Well done! This man - lovingly known as "God's Rotwieller", is just what this world needs right now... A hard-line, hide-bound, backward-looking "My way or you can go to hell" sort of guy just like our president. Kinda makes me mist up and cry ...
What, you think just because the catholic church is a religious organization that it doesn't act like other organizations? It's why I'm a catholic, but don't go to church. Most of the organized religions I'm familiar with have, in my mind, become unhealthy depots for the dispensing of values and mindsets like coke out of vending machines. What flavor of stagnant religious opinions would you like? I have no problem with followers of organized religion in principle; if they feel they can grow in their life more as part of a congregation, that's fine. The problem arises when people accord too much responsibility to either God or the clergy for the running of their lives. By this, I mean I find often that steadfast, practicing members of a particular sect either think that God is too obvious (i.e. speaking directly to them through their prayers), or too subtle (i.e. speaking only to the clergy who then communicate it to others). If I may wax computer science for a moment, I believe that God is in many ways like the hardware in a
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About the "feelings of inadequacy" - who wouldn't and shouldn't feel inadequate to the task of taking on such momentous spiritual responsibility and authority? I know I'd feel more than completely inadequate, and I think that it's essential for any pope to be humbly aware that he is not God, that he is limited, that he needs to rely on God in everything he does for the strength to serve gracefully and compassionately. I am wary of the steamroller overconfidence and "hard-line, hide-bound, backward-looking 'My way or you can go to hell'" attitude that seems to exude from, for example, the "sort of guy just like our president." If candidates for the papacy had to ratchet up a false machismo to catch the attention of the cardinals, or of God, than I'd be thoroughly disgusted. I am thankful that the environment of the Catholic church's top leadership is, for the most part, one where misivings and uncertainty can be openly expressed, unlike that of "any other large organization."
P.S. How are you? I missed you when you came down last
it seems to me that the catholic church is just like any other large organization.
PLEASE tell me this is not a new revelation for you.
And if you're worried that because Rome is corrupt, your local priest will be using collection-plate money for a boat...you've got other issues. Or, more to the point, your local church has other issues. Find a new church.
(In the hypoethetical world where this is going on.)
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you win.
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P.S. How are you? I missed you when you came down last
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PLEASE tell me this is not a new revelation for you.
And if you're worried that because Rome is corrupt, your local priest will be using collection-plate money for a boat...you've got other issues. Or, more to the point, your local church has other issues. Find a new church.
(In the hypoethetical world where this is going on.)
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