Yes, I like Pope Francis. Sue me [View all]

[cali]

Call me a hypocrite. Berate me for it.

He's modeling loving kindness and humility and I think there's value in having a world leader do that. He's strongly criticized the culture of greed and capitalist excesses. He's focused on those as being great evils.

Yes, he's opposed to abortion. He's opposed to gay marriage. He won't open the priesthood to women. I disagree with him strongly on all the above.

Is it progressive doctrine to utterly reject the Pope because of his positions on abortion, homosexuality, women in the priesthood, etc? If it is, I reject it. but then I've never been fond of doctrines.

The Berrigan Brothers were priests and pro-life. Hell, they were pro-life activists. They were also leaders in the anti-Vietnam war movement and founders of the Plowshares Movement (Philip Berrigan left the priesthood). Am I supposed to hate them too? And yeah, I certainly do see hate here directed at Pope Francis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Berrigan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Berrigan

How about Thomas Merton who was a great humanist?

Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O. (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968), was an Anglo-American Catholic writer and mystic. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion. In 1949, he was ordained to the priesthood and given the name Father Louis.[1][2][3]

Merton wrote more than 70 books, mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews, including his best-selling autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948), which sent scores of World War II veterans, students, and even teenagers flocking to monasteries across the US,[4][5] and was also featured in National Review's list of the 100 best non-fiction books of the century.[6] Merton was a keen proponent of interfaith understanding. He pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama, the Japanese writer D.T. Suzuki, and the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Merton has also been the subject of several biographies.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton

Merton said this about abortion:

It seems a little strange that we [Catholics] are so wildly exercised about the “murder” (and the word is of course correct) of an unborn infant by abortion, or even the prevention of conception which is hardly murder, and yet accept without a qualm the extermination of millions of helpless and innocent adults, some of whom may be Christians and even our friends rather than our enemies. I submit that we ought to fulfill the one without omitting the other.

I disagree, but I recognize the great goodness he brought into the world- not just during his life but through his legacy.

So yeah, I like a lot of what I've seen of this Pope. I don't think it's hypocritical. In fact, I think the rigid mode of thinking that condemns him altogether is a rigid, impoverished point of view.