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[Kashan]

My Father was actually a priest and Dominican monk for close to 30 years before leaving the priesthood and marrying my mother. From the stories I've heard there was a lot more room to believe and practice as one personally saw fit in the immediate aftermath of Vatican 2, and that the slow conservative shift following that has pushed many out of the church. My father considered himself a catholic until he died, but he ended up worshiping in another church.

Side story: When I was a kid in the 80's my father used to rage about the church moving around molester priests instead of defrocking them. I grew up thinking this was one of those terrible things that everybody knew about and nobody cared about, and I was really surprised when it became such a big story.

[Mongrel]

In his strongest statement on economic matters yet, Pope Francis decries "trickle-down economics".

[François]

For whatever reason, I've been toying on-and-off for a few months with the idea of going back to church every once in a while. Not sure why; maybe I've been curious to see if I could find a peculiar, nigh-unique sense of community that can come from just going to mass because you want to, surrounded by people who aren't culturally forced to go there as well. (By now, around here, the idea that anyone might go to church on Sundays only to avoid greater social repercussions is fairly ludicrous, except maybe in the local Latino enclave.) Maybe it would get me to socialize with people I would never otherwise have any reason to meet, which is a bonus. Also it would be interesting to see if the priest would make any mention of this interesting bit of news in any way.

That said, this new Commie Pope might just be what tips the balance and gets my butt in a pew, at least once. Maybe I could go the the Christmas mass even; the church in my parish is a small cathedral and I've never been in there, it must be pretty nice at that time of year. I mean, it probably wouldn't be enough for me to call myself Catholic again, but, I dunno, cultural experience, etc. etc.

[Mongrel]

You know, it's funny how strange it has become in the western world (hell, MOST of the world out side reactionary fundamentalist communities) to hear anyone in authority, religious or not, even talk about organizing society in such a way that non-economic social goals are superior rather than subordinate to economic goals.

The few people you hear going in that direction are usually derided as kooks and or naive, like someone out of the junior anarchist league. In fairness, that sort of crowd usually is proposing some wacky unworkable idea, but this idea that everyone has to pay serious homage at the altar of economics is interesting if you step back and let yourself feel how weird it is.

[François]

It's an utterly, horribly cliché thing to say, but it feels like the people who promote the belief that the pursuit of God's grace is the road to happiness may be beginning to feel stiff competition from the people who promote the belief that it's actually the pursuit of money.

EDIT:

No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

[Joxam]

When ever 'religious' people bitch about income inequality not being a problem I like to quote matthew 25:40 at them and watch their head explode.

[sei]

I don't expect anything to explode. With the amount of cognitive dissonance and cherry picking endemic to most religious practice, a passage conflicting with their MO doesn't seem like it'd do anything.

Maybe eschewers of mixed textiles will listen?

[Brentai]

You probably can't use the letter of the Bible against anybody who shaves.

[Joxam]

And don't even get me started on religious people and global warming. As if god gave us the planet to burn to the fucking ground.

[Zaratustra]

Religious people have had 2000 years to rationalize whatever inconsistency you just picked up from a Facebook repost. You'll have to work a bit harder than that to destroy a man's foundations.

[François]

So, no mention of economic policy from the bishop this morning. He did mention the upcoming Noah movie though, as evidence that the, err, character is still relevant today, so that was cute. Energetic old man, he tries. We have the same first name, which in French is also the pope's name, so, yay coincidence!

The place was two-thirds empty I reckon, even though it's the first Sunday of Advent and our new mayor actually showed up (I didn't vote for him). The parish priest* came to ask where I was from before mass started; he seemed surprised when the answer turned out uninteresting ("I was born a half hour's drive away from here and grew up in this town!"). Remember, I'm the guy who occasionally gets hate-speeched at just walking along the street because idiots think I'm an Orthodox Jew. Welcomed me all the same of course, lost sheep and all. Not that I expected otherwise, really.

*: This is the cathedral at the head of the diocese, two blocks from the bishopric building; there were like five priests and a deacon, plus the bishop, never seen that before. I don't know if there's ceremonial significance or if they're overstaffed.

Not sure if I'll go back. At least I wasn't actually bored, for whatever reason. Novelty, maybe. The music was nice but apparently the violonist they had was a special guest, and they're using the tiny electric organ instead of the awesome one in the back, for cost reasons I assume. They did pass the plate twice, which I did not expect, that's not how it was when I was a kid. I had dropped paper money on the first one but if I return I'll know to pace myself. I guess that's how they get the first-timers.

And that's your Church Report for today. No need to thank me; you may go about your business, citizens.

EDIT: I just realized that the extra priests are probably assigned to parishes that closed down in the last several years and got consolidated into this main one. They gotta go to mass too, I'm sure.

[sei]

Religious people have had 2000 years to rationalize whatever inconsistency you just picked up from a Facebook repost. You'll have to work a bit harder than that to destroy a man's foundations.

Some people are. Actively. Not sure how well it's working out in practice. Time will tell.

The best one can hope for is to put information out there and let people draw their own conclusions.

Superstitions can be hard to break.

[Mongrel]

Superstitions or other self-created notions also have a way of filling any informational vacuum.

[sei]

Do they ever.

[Mongrel]

Why is this pope so good

A knowledgable source in Rome told The Huffington Post that "Swiss guards confirmed that the pope has ventured out at night, dressed as a regular priest, to meet with homeless men and women."

Pope Francis has called for power in the Catholic Church to be devolved away from the Vatican, in the first major work he has written in the role.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh last week called Pope Francis' economic views laid out in his Vatican mission statement "pure marxism."

Is it a sin for me to have a papalboner?

[Zaratustra]

he's on my top 3 popes already

[François]

If it this then we're both going to hell.

welp, guess i'm going next sunday too

[Classic]

So is the dude like a Younger Times John Paul 2? Or more liberal than that?

[Ziiro]

I can't help but feel cynical that - although he is probably a better person than his predecessor - he's still a Pope and the Vatican just got much better at their PR.

[Brentai]

While I don't doubt that Pope Frank himself feels positive about what he's saying, he's  definitely saying it - or being allowed to say it - because the Vatican realizes it has a youth problem. Especially at home in Italia, where the "Our parents are economically murdering us all" attitude is neither new nor controversial (current youth jobless rate: 41.2%). Telling people how sinful it is not to constantly be having babies plays well with the generation with dozens of spawn and one foot in the grave, but not so much with the one that will inherit the country, can't afford to start a family, and rather resents those who kiss up to their ruthless elders. Spreading around the radical idea that maybe we shouldn't be systematically crushing people? A bit more resonant.