The New Pope is All down on Poverty and Shit

[stromboli]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ma ... pe-poverty

and believes in birth control to stop disease. Wowsers, we got a step up with this one. Or maybe not.

Unlike other cardinals, he has been untarnished by the various scandals rocking the Catholic church, and is thought to want to make reform of the Curia a priority. He was a fierce opponent of Argentina's decision to legalise gay marriage in 2010, arguing children need to have the right to be raised and educated by a father and a mother. But he takes a slightly more pragmatic view on contraception, believing that it can be permissible to prevent the spread of disease. He is ecumenical, believing in interfaith dialogue.

In 2009 Bergoglio made headlines when he criticised the government of Ernesto Kirchner, husband of current Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, claiming it was "immoral, illegitimate and unjust" to allow inequality in the country to grow. "Rather than preventing that, it seems they have opted for making inequalities even greater," he said. "Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities," he said at the time.

He also like, taught psychology and shit.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I bet he favors bitch slapping those feminazi nuns.. :roll:

[GurrenLagann]

I read the first bit and thought "Yeah!", then saw the rest; fuck.

[Valigarmander]

+ Vocal against poverty and income inequality, okay with contraception to prevent disease, hasn't been involved in any child sex abuse cover-ups.

- Opposes abortions and euthanasia in all cases, as well as homosexuality.

A step up from the last pope, I suppose.

[Atheon]

What? They didn't elect Cardinal Glick?

"Christ didn't come to Earth to give us the willies."

[St Giordano Bruno]

The European connection is still there because he was the son of Italian immigrant's parents after all, so I don't think it is such a big deal he happened to be one from the New World. So I just think it is a very small step in the right direction, not a giant step by any means.  It is just going to be more of the same old same old.

[WitchSabrina]

I don't know enough about the new pope to criticize him yet.  Hopefully, he never educates me ---poorly.

[SGOS]

One of the things the NPR reporter did manage, yesterday, was to say the new Pope is a theologian.

How remarkable!

[Mathias]

The Latin America has more Catholics than any place in the world and almost every person with common sense argues for a fairer distribution of income because only africa is worse in this regard!
Nobody in latin america likes of Argentines, especially the "porteños" (born in the capital - Buenos Aires), due to strong European immigration, they always considered themselves the "southern europe"...


A pope who opposes abortions and euthanasia in all cases, as well as homosexuality, keep a primitive and childlike dogmatism, which is brand of religions.

[Davka]

He's 76 years old, and has a reputation for conservatism. The only real change is that they elected a guy from Argentina - but only just barely. His parents immigrated to Argentina from Italy, so he's a safe White European racially, and an Italian at that.

Still, if he focuses the attention of the RCC on the poor and the Southern hemisphere, I guess that's better than nothing. But don't expect women to rise from chattel status, or priests to be allowed to marry, or child abusers to be treated any differently. This guy is just another Old White Man who believes in magic.

[SGOS]

This guy is just another Old White Man who believes in magic.

Yep, "Meet the new boss, just like the old boss."  Any changes in policy will be subtle.  The Catholic Church has never been known as forward thinking.  It's backward thinking, and even small changes can sometimes take hundreds of years.  When that happens, it's a big deal, and some people get all excited and talk about how the church is keeping up with the times.

[Mathias]

John Paul II destroyed the only "faction" of the church who really helped the poor, called "liberation's theology," which in addition to educating underserved communities, teaching them to fight for their political rights, as well as helping in the resistance against illegal exploitation of workers and minorities.

But the projection of the faithful in this "area" is that the Catholic church is losing too "space" for here calls "neo-protestant."

This guy is just another Old White Man who believes in magic.

Unfortunately he believes in something worse than magic, much worse ...  :(

[SvZurich]

I want to know this guy's connections with the militias that killed so many innocents just a few decades ago.

[NeoLogic26]

I can only ascertain by the phrasing of his stance on contraception, that he's only ok with condoms in places like Africa where it really is more about AIDS prevention. That's only a small step up from previous popes, I think. And unless he's planning on melting down the gold in Vatican City to give to charity, all that talk about being down with eliminating poverty seems like lip service. I realize I'm biased by virtue of the fact that I think the pope is a stupid figurehead to begin with, but this guy doesn't seem like anything special. Even all the talk about this being historic because of his nationality doesn't make sense, because he's Italian for all intents and purposes.

[stromboli]

I want to know this guy's connections with the militias that killed so many innocents just a few decades ago.

Yeah, apparently that was a thing with the church in Argentina. I'll look for something.