We have a new Pope!

[NurseNell]

I have a feeling it's probably an American thing. The last time I went to Mass (which will be the last time I ever go, if I can help it) the priest started out with denouncing and condemning a local atheist activist from the pulpit by name, then launched into a lengthy tirade about how LGBT people are destroying society and the Church. For extra bonus hypocritical fun, the Gospel reading we had just heard was Matthew 22:34-40:

I have never, ever heard LGBT people mentioned in a homily at all. Good grief, half the folks in the pews are either LGBT or have such members in their family. At my previous parish in the Twin Cities people would have walked out on any tirade against gays, atheists, or Obama. Again, your in laws must go to a very weird church. Even St. Agnes in St. Paul, MN, the most ultra-orthodox Catholic Church in the midwest, doesn't have those kinds of homilies.

[Nothing2CHere]

I am a regular Mass goer and I've never heard any of that either. On pro-life Sunday the homily is usually about being there for pregnant women, providing support, not judging single mothers. I live in the midwest and none of that shit would fly here either. The deacon here had an Obama poster on his lawn. My priest where I lived before was for Obama. The only thing I ever heard political was on theSunday before election day, and that wasn't part of the homily, it was part of the announcements, and it was "go vote for the candidate of your choice."

This is what I see as being one of the major problems with the Catholic church - at least in the US - right now. On one hand, the everyday congregants, and even some of the "lower-level" clergy, we don't care if people use birth control, we don't mind if gays want to be married, we want to see the church focus on social services, helping the poor and needy. On the other hand, the higher-ups like the Bishops and Cardinals are too busy decreeing, "Birth control is BAAAAD! The nuns need to be scrutinized because they're too busy helping the poor instead of picketing abortion clinics! Gay marriage will destroy the church! The Girl Scouts are evil!*" and they're so out of touch with the people who actually make up the body of the church. And more and more Catholics are getting fed up and discouraged and walking away because they don't want to deal with the nonsense any longer.

My hopes for Pope Francis are that he removes the focus of the church off of these hot-button theological stances and puts it back on the basics of social service and being Christ-like. I just read an article where he was calling a Jesuit house personally to thank the head for a congratulatory letter he had sent, and no one believed it was the pope himself calling rather than one of his hands. And as I read the article, I realized, "Wow, that IS what I think Jesus would have done!" So I have a glimmer of hope that the church might slowly start moving in the direction I'd like to see it go.

*Yes, I'm using major hyperbole to get my point across.