New pope cites grandma's folk wisdom at his first Palm Sunday
Source: Reuters
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The new pope began Holy Week on Sunday with a sermon invoking the folk wisdom of his grandmother, further emphasizing a new-look papacy that aims to be closer to the people.
Leading his first major service since his election, Pope Francis addressed a vast crowd gathered for Palm Sunday with simple language, urging them to shun corruption and greed and reach out to "the humble, the poor, the forgotten". Departing from his prepared text and referring to wealth, he said: "You can't take it with you, my grandmother used to say".
Since his election on March 13, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina has broken with the more esoteric and, some would say, ostentatious style of his predecessor Benedict, saying he wants to move the Church closer to the poor and suffering.
"Let us look around: how many wounds are inflicted upon humanity by evil! Wars, violence, economic conflicts that hit the weakest, greed for money, power, corruption, divisions, crimes against human life and against creation," he said.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-former-pope-meet-first-encounter-600-years-020149372.html
ForgoTheConsequence
(4,869 posts)Grandma always said "homosexuals are of the devil".
marshall
(6,665 posts)Unfortunately, as is your case, many of our older generation focused on negative interpretations of scripture or folk teaching. Perhaps we can borrow from those with kinder and gentler forbears, and build a better humanity.
intheflow
(28,501 posts)I can only assume you're projecting here, since my grandmother's wisdom never included anything about homosexuals being the devil, not even when her grandson came out.
*Edited for grammar.
MBS
(9,688 posts)A program called "Interfaith Voices" . Today's program included an interview with Jon Sweeney (an expert on St. Francis of Assisi), who made several interesting and hopeful comments about the new pope.
http://interfaithradio.org/Archive/2013-March/St__Francis_of_Assisi__What_Religion_Teaches_Us_About_Dying_Well__and_More
Scroll down to "The New Pope and his Namesake".
Among his several observations, Sweeney opined that the Curia "must be terrified" of the new pope, which, as Sweeney aptly added "is terrific".
Hekate
(90,785 posts)... from top to bottom.
If there were just one thing that he could do that would have enormous impact, it would be to revoke the celibacy rules for the priesthood, and allow them to be married men with families. Again. Because historically the priesthood was not always celibate, just as it was not always exclusively male.
That alone would go miles toward bringing a kind of balance to the Church that is sorely lacking. More men would be attracted to the priesthood, which is now declining drastically in numbers. Priests as family men would get to experience the real lives of the people they are supposed to be guiding. Women would no longer be the complete and utter Other that they are now. Pope John Paul II venerated the Virgin Mary to such an extent that all of womanhood was supposed to fit into the transcendent and otherworldly vision that he had of the Virgin Mary.
I am completely fine with mystics and mysticism, with monks, nuns, hermits and whatnot, all depending on the individual inclination of the people involved. But the vast majority of humanity lives HERE in THIS world, the world of matter (the very word matter has its roots in the Latin mater, mother). Real women are not transcendent shimmering spirits; we give birth to new humans in sweat and blood and we bleed every month and do not die of it.
I think one of the things that the Church got profoundly wrong at some point was making sure that seminarians somehow were taught that girls and women are at some level icky. Either you're the Virgin Mary or you're ... icky. I think this is a big reason for the pedophilia that focuses almost entirely on boys: women and girls are so profoundly Other that they can't even go there when they have urges that might take them in the direction of adult women. Of course there are gay priests just like there are gay men in other places, but I am in no way conflating pedophilia with being gay. Adult gay men with their heads on straight are not sexually attracted to little boys. Just like adult hetero men with their heads on straight are not sexually attracted to little girls. The priesthood does not have its head on straight, either way.
I've got nothing against the Virgin Mary, either, just to be clear. It's just that as a metaphor for women's lives she is impossible to live up to. That's why when I moved away from Christianity I joined the Goddess movement. In that metaphor the Earth herself is our Mother, we are grounded in Her. She is not somewhere else, transcendent; She is immanent, here.
It's very late, and I know I am not expressing this as well as I should. It's just that I find myself really hoping that this new pope manages to start the cleanup process, and I profoundly believe that the biggest and most achievable thing he could accomplish would be to open the whole priesthood to married men. (They already admit married Episcopalian priests who convert to Roman Catholicism.) The ripple effect would be nothing short of astounding.
Hekate
MBS
(9,688 posts)Roman Catholic priests in the byzantine rite also have always been allowed to marry. They don't even have to "convert" to do so.
The key for me is the Curia and the people. If the pope can shake up the Curia, and listen to the people, that will lead to many much needed changes.
Paula Sims
(877 posts)Last edited Tue Mar 26, 2013, 09:52 PM - Edit history (1)
The ones that are allowed to marry are Byzantine seminarians (sub-deacons) -- any higher elevation and the window to marriage is closed. Once married, if the spouse passes, they are not allowed to re-marry. At that point, should a married deacon choose to go on to be a priest, they may do so, but there are requirements as to where they can serve as such.
How do I know? I'm Byzantine Rite Ukrainian Catholic and was engaged to a sub-deacon before his untimely death in 1979 ( Вічая Пам'ять ) and I still hang around in those circles.
One good thing about the new Pope is that he is VERY familiar with the Byzantine Church (especially the Ukrainian Catholic Byzantine Church) so he does see things from all sides. Well, at least he did when
Yes, I know it's Wikipedia, but here's some good info on married clergy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_marriage
Paula
MBS
(9,688 posts)I learned something. I'd assumed that the Byzantine rite had the same rules as Orthodox Christians.