I'm kinda falling in love with the new pope.

[kentonio]

Seriously. It's like if you described the things you'd ideally want in a pope he keeps matching them. Humble, refuses to take part in ostentatious wasteful crap, actually seems like he has Jesus as his inspiration rather than Louis XIV. Could we finally have a pope who actually deserves the title?

(Reuters) - A last-minute no-show by Pope Francis at a concert where he was to have been the guest of honor has sent another clear signal that he is going to do things his way and does not like the Vatican high life.

The gala classical concert on Saturday was scheduled before his election in March. But the white papal armchair set up in the presumption that he would be there remained empty.

Minutes before the concert was due to start, an archbishop told the crowd of cardinals and Italian dignitaries that an "urgent commitment that cannot be postponed" would prevent Francis from attending.

The prelates, assured that health was not the reason for the no-show, looked disoriented, realizing that the message he wanted to send was that, with the Church in crisis, he - and perhaps they - had too much pastoral work to do to attend social events.

"It took us by surprise," said one Vatican source on Monday. "We are still in a period of growing pains. He is still learning how to be pope and we are still learning how he wants to do it."

"In Argentina, they probably knew not to arrange social events like concerts for him because he probably wouldn't go," said the source, who spoke anonymously because he is not authorized to discuss the issue.

The picture of the empty chair was used in many Italian papers, with Monday's Corriere della Sera newspaper calling his decision "a show of force" to illustrate the simple style he wants Church officials to embrace.

Since his election on March 13, Francis, the former cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, has not spent a single night in the opulent and spacious papal apartments.

He has preferred to live in a small suite in a busy Vatican guest house, where he takes most meals in a communal dining room and says Mass every morning in the house chapel rather than the private papal chapel in the Apostolic Palace.

The day before the concert, Francis said bishops should be "close to the people" and not have "the mentality of a prince".

On Saturday, while the concert was in progress in an auditorium just meters (yards) away, Francis was believed to be working on new appointments for the Curia, the Vatican's troubled central administration.

The administration was held responsible for some of the mishaps and scandals that plagued the eight-year reign of Pope Benedict before he resigned in February.

Francis inherited a Church struggling to deal with priests' sexual abuse of children, the alleged corruption and infighting in the Curia, and conflict over the running of the Vatican's scandal-ridden bank.

Benedict left a secret report for Francis on the problems in the administration, which came to light when sensitive documents were stolen from the pope's desk and leaked by his butler in what became known as the "Vatileaks" scandal.

The Vatican source said he expected Francis to make major changes to Curia personnel by the end of the summer.

Anger at the mostly Italian prelates who run the Curia was one of the reasons why cardinals chose the first non-European pope for 1,300 years.

The key appointment will be the next secretary of state, sometimes referred to as the Vatican's prime minister, to succeed the Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who has been widely blamed for the failings of the Curia.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...95N0S920130624

[Colon™]

Not my type.

[Dr Strangelove]

You probably didn't hear his rant about the gay cabal that he claims has infested the Vatican and which he intends to root out. Gays are the new Joos and this pope is just another hater in a cassock and miter.

[Felch]

Unlike the Episcopalians, the Catholic Church still holds the Scriptures in high esteem.

[kentonio]

You probably didn't hear his rant about the gay cabal that he claims has infested the Vatican and which he intends to root out. Gays are the new Joos and this pope is just another hater in a cassock and miter.

I didn't hear that, no.

[Aeson]

"Rooting Out the Gay Cabal in the Vatican" sounds like a title for a gay porno.

[giblets]

Unlike the Episcopalians, the Catholic Church still holds the Scriptures in high esteem.

Did you overlook this part?

Responses posted on the Episcopal Church’s website to the Presiding Bishop’s sermon have been uniformly harsh, noting her interpretation was at odds with traditional Christian teaching, grammar, and logic. “This is quite possibly some if the most delusional exegesis I’ve ever read in my life,” one critic charged. “I’m sorry, but this sermon is not a Christian sermon.”

The reception by bloggers has been equally unkind. The Rev Timothy Fountain observed the presiding bishop had up ended the plain meaning of the text. “Instead of liberation” in freeing the slave girl from exploitation, presiding bishop finds “confinement. Instead of Christ’s glory, there’s just squalor.”

The Rev. Bryan Owen argued “What's happening here is the exploitation of a biblical text in service to a theopolitical agenda. Given what she says in the first paragraph I've quoted from her sermon, the Presiding Bishop suggests that anyone who doesn't buy into that agenda - anyone who holds to the traditional, orthodox understanding of such matters - is likewise afflicted with the same narrow-minded bigotry as Paul, and thus in need of enlightenment.”

Way to generalize

[Felch]

She's the Presiding Bishop. I recognize that there are many Episcopalians who don't follow her lead, but she is the primus inter pares, and what she says reflects on the denomination as a whole.

[Sava]

"church bloggers" are probably the worst of the worst the internet has to offer

[Imran Siddiqui]

Unfortunately the Pope takes a vow of celibacy. Find another religious leader to fall in love with, kentonio

[Imran Siddiqui]

Unlike the Episcopalians, the Catholic Church still holds the Scriptures in high esteem.

That article is absolutely horrific in reading things into Bishop Scolari's remarks.

Here is the original sermon:

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2013/05/13/presiding-bishop-preaches-in-curacao-diocese-of-venezuela/#_ftn1

Btw, she isn't the only one who is not entirely sure what Paul is doing in the Acts passage (Acts 16), which is here in NIV:

16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

She was right, wasn't she? The only real explanations I can find which may justify it, is that she was attempting to be seen with them and be linked with them so it would help her owners' fortune-telling business. Or Paul was annoyed that her gift was being exploited to make others money (in which case why take it from her)? However, I think it can be read in many different ways, and it isn't like Paul was perfect (even prophets have their dark stories - ie, Elisha killing the three youths that mocked him for being bald by unleashing a bear on them).

[Elok]

42 youths, IIRC. You're getting them mixed up with Shadrach et al, perhaps?

[MRT144]

That article is absolutely horrific in reading things into Bishop Scolari's remarks.

Here is the original sermon:

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2013/05/13/presiding-bishop-preaches-in-curacao-diocese-of-venezuela/#_ftn1

Btw, she isn't the only one who is not entirely sure what Paul is doing in the Acts passage (Acts 16), which is here in NIV:


She was right, wasn't she? The only real explanations I can find which may justify it, is that she was attempting to be seen with them and be linked with them so it would help her owners' fortune-telling business. Or Paul was annoyed that her gift was being exploited to make others money (in which case why take it from her)? However, I think it can be read in many different ways, and it isn't like Paul was perfect (even prophets have their dark stories - ie, Elisha killing the three youths that mocked him for being bald by unleashing a bear on them).

Understatement.

[Colon™]

It's pretty much a given that a Pope will be against homosexuality and abortion. Accepting that, I rather appreciate it that he devotes so much attention on humility and the needy. It's always been the good side of the Church.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

You're too old for him.