The Pope and Power

 

“The Bible and the Catholic Church have never taught that it is a “sin” to be homosexual.”
—–really??!!……but this actually appeared on a Foxnews website under the title-What Pope Francis really said about gays — and no, it’s not new. The article proceeded mentioning the “gravity” of the Pope’s visit to Rio and how the media had “twisted” his words of wisdom. Well i was not surprised when i found that the piece is  actually written by a Father who also happen to be the program director of the Catholic channel. Now that answers the question.

The pope’s visit to Brazil, the country having the largest catholic population, has indeed given birth to stories having different conclusions.  For some the papacy became more liberal than it ever was before, it left the conservatives little hurt, the church little upset (in one version of the story), for others the pontiff is the man of the moment, a rockstar who actually rocked Rio. For me, it left me with thoughts  filled with skepticism. And here i want to share those thoughts with you and i’ll definitely look ahead to your  views and opinions.

The TIME in one of it’s article labelled Francis as ”rockstar”. The very word speaks a lot in itself. the pope had certainly rocked Rio, no doubt, it’s popularity has rocked skyhigh, and the mass worth-mentioning. And the pontiff  had open-car, less men-in-suits, and his attempts to get-closer to the mass was successful. His speech had the flavor of  a pope calling for-change we need . He wants the church move closer to the people , closer to the mass. He called for the church to walk on the people’s side. And he asked the very question–” Are we still the church capable of warming hearts?”.

And never forget it was World Youth Day.

Brazil, is the home of the largest catholic population, but the protestant and evangelics are on the rise and on rapid rise. Young people are finding the church less interesting and of course less warming. To the Pope the fact is not unknown. That’s why perhaps he had that evangelical tone when he addressed the crowd.  After all he knows that the church in order to retain its dominance in the region it needs the youths, it needs the devotion of the young people and their submission to the church. How can i forget that it was world youth day?? The youths had always been the target-market of any cause be that religious or otherwise. They have the enthu, the guts, devotion and the energy. Exactly the chemical a struggle needs. In Brazil,  for Francis it’s a an empire which is slowly but prominently slipping  away from Vatican. i am not at all surprised to hear the pope say–“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” …...For some it might sound that the pontiff had opened his liberal eye, but is that the truth???….The church had  for long  outcasted the homosexuals, disregarded them, forsaken them and even ordered to burn them in some cases. This inhuman stand is equally declared in all of the monotheistic religion. Yet they had taken pride for this for centuries. But why now we find a change of tone from the pope himself??…..i can’t actually agree with the church-gone-liberal idea.

In this century people are more interested to understand anything with logics than with myths and superstitions. The shadow of religion is certainly fading. Who can understand it better than the vanguard himself.?? The change of tone is actually a strategic change. Of course to retain the dominance of church. The target-market as always is the Youths. Now that answers –  why being the– “Rockstar”, why the revolutionary speech, why the whole set-up of walking on the people’s side…

From a skeptic point of view to me Religion(esp. the monotheistic ones) after the end of the day is another cause set-up for the struggle of power. And it has an illusionary effect on the mass driven by emotions. So, the Rio visit was actually a part of a gameplan laid for the cause of…….the same old….POWER…