Tag Archives: Pope Francis

Holy Father believes in science

Check this out from Salon.com:

“When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so.”

Who said that? None other than Pope Francis I, the head of the Catholic Church and God’s spokesman on Earth.

He added that God “created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfillment.”

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/28/pope_francis_believes_in_evolution_and_big_bang_theory_god_is_not_a_magician_with_a_magic_wand/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Imagine all of this for a moment.

The Holy Father is saying something many of us have believed for our entire lives, that the biblical version of creation is compatible with the scientific version of how the universe was formed.

You can bet that religious fundamentalists are going to take serious issue with what the pontiff is saying here, that the Bible means what it says in Genesis — that God created the universe in six calendar days then rested on the Sabbath.

This notion, of course, flies in the face of science and the idea that the world was created over, um, a whole lot longer span of time. You know, as in billions of years.

Many of us mainstream Christians long have believed in both ideas. My faith tells me that the world is part of God’s plan. However, I cannot deny the evidence compiled over centuries that the evolution of the universe contains elements that the Bible does not mention.

Does that mean the Bible isn’t God’s inerrant word? No. To me, at least, it means that God ignored all the complexities that were occurring in the world he created.

As the pope himself said: “The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it. Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.”

It works for me, Your Holiness.

 

 

 

Can His Holiness work a miracle in Holy Land?

Pope Francis’s tour of Israel and Jordan is getting some hearts fluttering.

It’s not just that the head of the Catholic Church is making his first trip to the Holy Land. It is that this man who’s been dubbed a “rock star” on the world stage might be able to move Israelis and Arabs closer to a peace deal.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/great-expectations-can-pope-francis-bring-peace-middle-east-n112921

The Holy Father will deliver a Mass in Bethlehem on the West Bank. Just a hunch, but he’ll pack the place with worshipers. His predecessor, Benedict XVI, delivered a Mass in Nazareth in 2009. I had the pleasure of touring the amphitheater built for that event. He drew an overflow crowd in a city that is now 80 percent Muslim. Yes, they came from all over Israel to hear it, but I think you get my point, which is that the pope represents something quite special to folks of all faiths.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority have broken down. PA President Mahmoud Abbas struck a deal that gave Hamas — a notorious terrorist organization — a role in governing the Palestinian Authority, which Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu said correctly was a non-starter for Israel.

Hope is emerging that Francis might be able in private talks to persuade the two sides to resume talks. Indeed, there must be a path to peace and it well might take someone with Francis’s global stature to help the two sides find their way toward that path.

He’ll be there only for a brief time but, hey, miracles can occur in an instant.

Pope's influence makes its mark

If Pope Francis has any influence on some of the bishops who do his bidding, then there’s hope for a major Christian denomination’s future.

A recent story involving the archbishop of Atlanta comes to mind. Archbishop Wilton Gregory is moving out of his $2.2 million mansion, which was built on land donated by descendants of Margaret Mitchell, author of “Gone With the Wind.”

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/05/archbishop-of-atlanta-to-vacate-2-2-million-mansion-in-early-may/?hpt=hp_c2

Parishioners took exception to the archbishop living in such sumptuous quarters while the Holy Father himself lives in a small guest apartment in Vatican City. What’s more, parishioners give their money to the church while sacrificing many material things of their own.

The firestorm was fierce.

Archbishop Gregory isn’t the only Catholic cleric to feel the heat. Others around the country are hearing from members of their own flocks for adopting lifestyles that belie (a) church teachings about taking vows of poverty and (b) Pope Francis’s humble lifestyle.

I am not a practicing Catholic. I am a Presbyterian, which had its beginnings about the time of the Protestant Reformation. I was baptized, though, in the Greek Orthodox Church, which has its own long history of animus toward the “Western church.” Thus, I am not qualified to comment theologically on how the Atlanta archbishop messed up.

I am qualified to say, though, that it just plain looks bad when your church’s earthly leader preaches daily about caring for the poor and lives in such Spartan quarters while those under him erect quarters that would make many billionaires blush.

Person of the Year: an outstanding choice

The year 2013 could have produced a number of stunners for Time’s Person of the Year honor.

You had Edward Snowden, the former NSA leaker who’s now in Russia and hiding from U.S. prosecutors for leaking highly classified information. Snowden’s mischief changed the course of national security debate in America this year.

You also had Ted Cruz, the fiery freshman Republican senator from Texas who went to Washington promising, in effect, to shut down the process of governing. Has he sponsored any key legislation? No. But in keeping with my vow of Christmas kindness, I’ll refrain from any direct criticism until after the holiday.

Those are just two examples of individuals who changed the trajectory “for better or worse.” Hey, the magazine has named Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler and the Ayatollah Khomeini as its people of the year, for crying out loud.

Instead, the magazine went with Pope Francis I.

Great choice, given the context of his ascendancy.

Francis is the first pontiff to succeed a living predecessor in more than four centuries. He not only succeeded Benedict XVI, he has supplanted Benedict’s strict enforcement of Vatican policy with a much kinder, gentler approach to pastoring to the masses.

He’s taken the church to task for not doing enough to care for the poor; he has criticized capitalism as being too beneficial to rich people while continuing to ignore the plight of others; Francis has spoken out aggressively about how the church must cope with the child abuse scandal among Catholic clergy.

Francis lives in humble quarters, rides around in a humble car and has eschewed many of the trapping used by the earthly leader of the Catholic Church.

Francis has done all this while washing the feet of the poor, embracing — quite literally — the disfigured and the maimed among his flock.

He has brought humanity back into style as the leader of one of the world’s great Christian denominations.

Pope Francis I is the Person of the Year … without a doubt.