Some thoughts on the new Pope, his influence in the world, and here at DU. [View all]

[NCTraveler]

There have been many ops and posts about the new Pope here at DU, as there should be. He is very powerful and influential when it comes to the thoughts and direction of millions of people. His influence, through the Catholic Church, is the real reason opinions of him are so strong.

At this point, the new Pope has said many great things. If he continues in this direction he can truly have a positive impact on the way many of the Catholic Church followers conduct their business. These changes can slowly creep into the mentality of millions of people. It will not happen overnight, but can happen over decades.

That being said, the new Pope and the Catholic Church will continue to hold on to some of their abhorrent policies. I do think the new Pope is in some way trying to minimize the churches stance on how its followers are to judge people it believes to be sinners, but the policies will still be in place. Lets be clear, the church will continue its direction of holding me as a second class citizen for being a women. The church will continue to spread their hate toward gays. These things are not going to change with the new Pope.

I really just want to remind some of those promoting the new Pope to be careful in how adamant you are about how great he is. He is an extremely flawed man, yet much better than his predecessors. Please understand, if one is gay or a woman, there is no reason to respect the Pope or even recognize some of his positive rhetoric. I want to make that clear. For some of us, his hate for us as a person overcomes all else. That is a fair statement and needs to be understood.

Love and respect the members of our community. All of them. Understand that the church and the Pope promote and spread hate toward many of our friends here. That is not acceptable. While I do notice some of the Popes very positive rhetoric, I do not see the Catholic Church or its hierarchy as positive until they accept and welcome my friends who have done nothing wrong. I do not see the Pope as positive until he stops the Church from spreading hate and attacking people I love.

Please be careful and thoughtful when talking about a church and Pope that aggressively attacks our friends and loved ones.