Heretic hanging out back in the day Pope Francis, in his nice-guy-for-a-Pope way, has put the Catholic Church formally against the death penalty. While fans of the Church may recall that that it has a long history with the death penalty, with many of its top-ranking saints suffering from it in its early days and, later on, in the era of its domination over most of Europe, employing the death penalty briskly itself against heretics, Jews, atheists and people who thought that the earth orbited around the sun.
Those people can breathe easier today, even though their ideological forbears ceased breathing at all courtesy of the Church. Burning, beheading, drawing and quartering and all the imaginative ways the monks of the Middle Ages used to stifle dissent, should any chance to erupt, against the Rule of the One True etc., no longer have the favor of the Holy See. Old school Popes used to organize raiding parties to kill the Muslims of the Middle East, and those Muslims were happy to return the favor. Many of them still are.
But the Catholic Church will no longer support such efforts, and seems sincere about abandoning violence, even though it is kind of like Donald Trump abandoning money. While driving in Mexico the other day, I saw a sign that, translated, read “Jesus is the Hope of Mexico.” Remember, that Jesus was brought to Mexico by the conquistadores, who forced Him upon the natives at sword point, and then when they converted, enslaved them anyway. So Jesus has kind of a mixed record in Mexico, but His followers there are concentrating on restoring His cred.
Hope springs eternal, and so does Jesus. The gentling of the Church’s ways under the current Pope is to be encouraged. The Pope has also accepted the existence of gay people, although he still does not approve of them getting married or even doing gay stuff. The fact that many priests in its history have lifted the Communion wafer with fingers reeking of altar boy bum has never prevented the Church from asserting its authority over the congregation’s genitals.
So there you have it—death penalty out, gays ok as long as they don’t act on their gay urges or ask for their unions to be legally recognized. You can still get into hell by having an abortion, though.
Some things really are eternal.
Those people can breathe easier today, even though their ideological forbears ceased breathing at all courtesy of the Church. Burning, beheading, drawing and quartering and all the imaginative ways the monks of the Middle Ages used to stifle dissent, should any chance to erupt, against the Rule of the One True etc., no longer have the favor of the Holy See. Old school Popes used to organize raiding parties to kill the Muslims of the Middle East, and those Muslims were happy to return the favor. Many of them still are.
But the Catholic Church will no longer support such efforts, and seems sincere about abandoning violence, even though it is kind of like Donald Trump abandoning money. While driving in Mexico the other day, I saw a sign that, translated, read “Jesus is the Hope of Mexico.” Remember, that Jesus was brought to Mexico by the conquistadores, who forced Him upon the natives at sword point, and then when they converted, enslaved them anyway. So Jesus has kind of a mixed record in Mexico, but His followers there are concentrating on restoring His cred.
Hope springs eternal, and so does Jesus. The gentling of the Church’s ways under the current Pope is to be encouraged. The Pope has also accepted the existence of gay people, although he still does not approve of them getting married or even doing gay stuff. The fact that many priests in its history have lifted the Communion wafer with fingers reeking of altar boy bum has never prevented the Church from asserting its authority over the congregation’s genitals.
So there you have it—death penalty out, gays ok as long as they don’t act on their gay urges or ask for their unions to be legally recognized. You can still get into hell by having an abortion, though.
Some things really are eternal.
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