Pope With the Humble Touch Is Firm in Reshaping the Vatican

[Douglas Carpenter]

85. Progress is about moving things forward. Not only would Abraham Lincoln's views on race be utterly

retrograde by modern enlightened standards - FDR's, Truman's and even LBJ's attitudes would have been considered racist by what we now know - but they moved things forward. It 1970 you could have fit the number of American liberal Democratic politicians who would have gone on record supporting full equal rights for gay people into a small room. Even the Mattachine Society - the first gay rights organization in America supported the medical establishment's position that homosexuality was an illness - but they sought society's understanding and compassion. That was as retrograde as you can get - But it was still a step forward in the context of the time. But fortunately things changed and progress did break through. Changing an ancient religious institution is as slow and tedious as changing society as a whole. But the pope is moving in the right direction on almost every issue - even if he is far, far from an altogether enlightened position - especially on social issues.

The fact is - on economic issues - he is taking sides in a way that is neutering the power of reactionaries to raise Catholic religious authority as a legitimizer of their cause. He is increasing the ability of progressive and left-wing forces to appeal to the moral and spiritual sensibilities of hundreds of millions of people on issues of economic justice.