He was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on December 17, 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After joining the Jesuits, he was ordained a priest in 1969 and elevated to the rank of cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. On March 13, 2013, he was elected pope in the aftermath of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation. He is the first pope from the Western Hemisphere and the first from the Society of Jesus, otherwise known as the Jesuits.
Over the last year, there has been speculation about his health, leading some to believe that, at 85 years of age, he may soon either die or retire.
My opinion of him is negative. I am a Protestant and disagree a lot with Catholic practices that directly go against the Bible. The Pope has wide authority over Catholic doctrine but no Pope has brought the Catholics back into being compliant with the Bible, which is the bedrock of ALL Christian faith and the foundation of the Catholic church in the first place.
I believe that, in failing these duties, the Pope is leading many Catholics to Hell. The Bible says the worst punishments of Hell are reserved for those who lead God's flock astray, which is what the Pope is doing by not correcting the people of the Catholic faith. In the Catholic faith the Pope is the highest authority on Earth under God. Under that belief, the Pope has the opportunity to bring Catholics back to compliance by his teachings but refuses to do so.
The only thing worse than a non-believer is a believer who is not correctly teaching the faith. At least the non-believer can plead ignorance and get a lesser level of Hell.
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Overall, kinda iffy. I like that he's moved past endlessly talkinc about homosexuality, and the down-to-Earth humility is nice, but indulging the Covid panic LONG after it xecame clear it was doing more harm than good isn't exactly inspiring leadership, especially when you look at how the Church handled, say, the Black Death.
It's also nice to see the Jesuits finally get someone in, and a Pope who's not a dodderingly conservative fossil.
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Anonymous
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i think he was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on December 17, 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After joining the Jesuits, he was ordained a priest in 1969 and elevated to the rank of cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. On March 13, 2013, he was elected pope in the aftermath of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation. He is the first pope from the Western Hemisphere and the first from the Society of Jesus, otherwise known as the Jesuits.
i also believe over the last year, there has been speculation about his health, leading some to believe that, at 85 years of age, he may soon either die or retire.
A mere mortal human like the rest of us. I was raised Catholic but have become religiously (and politically) unaffiliated over the past few years. I haven’t kept up, so I have no strong opinion about him one way or the other. I haven’t heard or read anything bad about him, so he’s got that going for him.
Pope Francis is a sort of a bland figure who is Pope in the tradition of the "Church of what's happening now." On most questions he seems to seldom say much of anything that is too surprising and when he does speak, it is in the bromides of contemporary language and ethics,
The comparison is to the late Pope St. John Paul II, a truly historic and consequential figure before whom the Polish communist military dictator General Wojciech Jaruzelski visibly trembled when they met for a state visit in the early 1980s. St. John Paul II fiercely spoke truth to power and insisted on the traditional morality and doctrines of the Church. In that case, making him, along with the American President Ronald Reagan and the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, among the three most important figures in bringing down the Berlin Wall and ending the Cold War with the defeat of international communism.
By contrast, Pope Francis tends to define moral questions in terms of a wan relativism. Thus, when asked in the Catholic American President Joseph Biden should be denied Holy Communion for his support of abortion on demand, Pope Francis said that it was perfectly fine for an advocate of what the Church defines as a mortal sin to take Holy Communion.
Suffice to say, it requires the suspension of imagination to conceive of Pope St. John Paul II agreeing to such a thing. To be sure it is somewhat speculative to say so, but everything in John Paul II's life suggests that he would not have tolerated such relativism. The late Pope was emphatic about the doctrinal moral truths of the Church and he would NOT have tolerated the relativism that routinely flows out of the Vatican City of Pope Francis.
It is likely that when the history books are written about Pope Francis that his will have been seen as a flaccid papacy of no particular direction. To be sure, the Pope has not outrightly contradicted the historic truths and traditions of the Church. He has, rather, just drifted through the ambiguities and difficulties, seemingly fearful that if he demands that people make moral choices, they may walk away from the Church. Seeming to forget that the Church is about moral truths, not a popularity contest.
Suffice to say, Pope Francis has not proved, thus far, to be a notable or consequential - in the positive sense - figure. His has been a papacy of drift and relativism. Of warm fuzzy thoughts rather than hard truths. He still has time and this may change, but as of this moment, Pope Francis has proved to be a dreary figure of his times. Pope of the "church of what's happening now" and not, as St. John Paul II was, a shaper of his era both inside and outside the Church.
I think that there's good reason to believe that history will not look kindly on Pope Francis. In fact, I think he'll go down as one of the worst popes in history. Between his internal contradictions, his ambiguous statements, his reviving of the sexual predator Ted McCarrick, his selling out of faithful Chinese Catholics to the CCP, and now his full-blown war against the traditional liturgy and culture, he's not shaping up to be remembered happily.
And while I don't disagree that the Church was in better hands with John Paul II, the fact still remains that JPII set the stage for Francis. Most notably by making him a bishop and then a cardinal. Truth be told, my opinion of JPII has dropped quite significantly over the last few years. Again, I don't think he himself was terrible, but many modern Catholics seem to believe that he was the best pope ever. I think that's a foregone conclusion.
Well, I don't disagree as far as Pope Francis is concerned in general. However, given some of the interesting Popes in church history - see also, for example, the Borgia Popes - it remains to be seen if Francis will qualify as the worst. That said, I am not unsympathetic.
As far as JPII is concerned though, I could not more vehemently disagree. He - along with Lady Thatcher and President Reagan - were the key figures in bringing down the Soviet Union. He restored to the Church a sense of stability and tradition after decades of tumult. He brought the Church in Latin America to heel when it started to play footsie with the likes of the Sandinistas.
Did he get EVERYTHING right? Nope. Papal Infalibility only applies to the teaching of Church dogma, and no Pope is assured of getting right. In fact, more than his appointment of Francis, it is fair to say that JPII underestimated the problem of sexual scandals in the Church.
Such accusations had been made - particularly by the communists - against the Church and JP II assumed that such accusations were more propaganda. He therefore did not pursue the question further as he ought have done.
Still and all, St. JP II was an amazing figure and it is eccentric, to say no more, to hold him to blame for the future actions of a future Pope that he could not have known was going to be Pope. Let alone knowing what turns of mind his successors might take.
A couple of years ago he wanted to have an interfaith prayer day against Covid. What man of God joins the children of God and the Idolatrous together in prayer? What man of God encourages anyone to pray to any deity but the Most High for any reason at all?
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Anonymous
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He needs to do more to protect children and viciously punish child abusers pedophiles in the clergy.
I wish he would. According to Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano (former papal nuncio to the US), Francis revived the career of Theodore McCarrick, who was a sexual predator. Francis also installed an abuser as a bishop in South America. The people that city protested against him and Francis called them "dumb".
It's not my religion but he's a nice man/pope. He worships god and Jesus and that's the important thing. I hope he's being a good pope if that makes sense lol
Catholics don't really care about the truth. It's more of a theocratic organization to hoard treasure at the Vatican than a search for spiritual treasure.
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Opinion? Lol. He's just another Evil pope, like all the others following his master Satan's instruction manual. He fits the description of the antichrist.
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Anonymous
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Jesus's are a very dangerous organisation. They are power hungry and have been kicked out of virtually every country at one time or another for meddling in politics, starting revolutions, instigating regime change.
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He could be a lot worse but it's not like he's good either. Side note how do the believers feel about religious figures like that driving in bullets proof cars
Personally? I don't have a problem with a significant world leader taking reasonable safety precautions, especially since assassination attempts on the pope are not unprecedented.
It's been a while since I heard about it, like a couple of years so I don't have a link to it or anything, but I seem to remember him agreeing that scientists are probably correct about the formation of the universe, the earth, and the like.
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I like more of a strict pope isn’t he becoming more lenient towards Gays I’ve heard?
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Anonymous
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His mentor in the Catholic Church was a Marxist who helped the communist cause in South America. A LOT of his views are very Marxian and far Left. But he’s the Pope so people think he’s a Conservative. 🤷♂️
I was hoping he would be more liberal and less stringent on dogma, but sadly he has fallen very short of that. But I don't dislike him any more than any other pope.
