Pope Francis was probably the first pontiff in a long time that seemed to exhibit the true teachings of Jesus Christs.
Let’s face it, the one he replaced, Pope Benedict XVI, was all about the flair and the pizazz of being the head of the Catholic Church. I don’t doubt there was some truth to the way he was portrayed in The Two Popes, acting more like a king of a country or CEO of a company. He was also replacing Pope John Paul II, who had become the first celebrity pontiff as the Me Generation turned into the MTV Generation. It was era in which pop culture exploded and people became popular just for being popular.
But knowing what we know now about John Paul II, real name Karol Jozef Wojtyla, amid the controversy surrounding child sexual abuse cases with the Church, it left a stain on his legacy. Even if John Paul II only knew about this stuff after the fact, he still condoned it by allowing the priests to be shuffled around from archdiocese to archdiocese.
If you’re making a cheese dip in the crockpot and the heat causes the glass pot cover to break shards into the cheese dip, you throw out the whole cheese dip because you can’t take that risk. We had to do this when I was working a concession stand at a basketball game in high school.
Despite being who he was, Pope Francis, real name Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was 76 when he was voted to replace Benedict XVI, who retired very controversially after only about eight years in the position. Almost from the start, Francis seemed to controversial himself as he showed humility and acceptance more than previous pontiffs.
The Catholic Church has pretty much been stuck in the dark ages for some time especially for the 2010s. I’m not a very religious person but the hypocrisy is on full display. The Church is supposed to teach love of all people but priests target the LGBTQIA community as well as interracial marriages. The Church condemned abortion but didn’t protect the lives many children who were victims of abuse. Then it criticized the victims who took their own lives as sinning.
For a religion that demanded their priests and nuns live a life of poverty, they sure was a lot of grey area as they did allow many to live a life of extravagance. I remember when I was at the St. John’s Hospital in Broken Arrow, outside of Tulsa, there was a statue of Jesus wearing some huge flashy clothes that no man would’ve worn at the time in the Middle-East especially if he was preaching, “The meek shall inherit the Earth.”
And to think of all the money that could’ve been spent somewhere else in a more meaningful way than to portray Jesus as a metrosexual. Every time I go by St. Francis Medical Center in Tulsa it seems there’s always construction. There has to be. To keep their tax-exempt status, they have to keep improving the place as a service to the community.
One of my favorite movies is The Last Temptation of Christ, which Martin Scorsese (who actually considered the priesthood at one point in his youth), spent years trying to make only to be condemned by critics. While many had issues with the ideas of Jesus (Willem Dafoe) questioning his own faith and place in life, they were upset about how dirty and sweaty he looked in scenes. I mean, it is the Middle-East 2,000 years ago and he was a carpenter.
If you don’t work up a little sweat along with the elbow grease, you probably need medical attention because you’re having a heat stroke. Not only did Jesus sweat, get dirty, but I’m pretty she had had to go pee several times a day and even drop a deuce every now and again. So in other words, Jesus had to touch his private parts to do his business. Jeffrey Hunter, who you Star Trek fans remember as the original Christopher Pike from the pilot episode, played Jesus in King of Kings. But people got upset that Hunter’s armpits weren’t shaven. So, those scenes had to be reshot.
I didn’t really agree with everything Francis might have said or done, but he wasn’t perfect. He was also human and should have had his own ideas and beliefs. Francis said he considered himself a conservative but he didn’t feel people should fit the same mold as each other. He may have angered people who said they shouldn’t consider their pets to be their children.
But so what?
He wasn’t saying they should be stoned to death or deported to other countries. It’s no surprise the conservatives and Christians in this country didn’t like him. He proved you could think one way about something and another way about something else and as long as you were oppressing people, it was fine. People around the world are never going to agree with each other about everything 100 percent.
That’s what makes life worth living and makes it so great being around people that you can find some common ground on. In my opinion if the pontiff was making all political sides angry at him, he’s probably doing a darned good job. And it’s just the Catholic Church which only makes up about 1.375 billion. According to status, there’s still about another seven billion people on the planet who follow different religions and faiths or none at all.
I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more others can say about Francis. I am not Catholic nor was I ever. Speaking of Scorsese, he said that Francis’ death was an “immense loss for the world” and “he radiated goodness.”
Francis’ death comes the day after Easter when both President Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene showed their true colors. Rather than issue a Happy Easter, Trump took the opportunity to blast people who don’t agree with him. And Greene made a post that sounded like she was touting the death as “God defeated evil.”
It just goes to show you really can think differently than others but still love them and who just have to be so full of hate they can’t go one day without spewing it.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 