Nothing much changes. From its inception the Roman Catholic church has claimed all authority for itself. The Pope, being the Vicar of Christ and the mouthpiece of the Roman Catholic god, holds the truth for all time in his tiny little brain. And when he speaks "ex cathedra," he cannot err. He is infallible.
Additionally, the Pope rules not just the many millions of Catholics around the world, but he is the temporal ruler of the Vatican, which is a political state. It even has an ambassador. And we send our ambassador to the Vatican; for what purpose I do not know.
Thus, it should not be surprising when political robots such as Scalia and Santorum and other "devout" Catholics conclude that their religious doctrine trumps our Constitution. For that is what the Roman Church teaches and that is what it has taught throughout its too-long life.
Down through history, the Roman church has been as much a political institution as a religious one. And in every place where it had enough power, it demanded obedience to its doctrines and policies. Nothing has changed, in spite of the "sweet" face of Francis.
I really hoped things would change. But nothing has; nothing of substance. The Roman Church still considers women as lesser than men and as 2nd-class citizens and disallows them from participating in the priestly work of the church. Women's orders remain under the thumb of the pope and Francis, as we have seen, is perfectly capable of putting Catholic women in their place if they start questioning the system.
Nothing has changed. Priests are still considered a special "class" of human beings and this is one of the major reasons that the Roman church has been so slow to move on priestly sexual predators. Ordination in Roman Catholic theology confers a special blessing which is not and never will be, available to the laity.
Mass continues to be said in churches around the world and the people participating truly believe that their God demands blood sacrifice for their sins, and that the priest can say a few magic words and the cracker and wine become the physical flesh and blood of the long dead mythical Jesus and that by eating and drinking said flesh and wine they will be saved from hell forever.
I really hoped things would change, but that was a false hope. Francis got on his plane and headed back to Rome and made an incredible and most anti-American statement that Roman Catholics may disobey their oaths as public servants if their jobs require them to engage in anti-Catholic activities. In other words, Kim Davis, just got a papal blessing for her refusal to do her job.
More will come of this, I hope, as it is widely distributed and discussed in the press, but one thing needs to be said very clearly to every public servant: YOUR PERSONAL BELIEFS DO NOT TRUMP THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION! And if you find yourself in such a situation, you must resign immediately!
Pope Francis is wrong as wrong can be. He's not a stupid man by any means, but he is a Catholic fanatic and that means he is blindsided by Catholic doctrine. Hopefully, he'll rethink the issue and realize that by his view a public servant could refuse to issue driver's licenses because car accidents cause so many deaths and everyone knows the Catholic church is against death.
Here's my message to Pope Francis: Stay home! Do not come back to this country, we have enough problems without you injecting your phony spiritual message where it does not belong. You have no authority here. And Roman Catholics living in the U.S. need to understand that.
The U.S. is a secular country. We do not hold to belief in any god. We believe in the Constitution. Our laws are based upon the Constitution. We do not allow discrimination. While people are free to engage in whatever religious activities their little hearts desire, they cannot use their religious beliefs to deny other citizens their rights. A landlord cannot deny an apartment to Sikh people because he/she does not like the Sikh religion.
If there is conflict between a person's religious beliefs and the U.S. Constitution, the Constitution wins every time, which is a good thing because the Constitution guarantees the right to hold a religious faith in the first place. Thus, while a Roman Catholic like John F. Kennedy, could president he could not command obedience to Catholic doctrine.
Pope Francis, you are a massive disappointment. You talk nice but when push comes to shove you're no different from your predecessors and you're just as dangerous because you are obligated by your position to impose Catholic doctrine everywhere you can.
