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.

  • macrocephalic@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    and that a correct understanding of Catholic doctrine allows for change over time.

    Isn’t god supposed to be unchanging according to their book?

    • Brown5500@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      That’s actually more of a doctrine that is made up by the organization and less something explicitly stated in the book. There probably are some psalms or other references that use the word (translated as) “unchanging”, but in context, the original audience would probably not have interpreted it in the same way. Think God’s love and power will never fail, not God will literally never experience anything or change. In the 10 commandments story, Moses has a conversation with god and changes his mind.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Lots of things like this.

        The Levitical Law condemning Homosexuality was originally one condemning Pedophilia, but King James changed it in his translation in order to throw off suspicions that he was gay, which he totally was.

        • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          It’s actually somewhat more complicated than that, and relates to the evolution of English words. The word “fornication” I believe was in a state of evolution when KJV was written, originally having a meaning more in-line with “married people who visit prostitutes” (a major issue of the day). It quickly evolved to include all premarital and homosexual relations. I’m not sure how cleanly the timing is, but King James himself had male lovers.

          I am of the belief that KJV was not anti-gay as written. Language just caught up to it. It wasn’t a big stretch, as homophobia was a common unofficial position pretty much unbroken between 100AD and 1500AD or so.

    • Microw@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      What? Definitely not.

      At least catholic christianity emphasizes how Jesus brought change to the jewish traditions on how to live “close to god”. Change is a thing in the catholic church, which is exactly why people have tried to make a lot of things they liked into unchanging doctrines over the centuries.

    • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Not really. If you read it Jesus specifically says that he came to amend the word of god. That’s how we got bacon cheeseburgers and cotton-poly blend shirts back. Shame he didn’t say anything about racism or homophobia but what are you gonna do?

      • atempuser23@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The concepts of racism was quite different then as to now and was addressed. Basically the story of the 'Good Samaritan" needed to add the ‘good’ because Samaritans were discriminated against and though of as poorly as racists do today.

        Homophobia is basically covered in a bunch of places where in general you are supposed to love and treat people well. Jesus gave MANY examples of directly treating people who were not in good social, or religious, graces with kindness,openness and compassion. Basically the worse someone is the more you have to try and show love. I’m not sure at all how basically the complete opposite is the practice. There is some epic level mental gymnastics to get there.

        Now slavery, umm… yeah. God was like , here are some rules on how to treat your slaves. You know because that is a thing and should keep being one. I’m glad this one is opposite in practice.

    • tomi000@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Not sure about the details but God being unchanging shouldnt coflict with humans changing.