The religion I refer to is the Roman Catholic Church, and its leader(s) are Pope Benedict XVI (born Joseph Ratzinger, retired/deposed) and most notably Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Brogolia, active). It is Pope Francis and his leadership capabilities which I am concerned about. Now, people that know me know that I am considered a Catholic, having gone through all the official rites of church membership and living nearby an important diocese with offices in Rockville Centre. Yet, I have not been to a Sunday Mass in quite a number of years, for quite a number of reasons too numerous to mention. Indeed, if you were to press me on the issue, I would say Roger Ebert's memoir Life Itself explains best my antipathy towards the religious hierarchy. It does not, however, mean I am in tune with Church doctrine; for one thing, I am pro-choice. Many Catholics sadly are not pro-choice. As well, I am of the belief that a female can be just as important of a religious leader in the Catholic order as any male.
Yet, those are only minor issues at this time. My leading concern, and one I think is shared by many, is the intertwined relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and our secular world we live in. In the two years since the installation of Pope Francis, the Church has seen a massive publicity campaign that did not occur for decades earlier. What gets me is that not one year before, Alex Gibney had directed and produced a documentary regarding the abuses the Church has done to younger men; focusing mainly on those that were abused at a Catholic school for the hearing impaired. If you can look for it, Mea Maxima Culpa was shown on HBO and might be found on Blu-Ray and DVD at Amazon.
This push for a Catholic revival has occurred just under a decade after questions regarding the Church's financial properties and management of banking institutions came to the forefront. As of today, the Church owns more property and businesses outright than what we can imagine. In effect, membership in the Church does require a hefty frigging fee every time the collection plate gets passed during Sunday Mass; the more you pay, the more you get to obtain their version of Clear, or perhaps OT VIII.
So for me, I have a problem with a religion that demands your money for their wisdom. Yet you know what else; I am deeply aghast at the child abuse that goes on with younger men. My disgust has been with me in that regard for some two decades, after seeing the Canadian TV miniseries The Boys Of St. Vincent. I remember it only aired a few times in the mid 1990s on A&E in the US; yet I did find a decent web transfer of the complete 3+ hour miniseries on a Japanese hosted video site. Here is the link at the bottom of the essay.
I post the link only because there is not a way to embed the video on this site. None the less, it is downright disturbing, and on a different note it is still Henry Czerny's most iconic role.
Even with all that has been mentioned, I am concerned that the Roman Catholic Church is on a path of obtaining world political leadership. We may not have seen this in our lifetimes; yet it was not that long ago in human history that the Church was the globalist order in this world. For hundreds of years, particularly the Middle Ages and Dark Ages prior to the Renaissance and even afterward, Kings and Queens, Dukes and Duchesses, Princes and Princesses, Military leaders and Civilian leaders, Legislators and Judges alike, all bowed down and pledged their allegiances and lives to the Church. Whomever was Pope had final say on all social, political, economic and war decisions. Clergymen gave their opinions and statements on issues; and governments were set forth to do the deeds of the Church. This began to thaw slowly but surely with the German Lutheran Reformation, along with the establishment of the Church of England and Anglicanism.
Now, under Pope Francis' leadership, more so than in any other time, the Catholic Church is now seemingly the final arbiter and ruler on all matters relating to mainland Europe. Interestingly, that includes Germany; whose Chancellor, Angela Merkel, might not have been re-elected had not the Pope endorsed her and her Conservative minded party. This order, for instance, that all Catholics must house the Syrian refugees in Europe seems more akin to a forced political maneuver rather than a recommendation. I, for instance, would not be too certain to house a refugee, for reasons too varied to list here. It now appears that the Church now dictates policy in Cuba. I do not believe this was ever the intention of the Castro brothers when the 1959 Revolution took place.
This public relations program the Church is now engaged in seems to the layman a good and decent success; if only one considers the public humbleness and more liberal minded attitudes and beliefs Pope Francis espouses. But you see, that is the problem with Pope worship; only in the last year have Catholics overall been willing to accept LGBTQ people, for instance. Just because the Pope says so, Now they can accept. Well, I and many of my family and friends accepted the LGBTQ community long before it was considered cool to be accepting these groups of people. In fact, so did many others become supporters and advocates of LGBTQ individuals prior to 2014. I never needed Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI or Pope Francis to tell me When to accept the LBGTQ community. I do have a brain and use it regularly. Nor do I then or now need a Catholic leader to tell me to support their agenda regarding their anti-abortion and anti-contraceptives dogma. To me, being pro-choice is being pro-life; for I choose the life of the female rather than the implied life of a fetus. As I have often said, our birthdays do not come on the anniversary of the date when our parents "did it".
And yet, after this trip to Cuba, Pope Francis will make his way to the United States and will pretty much dictate the lives and beliefs of some 69.4 million Catholics; this includes Jeb Bush. I often half jokingly wonder if, say in Washington DC or in New York, the Pope says a command like "eat a stick of butter" and many though not all would do it in fear of being excommunicated if refused. Again it is a joke, and I know some may be saying to me "well Robert, if your favored political figure or celebrity said it, you would do it too". No, because there is a difference. They are not religious leaders and thus if I choose not to eat a stick of butter, they cannot force me to do otherwise. A religious leader, such as a Pope or Cardinal or Archbishop, has this unique sway in allowing people to do things just by saying "Do It". So if Pope Francis goes up on his pulpit and tells Catholics to vote for Jeb Bush or any other candidate beholden to the Church; I am concerned these fellow Catholics will be like lemmings willingly falling down to their premature grave.
Well, now that I have made my concerns known, I would like to hear from you. I have noticed that while I am getting page views, something seems to be wrong with the comments and interactivity. Do any of you fellow readers have any suggestions? I do have a Facebook page, search keyword Robert Kelly. You can mention your concerns there, or even here if possible. Might I need to change the website to a new server or hosting platform? It does get a bit lonely only talking to myself at times. Let me know if anything can be done about this. I would really like to hear your views.
I end with a rather problematic yet pertinent question. If you were invited to the house of any of these three people:
Pope Francis
David Miscavige
Robert Durst
Which one would be honest with you? Well, for me there is no definite answer, except maybe a fourth opinion. Choose neither and free your mind.
It is a TED talk, yes. But since the other choices were David Icke (an acquired taste I know) or a song which sounds a heck of a lot like Queen Of The Night (Whitney Houston off of The Bodyguard), this will suffice.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Robert
http://www.56.com/w33/play_album-aid-9150379_vid-NTY5NDg3MzY.html
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