Pope Francis in his recent condemnation of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, also defended 'free speech' as a fundamental human right. How then does he square this with the thousands of books censored by the Catholic church over centuries, and placed on their Index of Banned Books?
Not only is Pope Francis hypocritical, so is the whole Catholic church, can anyone honestly say otherwise?
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It wasn't just books. Their Legion of Decency had an impact on the film industry as well.
I like to think of this pope as being like the George Carlin pope of Dogma. Delusional, misguided, but certainly not evil as many of them have been. It's hard to judge someone who is trying to bring about positive change from within the system they were raised, even when that system is hypocritical and amoral. I don't think it is realistic to think Catholicism or Christianity in general can be stamped out in one fell swoop, so this is as good a start as any. Now we just need an imam and maybe a rabbi or two to get on board and the whole monotheistic cartel can be taken down from the inside.
Sorry ...bit of a rant coming up....
Hypocrisy is the least of my concerns with both this pope and the catholic church.
First the present Pope seems to be regarded with a fair amount of tolerance , "he seems like a good guy ,trying to change things ,lets give him the benefit of the doubt ,etc. etc.
Certainly he is not as "tainted" as the last incumbent.
Difficult to switch from Hitler Jungen ,Soldier of the Whermacht with service in a branches of the Waffen SS (antiaircraft units) and feild engineer units (building anti tank defences in Hungary). To the Shepherd of half the world ,the heir of the fisherman.
Just as an aside ...when you go looking for his (Benedicts) army records you find they are held ,not by the German government...but by a Catholic monastery...who cannot spare the time or staff to locate the said records.
Now ,as to the present incumbent ... Francis .... it seems he is not quite the "Mr Clean" the Vatican tries to project.
Apparently the former Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio ...has questions to answer about priests being effectively handed over to the military during Argentina's "Dirty War".
Not only this but the ongoing tragedy of the "Stolen Babies".....(which seems to be a tradition of the Catholic church)....Young children including new borns from "disappeared" politically suspect families are taken by the church then given out to , or in some cases sold on to families of government supporters.... so called "good families"....we have accounts of this practice from Ireland ,Spain ,Australia ,Argentina. Italy.
So perhaps you will forgive my reticence in endorsing "Il Papa"....
link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21794798
It will come as no surprise that I view the Catholic Church as a whole as one of the worlds most pernicious corrupt and vile criminal organisations...
I submit for your consideration.....
Child Abuse by priests.
Conspiring to cover up said child abuse.
Magdalene Homes in Ireland.
Money Laundering by the Vatican Bank.
Providing escape routes for War criminals.
Irish Childrens homes illegal drugs trials....http://www.salon.com/2014/06/09/the_catholic_irish_babies_scandal_it_get...
Father Hudson Homes...
the list goes on.....and on ...and on but you get my point.
There is a Bible quote that sums up my attitude to this criminal gang......
"By their actions shall ye know them"
Damn, I thought my response was on the edge calling for the downfall of monotheism. This is much better. Like, definitely like.
Yep it was nice but I think Hitchens nails it better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQHxkX-tyYU
This is one of my favorites, but not exactly fitting as it was a deliciously scathing indictment of the last pope. Ratsinger was a jerk, had he been pope a few short centuries ago a hold little doubt that he would have been lighting the fires under unbelievers and heretics himself. Pope John Paul II, in stark contrast, was thoughtful and serious and compassionate and so far Francis seems to be leaning that way as well.
I believe they are all misguided and should have been using their intelligence and determination for the betterment of humanity instead of perpetuating a culture of slavery. I still don't trust any of them, but you know, it's still hard to judge someone working within the system they know.
Mister Diety posted, on the 16th, a rather ribald vid on you tube in response to what the pope had to say concerning the recent shootings in Paris. It's pretty amusing. Even Dawkins tweeted about it. May be worth a watch as long as you have no issue with strong language.
I agree that he acted in a hypocrite manner when he made 2 opposing statements.