Pope Francis has formally approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, with a new document explaining a radical change in Vatican policy by insisting that people seeking God’s love and mercy shouldn’t be subject to “an exhaustive moral analysis” to receive it.
The new document repeats that rationale and elaborates on it, reaffirming that marriage is a lifelong sacrament between a man and a woman. And it stresses that blessings should not be conferred at the same time as a civil union, using set rituals or even with the clothing and gestures that belong in a wedding.
So no real moral progress from the Catholic Church; just more PR to get people back in the pews.
If Catholic God was real, he should be seeking out our love and mercy.
moral progress
What’s that?
To pull from Folding Ideas:
Vatican II is in some regards progressive, but only as progressive as needed to retain membership and improve political relations with other conservative organizations.
This is basically the modus operandi of not just Vatican II, but of most policy changes the church makes. Modernizing, reforming, and liberalizing are reactive steps they take to stem the loss of parishioners and thus mindshare in society.
What’s that got to do with the price of tea in China?
I have no interest in semantic rabbit trails.
If you are unable to infer my meaning, then I’m sorry about that.
It’s OK, don’t worry, I already downvoted.
Oh no! A downvote? How will I ever recover from this?!
IKR.
That ratio tho
Expected
Acknowledging our arbitrary bigoted views and changing for the better to be accepting of differences. For example, moving past homophobia.
That seems like a very narrow definition. Are you sure you’re not just spouting your opinion?
Do you think definitions are vetted based on broadness?
Vetted by whom?
I just asked you that, pumpkin
No you didn’t.
Provide a definition if you think my very broad description with a single example out of many possible examples is inaccurate.
inaccurate
What do you mean?
You questioned whether I was just spouting an opinion, which would imply that it was inaccurate.
Feel free to provide a definition.
You questioned whether I was just spouting an opinion, which would imply that it was inaccurate.
Would imply what was inaccurate?
The Pope is WRONG!
-People who want to run the country based on the Word of God.
I mean yeah, of course they will say that. Evangelicals and Fundamentalist Christians have always maintained that Catholics aren’t Christian.
Often the first sign of a new christian sect is the adamant declaration via other christian sects that the new sect isnt christian.
Catholicism isn’t Christianity though. They have an extremely warped interpretation of the scripture and they utilize idolatry.
Catholicism IS Christianity. If you were to disassociate yourself from the Catholic Church as many have done over the years and also insist on the difference being “Christian” and “Other”, then Catholics would be the only Christians, as your diversion would be the other. I understand your meaning that you believe your sect of religion is the “correct one” just as any follower of any religion does, so you can call yourself the “correct Christianity” if you’d like but saying ”Catholicism isn’t Christianity” is factually incorrect.
Put simply, either Catholics are Christians and so are you, or Catholics are Christians and you are not. Separating your Protestant/Evangelical beliefs from the Catholic Church is perfectly understandable and that I wouldn’t criticize you for doing, but separating the Catholic Church from Christianity is fundamentally impossible.
This is a PR move, don’t fall for it.
Quotes from the man himself, on how much he actually supports marriage equality and LGBTQ peolle:
“I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without. Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life.”
“What is at stake here is the identity and survival of the family: father, mother, and children. At stake are the lives of so many children who will be discriminated against in advance, depriving them of the human maturation that God wanted to be given with a father and a mother.”
“[Marriage equality] is not a political struggle; it is the destructive attempt toward God’s plan.”
“”[The push for marriage equality is] the envy of the Devil, by which sin entered the world, which cunningly seeks to destroy the image of God.”
Don’t fall for their lies.
Not only that but the document specifically states priests cannot bless gay marriages, unions, or when a couple is dressed as if they are getting married.
Pope is trying to save their religion. If anyone knows the Dire Straits organized religion is in the West is the pope. Why would anyone be part of something that is so hateful towards you or someone you know?
Organized Religion would be much cooler if it were in Dire Straits. But Jesus might get salty that Mark Knopfler is a better guitar player than He is…
That little Francis got his own jet airplane,
That little Francis, he’s a millionaire.
billionaire*
But damn I like your version of the song.
Money for nothing, and your kids for free
I mean we dunno. Providing he actually existed maybe the dude would have had Mark Knopfler-like guitar powers in addition to his established list of party tricks… but he decided to show up 1400 years before the first guitar so I guess we’ll have to wait until he comes back before he can have a shot at producing an album.
This and calling Israeli killings terrorism, pope is trying his best - but he has to work within the limits his flock will accept.
I love how it’s a “blessing of a union” and NOT the sacrament of marriage, which would mean they are still “living in sin” but we love you and accept you but winks at the right they aren’t married. Separate but equal much? This is hilariously bad pandering and I hope they get flak from all directions. Fuck the catholic church and fuck the vatican.
Baby steps, dude. Plus, the need the numbers, membership is down and it’s affecting revenue. 🤣
I get what you’re saying and they are certainly falling forward in some ways but maybe they should actually do the work of redemption for their wrongdoings to address their dwindling membership, not pump out PR.
💯
It’s progress, I suppose. But are there any Gays that would actively seek out a blessing from an institution who sees their lifestyle as “objectively disordered”?
are there any Gays that would actively seek out a blessing
Yes. That’s why the pope made this decision.
I’ve found a surprising number of the European gays I know are more likely to hold on to their religion than the American ones I know, but they are also far less likely to interpret the bible literally to begin with.
Catholic doctrine is so complicated particularly because they dont take the bible literally and instead rely on interpretations that developed over centuries
To be honest I can’t think of a single Christian whose lifestyle isn’t considered “objectively disordered” by the Church.
The Catholic leadership must be really desperate to boost numbers if they’re willing to go this far…
He says they “can” but knows they won’t or quietly tells them not to. This pope is all PR and bullshit he knows they won’t follow through on. The Pope can pretend that Catholics are now tolerant of gay people, but go to a Catholic Church throughout most of the planet, particularly the third world and see how tolerant they are and how much they follow the Pope. They are tolerant of pedophiles in their clergy though, since they don’t seem to want to fix that issue
I knew a lot of Catholics that didn’t have a problem with gay people.
God’s love is for everyone, types.
Removed by mod
Don’t buy into the PR of a trillion dollar corporation, disguised as a religion.
The new document repeats that condition and elaborates on it, reaffirming that marriage is a lifelong union between a man and a woman. And it stresses that blessings in question must not be tied to any specific Catholic celebration or religious service and should not be conferred at the same time as a civil union ceremony. Moreover, the blessings cannot use set rituals or even involve the clothing and gestures that belong in a wedding.
The Church is doomed to become obsolete. Until they accept that gay people have the right to marry (and they won’t), people will move away from the Church.
The times are changing, and the Church will sooner or later fall into irrelevancy. Besides, it’s not like their God is doing anything helpful at all in these times of crisis, is he?
God works in MyStErIoUs ways 😤🙄🤮
Crazy how God created the universe 13.8 billion years ago and then changes his mind on policies now. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that people were making up these policies arbitrarily.
far too little and thousands of years too late. the catholic church is a violent, authoritarian child rape and child genital mutilation cult and needs to be entirely destroyed.
And who wants to predict the flood of catholics saying the pope isn’t catholic because of this statement?
They already did that when he told people to be nice to trans people. He didn’t tell them to embrace them into their lives, just treat them nice and they lost their shit about it.
To be fair, he said be nice. Modern christianity demands brutal suppression of anyone you don’t like.
I don’t give a flying fuck what the poop thinks.
Be gay, do crime.
Good pope!
