Pope Francis: The Polar Opposite of the Virginia GOP

You know how the Virginia “Extreme Ticket” – and the Virginia Teapublican Party in general – when it’s not talking about how they’ll make the poor poorer and rich richer, is absolutely obsessed (in a warped, negative way) with sex and reproduction – banning contraception, abortion, “sodomy,” etc?  Well, now the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, begs to differ – strongly.

…During the return flight from Rio de Janeiro I said that if a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge. By saying this, I said what the catechism says. Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but God in creation has set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person…

We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.

“The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus. We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel. The proposal of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow.

I wonder what Ken Cuccinelli and Company have to say about this? While they’re at it, I’d also love to hear their thoughts on the Pope’s teachings that “the world’s rich must do much more to wipe out vast inequalities between the haves and the have-nots,” and that everybody “should be able to make a personal contribution to putting an end to so many social injustices.”

In other words, Pope Francis’ teachings, whether on economic fairness, social justice, or human sexuality, are the POLAR OPPOSITE of what Ken Cuccinelli, EW Jackson, Mark Obenshain, and the rest of the unhealthfully-sex-obsessed, LGBT-persecuting, women’s-rights-depriving, soak-the-poor-and-enrich-the-wealthy Virginia Republican Party believe in. Not that they care, of course. But in the end, all I can say is that I’m REALLY liking this Pope (and I’ll admit, I’m surprised that I am, based on what I had read about aspects of his background), as he is returning the Roman Catholic church to the highly progressive teachings of Gospels, which again are the polar opposite of any Republican Party platform. Yet those people go around claiming to be the true Christians? He’s also doing it in a style of humility, compassion, and humanity so rarely seen in the Republican Party these days. Is Ken Cuccinelli more Catholic than the Pope? I don’t think so!

P.S. Oh, and last I checked, Pope Francis doesn’t go around telling Jewish “jokes.”

P.P.S. Another great quote by Pope Francis that is also the polar opposite of the attitude of people like Ken Cuccinelli (who thinks he has all the answers to everything, and everyone else is wrong): “If one has the answers to all the questions-that is the proof that God is not with him.” And also, “Those who today always look for disciplinarian solutions, those who long for an exaggerated doctrinal ‘security,’ those who stubbornly try to recover a past that no longer exists­-they have a static and inward-directed view of things.” Bingo!