Papal Precedence

So something is happening that has not happened since I've been alive.

The Pope of the Catholic Church is expounding on the "liberal" interpretation of Catholicism that I always harbored and always wished to hear, from the leaders of the supposedly one true Church, while I was still a Catholic.  Not hearing it forced me to abandon my once genuine faith at the age of 16.

Where the fuck has this been this whole time?

I found the abortion-and-gay reviling version to be lacking in depth and also missing the main thrust of Christ's teachings.


Jesus the Christ wanted us to love one another.


A system built around the acquisition of profit does not engender love.

What I did hear when I went to church weekly/ more than weekly was "donate money to the Church" and "check out our new gold ornaments" and "sex is bad mkay" and "God will damn you for your sins" and "faith in God is the only salvation" and blah blah blah.  I knew that this could not be truly the will of God and that this church was corrupted by profiteers and capitalists and people who never gave a damn about Jesus and only cared about what the invocation of Him could do to make them richer.

Pope Francis appears to be different.

While he still seems to be pandering to a political world he is expressing the idea, speaking for the single largest religion in the world, that what is ACTUALLY important is taking care of all of our brothers and sisters in God and not condemning people for their mistakes and forcing them to confess and pay money to be forgiven.  This is a dramatic turn of events.

I really, really, want to see Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso and Pope Francis on the same stage having a conversation about the meaning of life and what our priorities TRULY should be.  I feel like I almost need to see this.  In my abandonment of Christianity and search for a source of virtue and direction I found Buddhism, as an ancient mystery that touches the soul in a way, equally divine and inspiring as any other, that can lead to salvation not only of oneself, but all others as well.  Our leaders are corrupt and their goals are vain.

There can be no victory unless all are victorious.

Thank you Pope Francis, for restoring sanity to the Church, and giving a lot of people reason to look for satisfaction beyond the direct and the tangible.