"Pope Bluntly Faults Church's Focus on Gays and Abortion"

[warrprayer]

<snip>


Pope Francis, in the first extensive interview of his six-month-old papacy, said that the Roman Catholic Church had grown “obsessed” with preaching about abortion, gay marriage and contraception, and that he has chosen not to speak of those issues despite recriminations from some critics.








In remarkably blunt language, Francis sought to set a new tone for the church, saying it should be a “home for all” and not a “small chapel” focused on doctrine, orthodoxy and a limited agenda of moral teachings.

“It is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time,” the pope told the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a fellow Jesuit and editor in chief of La Civiltà Cattolica, the Italian Jesuit journal whose content is routinely approved by the Vatican. “The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.

<snip>


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/world/europe/pope-bluntly-faults-churchs-focus-on-gays-and-abortion.html?_r=0

Holy crap! Take THAT, Sick Rantorum!

Keep your head down, Pope Francis.

As a lapsed Catholic, I am starting to really like this guy!

[FiveGoodMen]

1. HUGE improvement over the last guy!

[warrprayer]

2. this will not sit well

with the ultra right faction of the church - AT ALL.

[Warpy]

4. Naw, he's changing the curtains

but you'd better believe they're hiding the same old dungeon behind them.

It would take at least a century of back to back Jesuit popes to budge the hierarchy at all.

Remember, they've been doing the corruption thing well for centuries.

[warrprayer]

6. there are two ways to live your life

I prefer to believe that anything good is possible

This is Pope Francis. I believe that has meaning.

[Warpy]

8. Whatever floats your boat

but long study of history and of the church's place in it leads me to a very different conclusion.

Francis of Assisi wasn't who they say he is, either, although he was years ahead of most of his contemporaries in many things.

[warrprayer]

10. in my experience

few people are who others say they are

I've made some great friends while finding this out!

[etherealtruth]

11. Anything good is possible!

I left the Catholic church behind decades ago ... but this pope is worth watching.

Do I believe he will reform the Catholic ... no, but I do believe he can move it in the right direction.

I have always wondered why the Catholic church turned its back on poverty, war and social justice (as a Catholic School girl in the 1970s poverty, war and social justice are almost all we focused on) and turned the majority of their efforts toward abortion and homosexuality ... I was very heartened to hear him say this!

[DirkGently]

3. Be nice to see the RCC at least lean in the right direction.

Has anyone told Paul Ryan?

[warrprayer]

5. or leaning in the LEFT direction...

[DirkGently]

7. I see what you did there ...

[warrprayer]

9. maybe this will become a thing of the past

[HockeyMom]

12. Tell your Cardinal Dolan to SHUT UP about contraception

THAT is the most ignored policy of the church and has been for 50 years. Oh, oh, oh the OUTRAGE over INSURANCE covering that.

[Warren DeMontague]

13. I'm not, generally, much of a Pope fan

But im liking this guy more and more.