{"id":51164,"date":"2015-05-16T02:37:49","date_gmt":"2015-05-16T08:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/16\/its-not-easy-being-pope.html"},"modified":"2015-05-18T11:00:41","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T17:00:41","slug":"its-not-easy-being-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/16\/its-not-easy-being-pope.html","title":{"rendered":"It's not easy being Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are a lot of areas I disagree (from mildly to strongly) with the Catholic Church teachings and Pope Francis's declarations. There are also a lot of areas I agree with them.<\/p>\n

The problem is that everyone (at least in the US) seems to expect the Pope (and the Church, but let's focus on the former as being more understandable) to either be on Our Side or on Their Side, to conform to a standard Left\/Right classification.<\/p>\n

But the Pope doesn't do that. Church doctrine doesn't conform to the US Left\/Right split. Francis hasn't really said or done anything so radical as to change that doctrine, he's just reemphasized parts of it that his predecessors hadn't been so vocal about.<\/p>\n

So, yeah, he's much more welcoming and less judgmental of gays, but still a strict opponent of marriage equality. He certainly isn't changing Church doctrine on abortion (or, s far, birth control), but he's talking about climate change, argued against capitalistic excess, and has just recognized a Palestinian state. He's big into personal charity, but won't even discuss women in the clergy. And, like every Pope, he's highly critical of both doctor-assisted suicide and<\/i> the death penalty. <\/p>\n

Net-net, he's probably offended more in the US Right than the US Left, but the Church has never been in solid with the Right (or the Left). It's its own creature, for better or worse. Francis is a much more pleasant, and provocative, face for the Catholic Church, and his personal style is much more laudable, but he's not a radical. Any changes to the Church under his watch will be incremental, not revolutionary, the slow turning, at best, of a large ship. And they won't be in any direction that either the liberals or conservatives in the US will be comfortable with.<\/p>\n

I respect that. I may (and do) disagree in some of the particulars. But I would expect a religious leader to not be in bed with any particular political party, let alone an American one. That Francis, and the Church, are not conforming to what people would like to see doesn't necessarily mean they are right, but it points to a certain ideological integrity that I can appreciate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nAllen West Rants At Pope Francis Over Palestinian Recognition<\/a><\/span>
\nThe right-wing reaction to the Pope’s decision to recognize Palestine is as insane as you might expect.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are a lot of areas I disagree (from mildly to strongly) with the Catholic Church teachings and Pope Francis's declarations. There are also a lot of areas I agree with them. The problem is that everyone (at least in the US) seems to expect the Pope (and the Church, but let's focus on the … Continue reading “It's not easy being Pope”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,109,10,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-church-state","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7234,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/04\/19\/putting_the_cal.html","url_meta":{"origin":51164,"position":0},"title":"Putting the calendar on hold …","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 19-Apr-05 10:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"The College of Cardinals has chosen Joseph Ratzinger to be the next Pope. 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