provide you some more jollies.
Because…unlike congregational denominations, the episcopally-organized United Methodist Church owns all of buildings corporately. Schism requires the congregation to find a new building as well. Watching that realization hit the hotheads–as it did a lot during the Civil Rights era when there were decisions to desegregate local congregations or assign black ministers to white churches — is priceless entertainment if the contortions of the current conservative Catholics amuse you.
The only advice I have for Pope Francis is that he have someone else taste his tea before he drinks it.
Like running Windows XP in a Windows 8 world, living in the past is tough. Especially for those determined to stay in the past.
O God, I pray that this is not a windows 8 world.
It’s a Windows Vista world…
Gaaaaaah!
For the record my PC is still on XP…
More for the record, while I do have a recent windows 8 pc I often use a 12 year old Mac.
Yeah, me too Oscar.
Unify both philosophy and Roman Catholicism and study Aquinas. As an added extra it will maximize boredom.
A threefer!
I like your sentiments …. one note: I wouldn’t say “Old School” to describe the culture warriors who are upset with these recent developments. Indeed, forty years ago, many Catholics were tolerant of (or at least not threatened by) the changes taking place in society; they just saw no need to challenge the hierarchy.
I would say it is the 1980’s-on crowd that decided to switch from social justice and care for the poor to a culture war status … one might properly call them the “new breed”. Pope Francis is merely walking-back some of these recent trends to where it was in the 1970’s.
As an Arrupe-influenced Jesuit product of the mid-70’s I’d have to concur. The Church of 40 years ago was different.
There was a generation of retrogression, and the further up the chain of command you went, the worse it was. Parish clergy weren’t too bad, the people running diocesan seminaries were, bishops unspeakable, and as for the Popes — charity forbids.
Look at today’s world at what it means …
The effect on this year’s midterm elections could be a welcome boost for Democrats. If they would grasp the profound change and not get annoyed by religion. For the Latino vote, religion and conservative morals are important and that made the Republican party attractive to some. With the new social dogma by pope Francis, may indicate the last straw is broken for the Republicans.
○ Public Sees Religion’s Influence Waning
PS Conservative bishops like Burke have lost all relevance except as pastor for the aging Opus Dei crowd.
It will be interesting to watch the impact of Pope Francis upon the Republican party. The religious right includes many conservative Catholics. The Catholic Church is a survivor and some of the hierarchy know they have to disconnect themselves from the Republican party, or they lose.
Only a problem if there’s a “Catholic vote” — and there isn’t.
If the evangelical community is any guide, the politics keeps people in the church, not the other way round.
Archbishop Neinstadt here in MN, big homophobe and pedophile protector, is still at his old tricks. In his diocese only a week or two ago a guy who was the director of a catholic church choir for over a decade was fired because he married his partner of many years.
Neinstadt is hanging on scandal after scandal like a barnacle on a sinking ship.
It’s not as if those Cardinals had much choice. Once they eliminated the candidates with scandals stuck to their backs, the retrograde pompous assholes, and the few younger ones that they didn’t know at all, Francis was it. The Cardinals probably knew the Church of JPII was in trouble with Francis, but might have underestimated by how much.