 Recently, I was speaking with a Roman Catholic friend who is a great admirer of Pope Francis, and he remarked that the College of Cardinals may have thought they were picking a conservative, but that they were deeply mistaken. Instead, it appears that they picked a true follower of the teachings of (Essene/Jewish Rabbi) Jesus in the Gospels, which of course were highly progressive even by today's standards, let alone for the times in which Jesus lived. In recent months, we've heard Pope Franciscriticize a church which had "grown 'obsessed' with gay marriage, abortion and contraception." Pope Francis has also spoken out about what he called the "tyranny" of capitalism, about how "the income of a minority is increasing exponentially, that of the majority is crumbling," how "the worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly human goal," and also how "not to share one's goods with the poor is to rob them." For any Republican Roman Catholic out there who thinks that the moderate, pro-capitalist Barack Obama is a "socialist" or whatever, I'd like to introduce you to not one but TWO real "socialists" - Pope Francis and Jesus. :)Now, Pope Francis is out with an "84-page document, known as an apostolic exhortation, [that amounts] to an official platform for his papacy." Here are a few highlights from this superb docu |
