FACT: The Trump administration ordered STOCKHOLM to end its DEI programs within 10 days..

@DeWayfarer Leo really is not a conservative by papal standards at least. He was a close ally of Francis and picked bishops for him. So it is very much continuity of the previous papal vision.

If anything before becoming pope he made it clear he doesn't like the Trump regime and seems to have nothing but contempt for Vance in particular. I get the sense he sees the VP as a heretic.

@DeWayfarer I think it’s fantastic. He’s preaching truly Christian values, which is why MAGA is losing the plot.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow on LGBTQ and women's issues Pope Leo is conservative!

He is against the acceptance of the LGBTQ as well as women decons!

It's why Trump is pushing this right off the bat!

@DeWayfarer I honestly don't think this new Pope shares many beliefs with the tRump cult. As a cardinal he already spoke out against tRump's anti-immigrant policies and tactics.

@DeWayfarer That is why I included the qualifier "by papal standards".


I don't know a whole lot about him but I haven't seen much about his positions on either issue.

He has not said anything against Francis's decision to allow the blessing of LGBTQ couples which by the standards of that institution is huge.

This is progress by the standard of the Vatican.

And like it or not I doubt we will see women involved in the church this century. This is an institution that takes centuries to change.

@ElwoodBlues yes I know there is no love for Trump! Yet Leo's record shows he is not for either woman's rights as decons nor for the LGBTQ!

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/09/nx-s1-5393705/pope-leo-stance-issues-lgtbq-climate-women-politics
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/09/nx-s1-5393705/pope-leo-stance-issues-lgtbq-climate-women-politics

@DeWayfarer On the issue of LGBTQ rights everyone seems to be fixating on 2 statements the most recent was made in 2013. That is over a decade ago.

Most people held views a decade ago they don't stand by today so I am more willing to see where he stands now.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow you don't understand old people do you.

He is my age! They don't change positions easily!

That's for the young!

@DeWayfarer I think like any other group the elderly are a diverse group. The local candidate for the Communist Party of Canada is in their 80s and they didn't come to that position in their 20s.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow guy I am at least 20 years older than you! I have yet to change positions in twenty years on ANYTHING!

Pope Leo is older than me

@DeWayfarer The use of the word "promote" in that context is pure propaganda. Western culture does not "promote" those things at all but does promote knowledge, tolerance and understanding; not segregation and hatred based on ignorance and fear.

That aside, the Roman Catholic church cannot and dare not try to modernise itself too rapidly because too many of its own followers would resist that. After all, it took four centuries to admit it had been wrong and Galileo Galilei was right about the Solar System.

@ArishMell I'm just quoting the article. Not that I agree with it. You'll have to take it up with either Pope Leo or the editor's of NPR that paraphrase Leo.

The word "enormous" was obviously used by Leo himself since that was within a quote.

... promotes...
I would think that the word "enormous" would be a far better indicator of how Pope Leo feels on this issue then the editor's word of "promote".

@DeWayfarer Oh, I am not blaming you for the Pontiff's words or how he was reported!

These ancient religious institutions are so entrenched that they and their followers practically define 'inertia'.

@DeWayfarer Again. I am sure if we dug into the hot takes of everyone from 2012 the entire userbase of this site would be cancelled.

Pretending someone's position from over a decade ago is their current position with nothing but assumptions to support it is just dishonest.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow Wait until you get older is all I can say. See if your own positions change. That's actually is an eye opener.

There's simply no way that I could ever be a conservative. Could you even now see yourself as one? 🤷🏻‍♂

@DeWayfarer Again. Your basing this on entirely flawed assumption. You assume your own personal anecdote is the rule not the exception based on no evidence.


And you are applying that flawed reasoning to a complete stranger.


As for being a conservative. I did it backwards from the cliche. I was a conservative in my 20s (moderate, never a social conservative) and now in my early 40s I am a Marxist.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow I have have always been a rebel! Both my parents even recognized it.

I don't have a political stance as such. I have always believed there's no such thing as the same beliefs because no two people are alike.

@DeWayfarer And that is fine. But assuming everyone else is the same is fundamentally flawed.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow Never have I said that each is the same.

In fact I stated quite the opposite.


Yet I did say that as well get older we are less likely to change.