I wasn't raised with any religion. In my own life, I've embraced the teachings of several gurus, Jeus more than any of the others. But organized religion has always repulsed me. Since I started watching Pope Francis I've actually considered joining the Catholic Church. I wonder if Catholics from the Church-without-Jesus sect like Paul Ryan and John Boehner have been thinking about leaving the Catholic Church and joining some snake handler cult. His latest Apostolic Exhortation is line line with Jesus' teachings but not at all in line with the Ayn Rand approach Ryan and his greed-and-selfishness followers adhere to.The Pope actually mentioned Republican economic dogma by name. "[S]ome people," he wrote, "continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system… I urge them to face this challenge with determination and an eye to the future, while not ignoring, of course, the specifics of each case. Money must serve, not rule! The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but he is obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help, respect and promote the poor… How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape."How can professed Catholics like Ryan and Boehner even set foot in a Catholic Church after this kind of a public rebuke of their life's work? The right-wing Washington Times, owned by Moonie Satan worshippers, is trying hard to minimize Pope Francis' attempt to put Jesus back into the forefront of the Church's teachings.
Pope Francis may have to work harder to charm his American audience, a new survey of U.S. Catholics finds.Despite reports that the new Argentine pontiff has sparked a surge of the faithful in the pews in Europe, the “Francis Effect” has been negligible in the United States, the country with the world’s fourth-largest population of Roman Catholics, a poll released Monday by the Pew Research Center found.According to the survey, 22 percent of Americans identify themselves as Catholic-- virtually unchanged from 2007 and the same as when Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was elected the successor to the ailing Pope Benedict XVI in March. Similarly, weekly Mass attendance levels in the eight months of Francis’ young papacy have remained stable at 39 percent-- a slight statistical decline from the 40 percent reported 2012, the last full year of Benedict’s papacy.Francis’ global popularity and favorable media coverage have led some to search for the “Francis Effect,” with Catholic clergy members having noticed an increase in church attendance in Italy, Britain and other countries.“So many are returning to the sacraments, in some cases after decades,” observed Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, the archbishop of Florence, Italy, in an interview with the London Guardian.Pope Francis has thrilled some and unnerved others inside the church with his forthright statements on issues such as social justice for the poor, fair treatment of the disabled and personal humility, while downplaying many of the social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. In a marked contrast with his predecessor, Francis has eschewed the luxurious papal residence, shown a popular touch while wading into large crowds and washed the feet of prisoners.But despite the changes at the Vatican, the percentage of former Catholics in the U.S. population remains flat at 10 percent, the study found. “Has the pope’s popularity produced a Catholic resurgence in the U.S.? … Not so far, at least in terms of the share of Americans who identify as such, or the share of those who report attending Mass weekly,” wrote Conrad Hackett, a demographer at the Pew Research Center’s Religion and Public Life Project.…“If politics is local, the same can be said for religion,” he said. “What matters most to American Catholics is their parish-- that’s where they attend Mass. Pope Francis may very well be the world’s parish priest, but he’s not the parish priest who’s going to baptize your child or preside over a funeral for a family member.”“The crisis of Catholicism in the United States is profoundly local,” he added. “The sexual abuse scandal cut to the heart of the relationship that Catholics have with their priests. Many Catholics have drifted away precisely because they find their local parishes unwelcoming or simply irrelevant to their lives.”The new pope has moved to clean up the Roman Curia all while seeking more input from church leaders outside Rome and from the laity as well. Earlier this month, Francis made headlines for distributing a 46-question survey asking Catholics about topics such as contraception, gay marriage and abortion.
The Guardian, as expected, had a very different take than the Moonie Times.
Pope Francis has attacked unfettered capitalism as "a new tyranny", urging global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality in the first major work he has authored alone as pontiff.The 84-page document, known as an apostolic exhortation, amounted to an official platform for his papacy, building on views he has aired in sermons and remarks since he became the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years in March.In it, Francis went further than previous comments criticising the global economic system, attacking the "idolatry of money" and beseeching politicians to guarantee all citizens "dignified work, education and healthcare."He also called on rich people to share their wealth. "Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills," Francis wrote in the document issued on Tuesday."How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?"The pope said renewal of the church could not be put off and the Vatican and its entrenched hierarchy "also need to hear the call to pastoral conversion.""I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security," he wrote.…[E]conomic inequality features as one of the issues Francis is most concerned about. The 76-year-old pontiff calls for an overhaul of the financial system and warns that unequal distribution of wealth inevitably leads to violence."As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world's problems or, for that matter, to any problems," he wrote.Denying this was simple populism, he called for action "beyond a simple welfare mentality" and added: "I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor."
