Pope Francis wrapped up a troubled visit to Belgium on Sunday by doubling down on his traditional views on women and abortion and demanding that Catholic bishops stop covering up for predator priests — a scandal that has devastated the church’s credibility around the globe.

Francis revisited the key thorny topics of his trip to Belgium during his in-flight press conference coming home, praising Belgium’s late King Baudouin as a “saint” for having abdicated for a day in 1990 rather than sign legislation legalizing abortion.

  • Naja Kaouthia@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    32
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    Ah well good thing I don’t particularly give a shit what some guy in an (admittedly) awesome party hat thinks about me, as a vagina owner.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      The problem is that a lot of other people do give a shit.

      There are almost 1.4 billion Catholics in the world. If the Pope told Catholics to rise up and slaughter the non-believers and even 1% of the Catholics agreed to do it, the bloodbath would be horrendous.

      Like it or not, the Pope has power. He shouldn’t, but he does. And that’s why it’s important to keep tabs on the awful things he says.

    • RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 months ago

      The hat is ok, but I don’t like his dress. At least the Catholic Church openly embraces crossdressing I guess.

      (Organized) Religion can’t fade away fast enough, and I’m not even directly affected by this as a penis wielder.

    • Quacksalber@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      2 months ago

      I guess, at least catholic christianity has the benefit of self-reform, given that they elect a ‘leader’. In theory at least, this should allow them to go with the times, even if currently, they are lagging behind multiple centuries oc progress.

    • coaxil
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      Not soon enough sadly

      • palordrolap@fedia.io
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        2 months ago

        A religious man I once knew reckoned the world would end if we ever had a black pope. Consequently, I kind of want to see that happen before they quit. (He wasn’t talking about the position sometimes known as “black pope” either. He definitely meant a man of recent African descent.)

        I like to think the idea of Desmond Tutu gave him the creeps.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 months ago

          Desmond Tutu was an Anglican, not a Catholic.

          He also said something very pithy, but quite odd for an Anglican Archbishop to say-

          When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray. ’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.

          • palordrolap@fedia.io
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 months ago

            I know Tutu was Anglican. It’s just that he fairly frequently appeared in the news here (Britain) and given where Tutu was, his rank, and what he stood for, I imagine that might have been enough to unnerve the person I was talking about.

            There’s also that Tutu was often used humour and was joyful, and the idea of that being scary to people who might think poorly of him is kind of funny to me.

  • Media Bias Fact Checker@lemmy.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    2 months ago
    Associated Press - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)

    Information for Associated Press:

    MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: High - United States of America
    Wikipedia about this source

    Search topics on Ground.News

    https://apnews.com/article/belgium-pope-abuse-vatican-c3fd9c7841fe17bd874d8ce01ed4ad19
    https://apnews.com/article/belgium-pope-abuse-women-mass-brussels-baudouin-f02c45fb9e902df27fa71fc088ce73a5

    Media Bias Fact Check | bot support