Pope Francis has urged Vatican bureaucrats to avoid “rigid ideological positions” that prevent them from understanding today’s reality
Pope Francis urged Vatican bureaucrats Thursday to avoid “rigid ideological positions” that prevent them from understanding today’s reality, an appeal made days after he formally allowed priests to bless same-sex couples in a radical change of Vatican policy.
Francis used his annual Christmas greeting to the Holy See hierarchy to encourage the cardinals, bishops and laypeople who run the Vatican to listen to one another and to others so they can evolve to truly offer service to the Catholic Church.
Speaking in the Hall of Blessings, Francis told them it was important to keep advancing and growing in their understanding of the truth. Fearfully sticking to rules may give the appearance of avoiding problems but only ends up hurting the service that the Vatican Curia is called to give the church, he said.
“Let us remain vigilant against rigid ideological positions that often, under the guise of good intentions, separate us from reality and prevent us from moving forward,"the pope said. "We are called instead to set out and journey, like the Magi, following the light that always desires to lead us on, at times along unexplored paths and new roads.”
Their main point is to convince people they are, hence, gay pope.
Still wrong. As you are probably aware, religion (broadly defined) as a phenomenon is present in all known cultures throughout the history of humanity, in a myriad of different shapes and forms. The common thread to all of them is not morality.
I know they aren’t, I’m saying their claim is that they are.
It’s even common to claim everything God does is just and right. If gay people get killed in a nightclub, it’s because they’ve sinned, and that’s Gods will, therefore, the gunman was doing the right thing.
Then you get the people with cognitive dissonance who claim that slavery was moral because God stipulated rules about how the slaves should be treated and “it was a different time”.
Then you get the people who turn themselves into bombs and believe mass murder is right, and the people that died should thank them, because the psycho took their victims to heaven with them.
Then you get the people who vote against abortion rights because they believe the most ethical thing to do is save babies, even if it risks the mothers life, or guarantees poor life quality (either from poverty or developmental issues).
It’s ALL a moral claim. When your moral foundation is God, nothing you can do in service of what that God supposedly says can be wrong.
All those things are abhorrent, still not the main point, core or raison d’être of religion in any way. One could perhaps say it’s a recurring theme in certain traditions, particularly of the abrahamic variety. Your perspective is very limited and very west-centric; ironically a very christian worldview.
Well that was condescending and not very constructive.
Can you tell me which modern religion doesn’t profess to provide a moral compass?