The Pope

If anyone is Catholic or finds slights against religion to be offensive, then you might want to stop reading here. Just getting that out there.

The first thing I will say is that my knowledge of the duties of the Pope, how he is elected, his actual responsibilities and the Catholic Church as a religious and international institution are pretty limited. But, of course, I still have an opinion.

Running through the basics for this new Pope, he does seem pretty special, even though I'm not really sure why. Apparently his papal name of 'Francis' is significant because it means he loves the poor, for example, and he's the first Jesuit Pope (whatever that really is). But, looking past those two little things, and the fact he's the first South American Pope and the first from outside Europe in over 1,200 years, it's easy to fixate on the following:

1. He's pretty old. I mean, Joseph Ratzinger resigned because of his age, and yet this new guy is only two years younger.

2. Changing doctrine. The idea of papal infallibility has always been ridiculed by opponents of the Church, and from the looks of the past few decades of papal dogma, we see that the leaders of the Church think the same thing, too. Infallibility doesn't really make sense, but without it nothing is really going to change - and nothing has. So all of those people that expect to see radical views on homosexuality, abortions and safe-sex - don't be surprised when, a few years down the line, nothing has changed.

3. Typical Catholic hypocrisy. He is self-described as (and I'm paraphrasing slightly) "conservative on sexual matters but liberal on social justice". Excuse me? So I'm not allowed to have pre-marital sex, but it's okay for me to murder someone (or touch up little children - yes, first mention of paedophilia). That simply does not make sense, in my eyes.

My main issue with this new Pope, though, is actually nothing to do with him on a personal level.

It's actually to do with a few things.

Firstly, it is the idea of the Catholic Church as a whole. It's one of the seediest, most pornographic and inflammatory organisations I have ever heard of. Its history is laden with stories of abuse and corruption, and even now we hear comments of the Vatican's internal bureaucracy being crooked. Looking beyond the Catholic abuse scandals that have characterised the church's evil for the past decade or so, the Church experienced huge backlash during the late 70s for a series of financial improprieties that were overshadowed by the suicide of an Italian banker who was affiliated with the whole affair. So, you know, all in all the Church isn't exactly angelic.

Secondly, it is the absolutely fundamentally preposterous idea of the leaders of the Church being able to spout all forms of discriminatory comments about homosexuality, abortion, marriage, HIV/AIDs and safe-sex, and yet 'get away' with it. If I were to say half of what the Church comes out with, I would get in a lot of very serious trouble. And yet it was only recently that Catholic adoption agencies were closed down because they refused to allow homosexual couples to adopt. The double standards are infuriating, and yet it all comes down to 'religious opinion'. Where's the uniformity?

I'll admit, my views on Catholicism are plagued by recent history, but that recent history is exceptionally important. It's the culture surrounding the Church. Their way of life. The absolutely die-hard belief of their religious persuasions being fundamental to life, to modern society. And that's absurd. I cannot look at an institution of faith and supposed-morals seriously when they institutionalised sexual slavery and abuse for decades in a country so close to my own, and when they have such little understanding and sympathy for such a devastating epidemic as HIV/AIDs in Africa. The idea that it is all decided by God, or in Gods plan, or is somehow to do with 'tackling the moral problems' of the issue just enrages me. Anyone with a half a brain cell will realise that using condoms can help steam the spread of aids in Africa, and yet the Catholic Church specifically says it makes it worse? That's not just stupid, it's borderline retarded.

And with that, I end my commentary. The summary is that this Pope, although I am sure he means well, is old and no different to most of the College of Cardinals. They have pretty right wing views, talk a lot, but will end up burned out and make little difference to the wider world.

Oh, and he's Argentinian, so he probably thinks they should have the Falklands back. Idiot.

(Just a little note: it took all of my refrain and self-control to not put any obscenities or expletives in this, so I think I deserve, like, some kind of medal or something?)