He said what?

Hello, my name is Daniel and I'm a recovering Catholic.

It seems I was quite content with moving on with my rants against Drumph and his ilk, making the odd attempt at deep thoughts and reminiscing about the old days. And then the Pope goes and surprises the hell out of me and a lot of other people. To bring you up to speed this is what he said:

“But what is scandal? Scandal is saying one thing and doing another; it is a double life, a double life. A totally double life: ‘I am very Catholic, I always go to Mass, I belong to this association and that one; but my life is not Christian, I don’t pay my workers a just wage, I exploit people, I am dirty in my business, I launder money…’ A double life. And so many Christians are like this, and these people scandalize others. How many times have we heard – all of us, around the neighbourhood and elsewhere – ‘but to be a Catholic like that, it’s better to be an atheist.’ It is that, scandal. You destroy. You beat down. And this happens every day, it’s enough to see the news on TV, or to read the papers. In the papers there are so many scandals, and there is also the great publicity of the scandals. And with the scandals there is destruction.”

That's pretty heady stuff for a Pontiff to say, don't you think? Being an atheist is better than being a hypocritical Catholic. Like holy fuck man...what am I hearing? I know there is context in this quote that needs thinking about, but the message seems pretty clear to me and most other people that would read it. He's addressing the very hypocritical behaviour of far too many in the Catholic world...the religious world really. 

I say it again, this guy is actually impressing me a bit with his stance and his approach. I want to believe him and I would love to see this behemouth of an organization take the steps to bring it into some sort of semblance of sanity. Not because I want to join back up and drink the holy water but because in the absence of eliminating all religion we should have at least one that actually makes sense...one that is all inclusive and its raison d'être is actually one of altruism and compassion. Not much to ask I think.

I wrote a "letter" to Pope Francis last year Dear Pope Francis Today maybe it means a little more in light of his recent declaration.

Once again...God speed Francis

Ciao
D