Eight Years of Pope Francis

Eight years ago, Cardinal Bergoglio became Pope Francis. At the time (see quotations below) I was filled with Hope. Given what he has had to contend with, for me, Francis has not failed to fulfil his promise thus far. I was and am especially proud of his encyclical, Evangelii Gaudium [The Joy of the Gospel], upon which I blogged in November 2013, not for its religious commentary but rather its pragmatic approach to poverty, institutional injustice and the importance of ethical business, banking & economics. From an ethics perspective it is well worth a read, or read my blog-post for the edited highlights. I do not consider myself a religious person, but rather a spiritual one. I shall continue to pray for the Pope from time to time, as he needs all the support he can get.

[Image description: opening page to Evangelii Gaudium]

G_d bless Pope Francis! 🙏🏻

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🇬🇧🇺🇸 Pope Francis: that has to be a good omen; a humble saint; a humble man. He's certainly going to need God's help if he's to survive the machinations of the Vatican, the Mafioso and the Freemasons, let alone the gay cabal!

Pope Francis gives me hope that the church might renew itself. %D

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🇪🇸 Papa Francis: que tiene que ser un buen augurio; un santo humilde; un hombre humilde. Está seguro que él va a necesitar la ayuda de Dios si va a sobrevivir a las intrigas del Vaticano, del mafioso y de los masones (y mucho menos ¡la cábala gay!).

Papa Francis me da esperanzas de que la iglesia pueda renovarse. %)

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🇩🇪🇦🇹 Papst Francis: das muß ein gutes Omen; ein bescheidener Heiliger; ein demütiger Mensch. Es ist sicher daß er um Gottes Hilfe brauchen wird, wenn er die Machenschaften des Vatikans, der Mafioso und den Freimaurern überleben wird, und dazu die Homosexuell Kabale.

Papst Francis gibt mir Hoffnung, daß die Kirche sich zu erneuern könnte. %)

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Gay Marriage

I have just found that the famous (and lovely by the by) author, Armistead Maupin (Armistead Maupin on facebook), has posted a link to an advertisement for marriage equality for gays & lesbians. It speaks for itself, so here it is: "beautiful-british-gay-marriage-commercial" .

Some folk believe that the Bible interdicts homosexuality. Well, as the word was only created at the end of the C19th (1897 to be precise) that would seem a tad rich. There are only four (yes four) passages that are supposedly anti-homosexual and Jesus himself never even mentioned the topic. That's right, Jesus the Christ, the basis of Christianity, did not have a single word to say on the matter. However, selective fundamentalists pick and choose which bits of the Bible they are going to follow.

If one reads Deuteronomy chapter 22 verses 13 to 21, one discovers that under the old covenant a marriage was only to be considered valid if the wife (note not the husband!) was a virgin. If it transpired she was not a virgin, the marriage was invalid and the wife was supposed to be executed. Well apart from the sexism and hypocrisy involved, that would make a hell of a lot of marriages invalid and we should have to kill a heck of a lot of womenfolk!

Well, even if we ignore what the Bible might or might not say on the subject, there is the thorny issue of Church tradition. We are told by Roman Catholics and Anglicans (Episcopalians) that traditionally the Church is anti-homosexuality and that marriage is just for one man and one woman. Ahem, actually that is not quite true. There is quite some evidence to demonstrate that the Church from at least the C6th to C18th was blessing same-sex unions (mainly male, but there are some female rites).

For Church precedence see inter alia:

Kontakion to Saints Serge & Bacchus, C6th, Greek
Office of Same-Sex Union, C10th, Greek
Office of Same-Sex Union, C11th, Greek
Prayer for Same-Sex Union, C11th, Greek
The Order for Uniting Two Men, C11-12th, Slavonic
Office of Same-Gender Union, C12th, Italo-Greek
Order for Solemnization of Same-Sex Union, C13th, Greek
Office of Same Sex (sic) Union, C14th, Serbian Slavonic
Agreement of "Brotherhood", C15th, Latin
Office for Same-Gender Union, C16th?, Greek
Office of Same-sex (sic) Union, C16th, Greek
The Order of Celebrating the Union of Two Men, <C18th, Serbian Slavonic

The Vatican purged its library of Latin texts, but omitted to destroy documents in other languages: hence the apparent lack of Latin evidence. Yes, it's probably now dawning upon one that there has been a mass cover-up. It's political of course. The Church in times of trouble has often needed a scapegoat: witches, Jews, homosexuals, etc. Now what is the major issue at the moment - pædophile priests. So the Church needs to go on the attack to deflect attention. It has acted thus for centuries.

I happen to be a pantheist and a Quaker. Quakers would actually like to marry same-sex couples in their places of worship, as would other smaller Christian denominations along with some Jewish groups.

If you would like to support equal marriage, then please sign AVAAZ's petition (Support gay marriage in the UK)

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