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.

  • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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    1 year ago

    Atheist here. But I’ll put a Christian hat on for a sec.

    Humans are fallable. God isn’t. Human interpretation of God’s will is fallible. Therefore the church must adapt as humans become better at diving God’s will.

    Hat off.

    I don’t think that’s a contradiction. Now I’m going to stand in my garage for an hour and sing, hoping it’ll make me a good car.

    • Redditiscancer789@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I never understood this argument. If God is all powerful how come he leaves his messages to interpretation. Shouldn’t we all just be born knowing the exact wording and understanding? Also why does he need people to write his books and teach his lessons when again he supposedly is all powerful and could make it so we were born with this knowledge instead of leaving it to idiots who can’t “comprehend God’s great plan”.

      • atempuser23@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Ever have a dog? You really love the dog and the dog is smart for a dog, but no matter how hard you train them they won’t really understand you. You can get them to follow a few rules , but after a certain point you can’t really train them much more.

        People can’t even handle the few very basic messages that were already laid out.

        • Redditiscancer789@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Except if God is truly omnipotent they can dumb it down to a point we can understand it or iunno increase our mental capacities. We aren’t omnipotent so of course we can’t explain every concept to a dog, but god could.

      • agent_flounder@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        Yeah it seems ridiculous now that I’ve deconverted and can finally look at this critically from the outside. It would be like raising a kid by leaving them a letter. If the god existed surely they would have the bright idea to drop some updated material every few decades and maybe make the occasional clarifying announcement to humanity.

        Having a collection of religious texts, physically recorded by human hands, that provide information about the religion is a feature consistent with any religion that has a human-fabricated deity. Coincidentally, it is also a feature of every major religion. 🤔

        • beebarfbadger@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          If the god existed surely they would have the bright idea to drop some updated material every few decades and maybe make the occasional clarifying announcement to humanity.

          Oh, but God does and coincidentally God’s will always coincides with what the person proclaiming to relay God’s will wants to be true .

          • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            If the god existed surely they would have the bright idea to drop some updated material every few decades

            this was part of what Jesus was supposed to do, actually.

            • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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              1 year ago

              … and Mohammed… and Joseph Smith…

              Depending on which items of Abrahamic scripture you consider canon.

      • Blackrook7@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Atheist here, putting in a Christian hat. If you were omnipotent and creating a game, would you make it easy or hard?

        • Redditiscancer789@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          If I was omnipotent I could make the game specifically challenging in it’s own ways for every single individual on a changing whim, while also knowing their full skillset and potential plus what they want out of the game. If they want it casual, competitive, for fun, screwing around, etc. If they want zombies, new IPs, shooters, MMO, what ever. And since I was omnipotent I could weave them in such a way they all work together for every single player. And the players would know the rules of their version because as soon as they’re born they know everything they need to know about the rules of their game.

          I’d also have a working anti cheat for once and GMs to enforce said rules to a certain extent (small dig at the industry here :P)

    • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Doctrinally god can remain infallible while altering his message to be what humans of a given time and place are ready to hear and act upon. Are your parents hypocrites for letting you drive a car at 16 but not at 4?

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I knew a guy who thought like this, (Rest in peace, Robotech_Master, I miss you everyday)

        He was a Christian who had a rather unorthodox way of interpreting the bible.

        His take was that God is real, souls are real, and there is indeed a life after this one.

        However he didn’t believe in anything supernatural.

        He believed God was simply a being beyond human comprehension who didn’t have a good way of explaining the universe to a simple primitive species like man. So he dumbed it down with supersitions and myths in order to keep man heading in the right direction.

        For example

        God couldn’t get an ancient people to understand shellfish kills you if you cook it wrong, so he just made up a rule that said “You will be killed by my divine wraith if you eat this! So you better not!”

        And then when Jesus came along and humans knew how to cook shellfish properly he dropped a line about how “the old law doesn’t apply anymore”

        He believes Heaven and Hell, the Resurrection of Christ, and Souls were all legit… and have a rational explanation, man is just too inexperienced to understand the specifics beyond some colorful scripture and a few divinely inspired paintings right now.

        For his sake I hope he was right, coming up on the anniversary of his tragic hit and run…

      • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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        1 year ago

        Doctrinally…

        Yes, that’s my point with “diving God’s will”.

        I’m not sure what you mean by the car-hypocrite bit though.

      • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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        1 year ago

        It’s a reference to a quote, the providence of which I know not:

        Going to church does not make you a good Christian any more than standing in my garage makes me a good car.

        Jesus warned of being like the hypocrites when your relationship to God should be personal (and private).