Mar 17, 2013

[Technicolor Musings] The New Catholic Pope


So the Roman Catholic Church has a new Pope - in this case Pope Francis, previously Cardinal Bergoglio. He's the first Latin American Pope (with Italian lineage though) and the first Jesujt Pope, but he is also a rather conservative one at that. He's known for his humility but also known for his stand against both gay marriage and gay adoption rights and his disdain towards contraceptives. In other words, he sounds like another traditional Catholic Pope.

I don't fully understand queers who continue to claim to be Catholic when the religion in itself frowns on queer sexual activity. I don't understand why there are those members of the LGBT community who are against gay marriage in general either. But these people continue to exist and claim to be devout Catholics.

Given how the Philippines is perceived to be a predominantly Catholic country by many, we just can't ignore the opinions of the new pope since his pronouncements will naturally affect a lot of what our local priests will be proclaiming from their respective pulpits. So while I consider myself to be agnostic, I pay careful attention to such religious leaders since they will go out of their way to make LGBT rights their business, and typically in a bad way.

So how do you feel about the new Pope? Does he give you hope? Do you believe he's going to help address a lot of the issues that the Catholic Church has been facing in recent years? Or do you think he's going to be worse than Ratzinger and will continue to fight gay rights, but now on a global scale?

And I think I've made it clear that I think we need to stand up for truly equal representation and protection in the eyes of the law and not just mere tolerance. 

So what about you?
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