Time Man of the Year - Pope Francis

[Halibut]

Francis is the most Christlike Pope the Church has had for many many years.

I think he's great.

[Jmack]

Given time?

 

Reform in the Catholic church is done at a speed that would give a glacier a good name.

 

---------- Post added 21-12-2013 at 13:33 ----------

 

 

The piece is written by Time.

 

Time give the award.

 

Yes and it's just an opinion, if you or me were in charge it would of been a different outcome. There are many different opinions and we all have to respect them.

[SnailyBoy]

Are you a catholic? If not why does it so bother you what it stands for.

 

No I'm not Catholic.

 

It bothers me because he stands for 1.2 Billion people who see him as the head of their church and I happen to think that certain things are worth bothering about.

 

Don't you think that he should be seeing that;

 

Paedophile priests should be brought to justice?

 

That a woman should have the right to have control over her own body?

 

Condoms should be used to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS?

 

Homosexuals should be treated the same as everyone else?

[Jmack]

No I'm not Catholic.

 

It bothers me because he stands for 1.2 Billion people who see him as the head of their church and I happen to think that certain things are worth bothering about.

 

Don't you think that he should be seeing that;

 

Paedophile priests should be brought to justice?

 

That a woman should have the right to have control over her own body?

 

Condoms should be used to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS?

 

Homosexuals should be treated the same as everyone else?

 

Listen I 100% agree with those statements but I also believe it's a individuals choice to believe what they want and if you want to live your life according to the church than that's your choice. By all means we should pressure and stand up for liberal values but we can't force anyone to accept them.

[SnailyBoy]

Listen I 100% agree with those statements but I also believe it's a individuals choice to believe what they want and if you want to live your life according to the church than that's your choice. By all means we should pressure and stand up for liberal values but we can't force anyone to accept them.

 

In very simplistic terms the Pope tells Catholics what they should believe, that's his job. I'm sure that abortion being illegal in Ireland is no coincidence.

 

Which goes back to my original point.

[Halibut]

"If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?" - Pope Francis.

 

It doesn't go by any means far enough, but it's an encouraging move in the right direction.

 

---------- Post added 21-12-2013 at 14:11 ----------

 

Here is another encouraging example of Francis leading the church in the right direction.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2300490/Pope-Francis-kisses-washes-feet-young-offenders-Rome-prison.html

[Marx]

He is the CEO of the largest employer of child rapists in the world. His predecessors have assisted abusers and kept them from prosecution. His organisation is busy hampering victims' efforts to uncover its complicity and is redistributing its wealth so that it can avoid paying compensation. He states the bleeding obvious such as 'It's ok to breastfeed in public' and he suddenly becomes a reformer and a man of the people. Based on what Catholics are used to getting, for them this is indeed reformation. For the rest of us the Catholic Church has now left the seventeenth century.

[mjw47]

In very simplistic terms the Pope tells Catholics what they should believe, that's his job. I'm sure that abortion being illegal in Ireland is no coincidence.

 

Which goes back to my original point.

 

Things change, but slowly. We're talking about the original Christian Church here. Two thousand years of history will not be radically altered with anything like alacrity.

 

Should you wish to see how different things are now to only twenty or thirty years ago, Google Enda Kenny criticism of the Vatican following the Cloyne report.

 

Enda Kenny is the Irish Taoiseach ( Literally 'Leader', PM equivalent) in June(?) 2011 he gave a speech which caused uproar throughout the Catholic Church.

 

The Cloyne report was into sexual misconduct & subsequent coverup. Kenny did not hold back in condemnations.

 

Enda Kenny is a devout Catholic but quite rightly did not let that prevent him from telling it straight.

 

As a lapsed Catholic my personal view is that this maybe the best Pontiff since John XXIII.

 

Won't see me returning to the fold though.

[Jmack]

In very simplistic terms the Pope tells Catholics what they should believe, that's his job. I'm sure that abortion being illegal in Ireland is no coincidence.

 

Which goes back to my original point.

 

Well in catholic Portugal and Spain gay marriage is legal so he can't have that much influence. At the end of the day time made their decision and I see what reasoning they used, it was painfully predictable that their would be opposition to the choice. But as my mum says "it'd be boring if we were all the same"

[mjw47]

Well in catholic Portugal and Spain gay marriage is legal so he can't have that much influence. At the end of the day time made their decision and I see what reasoning they used, it was painfully predictable that their would be opposition to the choice. But as my mum says "it'd be boring if we were all the same"

 

Gay civil partnerships are legal in Ireland & have been for a while. A female cousin of mine is in one, she tells me the objections to actual marriage is getting to be less & less.