Obama To Discuss Inequality With Pope Francis In March

[pampango]

97. "The Catholic Church is a leading supporter of HATRED and INEQUALITY WORLD WIDE against gays and

lesbians."

I suspect there are some radical Islamists and fundamentalist Protestants that will give the Catholic Church a run for its money. In some cases the former are worse but they are, to be sure, smaller more disjointed actors than the Catholic Church.

Most of us would acknowledge that the Church has made some strides in the right directions in the recent past. Given the number of issues on which it was inhumane, however, it has a long, long way to go. I suppose overhauling all of its reactionary policies in one fell swoop might have caused it to implode or, perhaps more likely, for the Pope to have suffered an early unfortunate 'accident' with an unmistakeable message sent to his successor.

All the Catholics I know, well all those who still feel any connection to the Church and still call themselves 'Catholic' anyway, are happy about the direction the new pope is taking. (I'm sure there are conservative Catholics who are aghast at the new policies and pronouncements.) They all want him to expand the changes to include policies about gays, lesbians and women and in other areas. After a lifetime of little if any positive change in the Church, they are happy about the new direction. They want it to continue and expand but, of course, no one knows if it will.