Pope Francis is coming to America, and the hoi polloi is pretty excited. As popes come and go, this is by far the best Pope that anyone can remember.
The Pope has been so revolutionary that the following quote was actually attributed to the Pope:
Of course, the Pope didn’t actually say that. But it’s remarkable that a good number of people, especially on the progressive side of the spectrum, actually thought that he had.
But before we get completely carried away with this Pope, let’s remember one thing:
- This is still the Pope.
- This is still the head of the Catholic Church.
- This pope is still against the ordination of women or birth control or the right to choose whether to abort a fetus or not.
- This is still the same organization that brought us the the crusades, the inquisition, confession, the sale of indulgences, and most recently, the sexual abuse of children and protection of the perpetrators on a massive scale.
This Pope has very much changed the tone in the Vatican. He appears to be a man of compassion who actually cares about the “common” people. I’m mindful of how much better this Pope is than previous Popes, but the Catholic Church still has so far to go to undo the centuries of damage that it has done.
Sorry everyone, not all is forgiven.