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Pope Francis I

Pope Francis ascended to the papacy two years ago, becoming Catholicism’s first leader from South America. A curious narrative soon emerged with regards to his approach to the past and the traditions of the Church among cultural, political, and religious conservatives in the United States.

He has made no substantial changes to Catholic doctrine, and yet has nonetheless earned opprobrium worthy of extreme tampering. It seems rather that Francis inspires uncomfortable feelings, and affronts particular dispositions rather than particular doctrines. A key moment for testing this hypothesis is on the horizon: This summer Francis is expected to publish an encyclical—an authoritative papal document indicating an issue’s pressing priority—on the environment. It will reportedly address matters of environmental stewardship and climate change. (No specifics of the document have been issued yet.)

As its release draws near, American conservatives have begun protesting supposedly vast reforms that have not happened. Steve Moore, chief economist at The Heritage Foundation, has declared Francis an adherent of a “modern pagan green religion”; Maureen Mullarkey, a writer for the religious journal First Things, charged the Pope with “bending theology to premature, intemperate policy endorsements.” No one but Pope Francis and his closest advisers know what is contained within the encyclical. Conservatives troubled by the very suggestion of a theological approach to climate change have been forced to expose more id than argument, dragging in such temporal terms as modern and premature. Pope Francis will travel to Washington, D.C. in September to address Congress, a visit already hotly anticipated. To understand the responses of conservative Catholic politicians like Representatives Paul Ryan and Peter King to papal pronouncements on inequality and climate change requires untangling the Church’s other trinity: of the Pope, the past, and the right wing. ...

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/...nservatives-battle-us-catholic-churchs-future
 
The theories of evolution and the Big Bang are real and God is not “a magician with a magic wand”, Pope Francis has declared.

Speaking at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Pope made comments which experts said put an end to the “pseudo theories” of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, Benedict XVI. ...

But Pope Francis’s comments were more in keeping with the progressive work of Pope Pius XII, who opened the door to the idea of evolution and actively welcomed the Big Bang theory. In 1996, John Paul II went further and suggested evolution was “more than a hypothesis” and “effectively proven fact”. ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...snt-a-magician-with-a-magic-wand-9822514.html
 
Pope Francis has been on the job for two years. Here are his three greatest accomplishments so far.

1. A change in tone, not doctrine

If there's one thing everyone knows about the Francis papacy, it's that it represents a change in tone for the office. Francis has struck everyone with his key phrases — describing himself as "a sinner," saying "who am I to judge?" when referring to gay people who strive to follow Church teaching, calling for pastors with "the smell of the sheep," urging Christians to go out to "the peripheries" of life, denouncing a society where things and people are considered "disposable," and so on. Unlike his predecessors Benedict XVI and John Paul II, Francis is not an academic, but a pastor. He brings a refreshing and different style to the papacy. ...

http://theweek.com/articles/544442/fledgling-legacy-great-pope-francis
 
Pope Francis is reportedly to have lunch Saturday with ten transsexual persons, as part of a visit with prisoners in the southern Italian city of Naples.

The transsexuals are part of a group of about 90 prisoners the pope will eat with and won their spots after a raffle among some 1900 detainees, according to a report posted late Tuesday on the Italian news website Vatican Insider.

That article refers to a separate report made on the matter by Tv2000, an Italian television network operated by the country's Catholic bishops' conference and known for broadcasting most papal events. ...

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/francis-reportedly-lunch-10-transsexuals-saturday
 
Interesting! Perhaps it may make the Pope think more about issues not mentioned in the Bible.
 
Capital punishment is cruel, inhuman and an offense to the dignity of human life. In today's world, the death penalty is "inadmissible, however serious the crime" that has been committed. That was Pope Francis’ unequivocal message to members of the International Commission against the death penalty who met with him on Friday morning in the Vatican.

Listen to Philippa Hitchen’s report:
http://media02.radiovaticana.va/audio/audio2/mp3/00470206.mp3

In a lengthy letter written in Spanish and addressed to the president of the International Commission against the death penalty, Pope Francis thanks those who work tirelessly for a universal moratorium, with the goal of abolishing the use of capital punishment in countries right across the globe. ...

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/201...crime_ever_deserves_the_death_penalty/1130871
 
Pope Francis has made what appear to be among his strongest remarks yet against the global economic system, emphatically crying out in this historic but economically depressed city Saturday for those who have been left without the dignity of work.

Speaking in an area of this southern Italian city known for unemployment and crime, Francis spoke particularly on behalf of young people who are unable to find work and are liable then to choose crime or other unethical means of making ends meet.

Citing statistics that some 40 percent of people aged 25 and below in Naples do not have work, the pontiff said: "This is grave." ...

http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/francis-thunders-against-abuse-workers-corruption-naples
 
rynner2 said:
Gosh, what Earth-shattering news! Luckily I'm not on Twitter, so I don't have to deal with stuff like this too often. ;)
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There was a lot of media coverage about Francis bemoaning the fact that he couldn't just go out for a pizza. Thats what makes it topical.

Don't try this with Obama...
 
Two prominent British climate change sceptics travelled to the Vatican seeking to convert the Pope to their cause – only to be interrupted by “papal heavies” half-way through making their point.

Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, a hereditary peer, and James Delingpole, a right-wing commentator, were in a group that attended a papal climate conference ahead of Pope Francis’s eagerly awaited climate change “encyclical” – a letter to clergy in which he is expected to advocate action against global warming.

They are attending the summit in Rome with scientists from the Heartland Institute, a conservative think-tank backed by the US philanthropist Charles Koch. ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...fway-through-making-their-point-10211087.html
 
COULD Pope Francis become the world's foremost campaigner on global warming? That is certainly the fondest hope (or in a few cases the darkest fear) of a lot of people who are closely involved in deliberations over the planet's future.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, met the pontiff today and shared his mounting concern over the outcome of the Paris summit on climate change in December which is widely seen as the last opportunity for a global deal to manage carbon emissions and set some limit to rising temperatures. Immediately afterwards, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, an important part of the Vatican's intellectual armoury, convened a brainstorming session with the UN secretariat and a gaggle of NGOs, including the New-York based Earth Institute, a study centre which advises the UN on sustainable development: at the Vatican's behest, the agenda included not just climate change but forced migration and human trafficking, a scourge which has been exacerbated by desertification. Afterwards the assembled UN, Vatican and other bigwigs issued a statement affirming that "human-induced climate change is a scientific reality and its decisive mitigation is a moral and religious imperative for humanity." ...

http://www.economist.com/blogs/eras...hange?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/agreenwearingwhite
 
An Italian man hung the phone up on Pope Francis twice thinking he was being pranked, but later apologized to him personally for his error, Vatican newspaper l'Osservatore Romano reported.

The pontiff, who often contacts strangers who write to him or whose problems he hears about, called Franco Rabuffi on Monday to comfort him as he was sick.

Rabuffi disconnected the call twice thinking the call was a hoax.

When the pope rang back a third time, Rabuffi finally took him seriously.

"I was speechless but Francis came to my rescue, saying that what had happened was funny," he told the Vatican newspaper. ...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbeat/man-apologizes-after-hanging-up-twice-on-pope/ar-BBj1bse
 
Cuban President Raul Castro paid a call Sunday on Pope Francis at the Vatican to thank him for working for Cuban-U.S. detente - and said he was so impressed by the pontiff he is considering a return to the Catholic church's fold.

`'Bienvenido (welcome)!" Francis said in his native Spanish, welcoming Castro to his studio near the Vatican public audience hall. The Cuban president, bowing his head, gripped Francis' hand with both of his, and the two men began private talks. The meeting lasted nearly an hour, as the Argentine-born Francis and Castro spoke in Spanish.

Francis will visit Cuba in September en route to the United States.

After leaving the Vatican, Castro, the brother of Fidel, the revolutionary leader who brought the Communists to power in Cuba, gushed with praise for Francis. ...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...4-13-52&SECTION=HOME&SITE=AP&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
 
A founding father of Latin America’s controversial liberation theology movement, which seeks to place the Catholic Church on the side of the poor, said there has been no “rehabilitation” under Pope Francis because the movement was never formally rejected in the first place.

That said, Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez nevertheless acknowledged a clear “change in atmosphere” under the Latin American pontiff, who has voiced his dream of a “poor church for the poor.”

“To speak of rehabilitation would be inaccurate,” Gutiérrez said. “It would imply that there was a de-habilitation first.”

Gutiérrez’s remarks came in a Vatican press conference on Tuesday about a general assembly of Caritas Internationalis, a Rome-based federation of Catholic charitable organizations around the world. He will participate in the May 12-17 meeting as guest theologian. ...

http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/...er-praises-new-atmosphere-under-pope-francis/
 
Remember that Koch also supports PBS science which hounds on climate change daily. Although it is David and not Charles or does that matter? :)
 
tastyintestines said:
Remember that Koch also supports PBS science which hounds on climate change daily. Although it is David and not Charles or does that matter? :)
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They're not Creationists or anti-science in general. Just against scientific findings which might affect their profits.
 
tastyintestines said:
Then why would they support the science by contributing millions to PBS?
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Because they are not anti-science or education in general. They give hundreds of millions to causes that will advance their political and economic interests. Just because someone dislikes a certain book it doesn't follow that they will refuse to donate to literacy campaigns.
 
Yes, but it just seems very hypocritical of that Koch shite talkers like pbs would still take money. Just had to get that off my chest. They also take money from boeing and lockheed and they push anti-war stories everyday. So it is kinda par for the course. :)
 
tastyintestines said:
Yes, but it just seems very hypocritical of that Koch shite talkers like pbs would still take money. Just had to get that off my chest. They also take money from boeing and lockheed and they push anti-war stories everyday. So it is kinda par for the course. :)
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Well, beggars can't be choosers! I would oppose some wars too but I think the US should treat Saudi Arabia as a Terrorist State; its much more of a threat to World Peace than Iran or Syria are.
 
It's a little late for that after Pres. Obama made the biggest weapons deal in the history of the world with them a couple years ago. I'm pretty much with you though.
 
Pope Francis will this week call for changes in lifestyles and energy consumption to avert the "unprecedented destruction of the ecosystem" before the end of this century, according to a leaked draft of a papal encyclical. In a document released by an Italian magazine on Monday, the pontiff will warn that failure to act would have "grave consequences for all of us."

Francis also called for a new global political authority tasked with "tackling…the reduction of pollution and the development of poor countries and regions." His appeal echoed that of his predecessor, pope Benedict XVI, who in a 2009 encyclical proposed a kind of super-UN to deal with the world's economic problems and injustices.

According to the lengthy draft, which was obtained and published by L'Espressomagazine, the Argentinean pope will align himself with the environmental movement and its objectives. While accepting that there may be some natural causes of global warming, the pope will also state that climate change is mostly a man-made problem.

"Humanity is called to take note of the need for changes in lifestyle and changes in methods of production and consumption to combat this warming, or at least the human causes that produce and accentuate it," he wrote in the draft. "Numerous scientific studies indicate that the greater part of the global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases…given off above all because of human activity." ...

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/06/pope-francis-climate-change-encyclical
 
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