Pope Francis condemned the “very strong, organised, reactionary attitude” in the US church and said Catholic doctrine allows for change over time.
Pope Francis has blasted the “backwardness” of some conservatives in the US Catholic Church, saying they have replaced faith with ideology and that a correct understanding of Catholic doctrine allows for change over time.
Francis’ comments were an acknowledgment of the divisions in the US Catholic Church, which has been split between progressives and conservatives who long found support in the doctrinaire papacies of St John Paul II and Benedict XVI, particularly on issues of abortion and same-sex marriage.
Replacing faith with ideology - so doing things because you think they are right is worse than doing them because god tells you to?
In most Christian religions if you don’t explicitly say Jesus died for your sins centuries before you were born, literally nothing else matters.
You can follow every rule because you personally agree with it. But if you don’t submit to Jesus (and by extension your church’s chain of command) then you’re going to hell.
So if you’re just doing what’s right by your personal morals, it doesn’t “count” even if it agrees with church teachings.
Obedience is more important than anything else.
And by the same token, you can torture, kill, and eat people and still go to heaven if you accept Jesus before you die. Jeffrey Dahmer was baptised in prison and apparently that made everything all right.
It’s a bonkers belief system if you think about it. It definitely doesn’t encourage being a good person like it claims to.
From a believer POV obviously
The whole point of organizing religion is telling people “you are
so dumbmisguided by the Devil so our scholars gonna tell you how to behave”To be fair, we all start out as dumb as children which is why a lot of religions get the children involved as young as possible. When it’s “the way it is” for most of your life, it’s hard to break free.
I mean … in this case they’re not wrong.
That’s fine if you give up the sanctimony of saying that God is on your side. Otherwise, you’re dishonest.
I have a hard time understanding how anyone could have genuinely misinterpreted this.