Benedict better hold his Prada slippers tight:
In a clear signal of his desire to reset the priorities of the embattled Catholic church after Benedict XVI’s intellectual, remote-seeming reign, Francis added that the reminder had made him think of St Francis – a man “who wanted a poor church”. “Ah, how I would like a church,” he said, “that is poor and is for the poor.”
I’ll file that in the “believe it when I see it” file, and note that there are many ways to be “for the poor”. One of them is to dress down and live modestly (and credit to him for that) while advocating policies that keep people poor:
Bergoglio has supported the social justice ethos of Latin American Catholicism, including a robust defense of the poor.
“We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least,” Bergoglio said during a gathering of Latin American bishops in 2007. “The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers.”
At the same time, he has generally tended to accent growth in personal holiness over efforts for structural reform.
Bergoglio is seen an unwaveringly orthodox on matters of sexual morality, staunchly opposing abortion, same-sex marriage, and contraception. In 2010 he asserted that gay adoption is a form of discrimination against children, earning a public rebuke from Argentina’s President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
“Personal holiness” never put a meal on anyone’s table, practicing Vatican Roulette is a good way to make a few more mouths to feed, and keeping gays from adopting babies makes more impoverished orphans. A gay-hater who wants to keep women in their place is still a chauvinist homophobe whether he’s riding in a city bus or a Popemobile.
Holy, Holy, Holy – There is No Other StoryPost + Comments (87)