12 Ways Catholicism is More Radical Than Pope Francis

[rug]

If you think the new Pope is radical, what about the church doctrine that the poor are in charge? That God is feminine? That charging interest is a sin?

02.09.14
Nathan Schneider

These are interesting times to be Catholic. Pope Francis has put a spirit of change in the air, a kind of change that brings the faith back to its roots. When I became Catholic as a teenager, the sex abuse scandals were going from bad to worse; the Catholic legacy of outward social justice and inward contemplation drew me to the church, but they were mostly obscured from public view. That has begun to change, finally—though the recent United Nations report on sex abuse is another reminder that there is still a long, long way to go.

Francis’ call for a church with open doors and concern for the poor is just a tiny glimpse of what might be in store. There’s a lot more where that came from. The Catholic Church is many things, and it has a lot to ask forgiveness for, but part of it is also a 2,000-year effort to devise a social order based on love. This is neither Democratic or Republican. It’s meant to be as universal as it is radical, and Francis has only scratched the surface.

The poor are the bosses.

The notion of “the preferential option for the poor” is bandied about a lot by Catholics, but often without really hearing the words. Jesus said that what we do for the least among us is what we do for him; the justice of a society, then, is not to be measured by the wealthy, or even the middle class, but the poor. What if the State of the Union were delivered by a homeless teenager in Detroit or the Bronx? When our picture of society privileges the most vulnerable, we start seeing every aspect of it upside down.

Usury: not okay.

On January 29, Francis referred to usury as “a dramatic social ill.” This isn’t a word we’ve heard much of for a few centuries, but throughout much of Catholicism’s history—as well as that of Judaism and Islam—the church has considered profiting from the crippling debt of others a grave sin. Francis was denouncing egregious Italian loan-sharks, but this concept implicates our whole economy when bankers make billions designing loans that can make lifelong entrapment in debt the price of attending college, receiving medical care or owning a home.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/09/12-ways-catholicism-is-more-radical-than-pope-francis.html

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

1. I missed this article before, and one of the things it says is

Cardinal John Newman, a 19th-century English convert, wrote a famous essay celebrating the tradition of “consulting the faithful on matters of doctrine.” It focuses on an ancient theological debate (whose details would probably sound ridiculous) in which bishops and theologians clung to heresy while ordinary believers held to what would finally be recognized as truth.

The debate Cardinal Newman was talking about in his "On Consulting the Faithful on Matters of Doctrine" was on Arianism, or "Is Christ truly God?" This is most certainly NOT a "ridiculous" question, since it lies at the heart of Christianity. I suspect Mr. Schneider does not know much about either dogmatic theology or the history of the early Church.

[IrishAyes]

2. Fascinating, both OP and first reply.

See why I feel this Group has been such a blessing to me? I love to listen even when I have to admit that I might have absolutely nothing to add to the conversation except to state the obvious, that I don't.