@ladycae trump has no religion but to worship himself. the pope does it the way it should be done. whatever your religious beliefs are, they should shape your whole outlook on life or you have no real beliefs.
@bijouxbroussard Hang on there BB. The Church does have an extremely mixed history, but in many places in the world (Hint, not the US), has been a great force for social change. Frankly the American church is not the one I grew up with. I don't remember abortion being mentioned as a kid. Now the American church has a preoccupation with it. Besides the whole covering up pedophilia thing, sexism thing, and generally being regressive on social change.
@luckranger71 My point exactly. Francis is probably the first Pope to even hint that bullying gays is a bad thing and not in the spirit of compassion. And as you can see from BA, that put him in the role of subversive.
@bijouxbroussard Well, I don't know that JohnXXIII or even JohnPaul II made being anti-gay a priority, but I see your point. Catholics themselves (as opposed to the church hierarchy) are more progressive than most Christian religions in the US. See the cartoon below with the contrast to evangelicals. :) The areas settled in large numbers by Catholics in the US tend to be more liberal than other areas. Especially in cities with Jesuit colleges, which tend to be very pro-social. Again...a long way to go. I'm no longer a practicing Catholic but hold a soft spot in my heart for the parts of the church I appreciate.
I haven't looked into this particular pope. The organization there is pretty fucked up though, and many of the previous popes have been enemies of humanity, under the guise of some infallible voice of God. He herds the sheep who can't think for themselves, so justified or not, I automatically have a problem with him.
