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“That was because he refused to welcome god-king JD vance in person!!! God punished the pope for his impertinence!!!”
- Some MAGA-Nut somewhere, probably
- Some MAGA-Nut somewhere, probably
probably closer to all of 'em
Okay, we need to know where every US government official was.
Right after the Pope told trump to have some compassion, a very coincidental timing…
🤔
Trump will appoint an excommunicated pedophile priest as a replacement.
I declare myself pope, and as my first official act, I’m excommunicating all my antipopes!
Can I have his Easter eggs then?
When we needed him more than ever.
This is sad. He was indeed a great pope. But, WTF did JD do?
Probably, he finished him…
AI slop
Wait, so the vaccine hating vp bowman visits the Vatican and the next day the pneumonia suffering Pope dies. Coincidence…?
It would be more than coincidence if the next Pope was an ultra-conservative, GOP-friendly guy from the US and A. Of course this would never happen, but… ehm… who knows?
You mean like this guy?
Who is Raymond Burke, the cardinal Donald Trump wants to be the next Pope?
Ask Pete
There goes one neighborhood in Rome
Pope: dies
Corpo God : "We are happy to announce the relocation of Pope Francis to his next steps within the company. We are thankful for their contribution for the last 12 years and we look forward to their future achievements. BR, management.
I am surpringly annoyed about Americans somehow finding a way to make this about themselves.
In reality I’m much more worried about the likely counterreformist pushback that is likely about to happen. We’re about to find out if a remarkably powerful organization’s leader was able to seed enough support to secure a politically aligned successor, and if the answer is “no” a bunch of organizations are about to get even more ruthlessly conservative at a time when a new strain of fascism is seeking moral support. The Catholic Church has been here before. It didn’t go well.
As a non-Catholic American, I have the same worry for the global geopolitics. It just so happens that the united states is part of those geopolitics.
Yeah. It’s more than annoying, especially as it’s the same old Vance joke again and again and again. Which isn’t even clever.
I am not a Christian by any means but I worked with them quite often. Francis did change a lot of things and while he wasn’t in no way perfect - he did have his drawbacks, for a fucking pope he was much better than anyone before him within the last few hundred years. People (especially on the internet)nowadays expect other people, especially political leaders to “check all their boxes” and if one thing is not going as far as they want, they are alienated.
Often I have the impression that as long as someone is not going “all the way” in the right direction they are seen as bad as someone who does not do anything at all or goes in the wrong direction. (Which is ironic because the church itself has evolved past the “saint or sinner” directive)
Francis has been going in the right direction probably 60% of the way and 10% in the wrong direction. Is the Catholic church there yet? No. Is there a big chance it might turn back? Yes. Would he been elected if he was so reformist it was sure he would topple everything and go 100%? Surely not.
But he did much more than any of his predecessors did.
Any much more most commenters do.
Besides: It’s okay to feel sorry for an old man dying. That’s called fucking compassion. I work in healthcare and have seen a lot of people die. I feel sorry for almost all of them.
In the end a human has died. Period.
much better than anyone before him within the last few hundred years
John XXIII was pretty progressive, wouldn’t you think?
So progressive there’s an anti Vatican II movement in America
“Francis appointed nearly 80% of the cardinal electors who will choose the next pope, increasing the possibility that his successor will continue his progressive policies, despite the strong pushback from traditionalists.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-francis-has-died-vatican-says-video-statement-2025-04-21/
The catch is that he did not appoint by ideology. His appointments were mainly based on the guys doing work for poor people, for migrants, and on them doing their jobs in the global south.
Quite a few of these he made cardinals are somewhat conservative in their views, especially regarding sexuality
It helps a bit that typically those that have more compassion tend to be more liberal, but in general even the more liberal Catholics tend to be somewhat conservative
I mean, there are catholic priests and officials that are very liberal - they do exist. But those people do usually not even get into a position as a bishop, so they are not on the table to potentially become cardinals.
I don’t expect a conservative backlash, on the contrary Francis’s Pontificate has weakened the conservative wing considerably. Given that 80% of the voting cardinals were appointed by Pope Francis, I would expect them to elect a successor that continues in the same direction, perhaps even a more radical one.
During his pontificate Francis also made a lot of efforts to bring in new groups into the corridors of power. Not only by his appointment of cardinals, but also e.g. by reforming the Curia with Praedicate evangelium.
Compared to the iron grip the reactionaries held before my understanding is you’re right. That doesn’t mean that wing is going to get away with a continuist choice. I mean, it’s more likely than it used to be, but I’m not making a call until the Habemus Papam.
Should we make it about a religion that’s known for pedophile priests and them being protected? Or about how religion is a long con scam of power and wealth that has been the leading cause of war and persecution for centuries upon centuries?
Granted, by all appearances, I believe he seemed to be a pretty good guy. Hopefully the next pope will be as good. Take what you can while religions still exist, I suppose.
Yes.
Yes, you should.
Because as much as you see it as a domestic throwaway denomination among many, they are extremely and increasingly overrepresented in developing countries (and a couple of European ones as well).
So if you want to know which way the use of contraceptives, the position on gay people or the express support for neofascism is going to go in Africa this is relevant.
It is not about the US or their opinions. And I say this as an atheist.
It sure feels like the tides are turning conservative everywhere, but apparently a Filipino progressive is a favorite to be next
There is a roman saying, “the one who enters conclave as the pope [to be] leaves it as a mere cardinal”
There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.
A very old one indeed. It’s never certain how conclaves will go.
I think in terms of the church the term “conservative” does not necessarily align with the political understanding. The largest shift in the church is demographic. White Europeans are loosing power rapidly in the catholic church. Subsequently the catholic church will align less and less with “Western” conservatives, and their imperialist understanding of geopolitics.
I expect to see much more opposition of “christian conservative” politicians in Europe towards the catholic church.
Ironically just yesterday the president of the German federal parliament of the “christian conservative” CDU told the Churches to shut up about politics.It is not ironic, half of Germans are protestants.
Nope. Half of Germans (47%) don’t have a confession. 21% of Germans are protestants.
She is describing herself as catholic though and even studied catholic theology.Her attack was directed at all churches, not just the catholic church.
More specifically she said “the churches shouldn’t be another NGO” and then gave examples as to what they shouldn’t talk about. So the idea is already that "NGO"s are something bad and civil society voicing political stances is bad. But then religious institutions commenting on how politics are in violation of the values the religion teaches, seems to be particularly disdained. This is also historically worrisome as the churches in the GDR used to be hailed for taking a stance against the regime and there is a lot of stories, how the churches in the third Reich would have taken stance, although i am not sure if the ratio of opposition/silence/collaboration is accurately represented in those stories.
We’ll see where it goes. They aren’t exactly transparent about these things, and they’ve been arguing among themselves for a while. We’ll know with the white smoke, I suppose.
I am surpringly annoyed about Americans somehow finding a way to make this about themselves
And turning it into politics, because there is no otger way to talk about things
Sure, discussing politics is important to some degree, but it isn’t the most important thing in our lifes
One of the most important persons in the world (atleast for catholics) has died. We shouldn’t laugh about it. We shouldn’t politicize it. We shouldn’t take it to any other context.
I’m surprised and sad at the same time. Even tho i like edgy memes and memes about Pope John Paul II (he is a legend in Poland and polish community do meme about him but in a very respectful way), i really find it bad to do so about Pope Francis right now - so i dislike any post like this
It is literally a political position. There’s about to be an election to choose the next guy.
I agree that it is serious in that it’s going to have an impact on people’s lives, far beyond the relatively small direct power they have. That concerns me.
To be clear, I have zero respect for the institution, but I care about how they wield the influence they have, and I’d much rather have a relatively progressive guy like Francis than a relative reactionary like John Paul II, with all due respect to Polish pride. I’m assuming we can at least agree on taking him over Benedictus.
The church is political. The church should be political. Francis pushed for the church to take more of a stance and it rubbed “christian conservatives” the wrong way, because their political goals are a mockery of the values Jesus preached.
It’s just a religion, we strip it of any power if they misbehave.
I am very curious to know who “we” is in this context.
Europe. We have a history of stripping power from christianity, and we’ll continue till there’s nothing left if necessary.
So yeah, just be powerless, it’s just a religion.
Europe has a history of stripping power from Christianity? Like, Europe Europe?
Is this some other Europe I don’t know about? There may be an Europe I entirely missed somewhere, I suppose. Because the Europe I know took a millenia to marginally diminish the power of Christianity, and it only happened because of liberal democracy quietly supplanting spirituality for convenience. It was in no way, shape or form a political choice based on them “misbehaving”.
I mean, even if that was true, which hah, nah, the places where the Catholic church is growing these days are in Africa and Asia. Stop making me have to lump Europeans with the gross ethnocentrism of USmericans.
I can’t really take it serious when Belgium is labeled as catholic Christianity majority.
The majority of practicing religious people are Muslim.
The churches are empty.
For one thing, Belgium is like 2% of the EU, so barely representative. For another, being actively practicing is less relevant than how much political influence is wielded and how many institutions are baked into the legal and political system to align with a particular worldview.
And for another another, this isn’t about Europe (or the US) much at all. They matter way less than the countries trying to secure a semblance of civil rights in the context of an increasing interference from Western-originated religions using them as breeding grounds for retrograde conservatism.
So you are very welcome to remain oblivious and pretend you have culturally overcome the footprint of Christianity (which again, hah, nah), but that has zero bearing on the relevance of these events.
Unfortunately that’s not the way it works.
You should know that lots of countries and societies will not do this. Especially in the global south.
Cultism is such a potent tendency of the human animal that new cults form spontaneously in the absence of established mythologies (or despite them). Fascism is a cult phenomenon, for instance, and the people vulnerable to such belief systems are unerringly broken in the same way that religious people are broken. It’s like someone scooped out the part of their brains responsible for maintaining epistemic norms and replaced it with oatmeal.
As others have said, Francis also stacked the electors who will be deciding the next pope, so it is possible that his successor will also be just as progressive (well, progressive for the leader of a conservative religious institution, at least).
The most PR pope, never meant anything he said, all gaslighting and hollow platitudes, no actual change, still shuffled around and defended pedos
Ah yes, the expected purity test. Let’s just ignore any progress made and make snark remarks online while we wait for the 100% ideologically pure.
Yeah, meeting JD Vance can be too much for anyone.
I would imagine they have some beautiful, world class couches in the Vatican. I can only imagine what the Pope walked in on!
Honestly, it’s not even hat far fetched. He probably denied visits because he was in bad health, yet Americans probably pushed to meet anyway
I believe the pope met with the UK PM and one other dignitary the previous day, so he wasn’t denying all visits.
We should spread the news that Vance killed him!
vance liz truss’d the pope
RIP.
This is such a weak form of expressing emotion and respect that it actually expresses the opposite.
username checks out
Rest in piss indeed
JD Vance visits the Vatican, the pope literally dies
I guess he didn’t say “thank you”
Like Liz Truss to the queen.
I’m actually sad about this one. He was by far the best pope of my lifetime.
Are you like 15?
Low bar.
True but he exceeded the existing bar by a lot.
Yes, but if the next one is a little better, and the next one, and the next one…
The church evolves very slowly.
That is by no means a given! In fact we should expect a counter-movement within the church, as that’s what happens if a leader is gone that was pushing the organization in a more progressive direction against the will of many influential members.
If politics is anything to take a pattern from, things will get slightly better, but those moments of hope are followed by gigantic steps backwards.
You’ve really got to boil that frog for a while
Doesn’t help they pick the oldest guys in the room to become the pope.
That’s why they keep doing it, same thing in politics. Old people holding back progress in a desperate attempt to grasp onto power just a bit longer.
I mean, I think they’re also choosing old people to be pope because it’s a “for life” thing. Plus the whole wisdom aspect and shit since it’s religion
I feel like anyone who still believes that crap that age necessarily brings wisdom needs to be prevented from making any political decisions at any cost.
Speed bump.
I feel depressed watching someones last days no matter who they are. R.i.p. I think it was brave of him to be in public for so long.
This comment proves the church’s PR experiment worked. The lies worked. He wasn’t progressive, he was a hard conservative, homophonic, misogynist who defended pedos and spewed hollow platitudes while sitting on a trillion dollars. But the church put him in place and threw a huge propaganda machine behind him and you bought it
homophonic
I think he was the first Pope Francis. But even if he were the second, that wouldn’t make him a homophone.
I guess all popes are homophonic in some languages, like in Spanish “la papa” is potato and “el papa” is pope.
This comment proves the church’s PR experiment worked.
Conspiracy theorists are so weird… Like do you imagine a smokey room with the pope and a group of cardinals talking about how they want to represent the church in a completely opposite way to how they want it to be? Or is there a “shadow church” that controls it all and the pope is unaware?
Which marvel movie best reflects the situation do you think?
I mean, the Catholic Church is a political organization that has global reach, I don’t think it’s a wild conspiracy that they carefully consider their appearance.
He was the best child rapist out of the lot of them 😢
I hope his religion is real so he can burn in hell with his predecessors.
Spokesperson of the biggest pedophile ring dies, and that makes me sad.
Don’t be sad, he was as just bad as any of his colleagues.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/11/world/europe/pope-francis-homophobic-slur.html
Of course the worst pro-russia troll would also troll against catholicism, why am I surprised
Calling out the the admin of a homophobic cult and pointing out their homophobic slurs is “trolling”
You are definitely in good faith for accusing people of being russian trolls in a pope thread…
This was tbe same man that said being homosexual isn’t a crime and doesn’t merit persecution for it, albeit by the catholic creed being a sin.
An insult is only as long someone allows it to be.
Downvote away.
He did get a lot of things right:
Pope Francis says Trump ‘is not a Christian,’ Trump responds
He’s the internally appointed CEO of a cult persuading people to believe that ghosts are real. The blessing of same-sex couples is a stunt the catholic church pulled to save face in 21st century, their different treatment of homosexual couples still speak loud about their cult homophobia.
You are hard pressed to be more of an atheist than I am.
You expect dogma to be nullified with a snap of finger? Even more when that same dogma is taken from the book on which the creed is built upon?
As if people require any sort of excuse to shun and persecute those who are different.
I find it more important countries to codify into law the right for anyone, regardless gender or sexual orientation, to enjoy the same rights, including marriage if so they choose but like it or not, a man forcing that small change into a monolithic, organized, religion is something to be recognized.
You expect dogma to be nullified with a snap of finger?
I expect homophobic cult leaders to be called out for what they are and not praised or defended
Then start by the first line priests.
Those can be some of the worst individuals in the church, and some of the best, at the same time.
There are incredibly forward thinking, humanist and humane individuals acting as local parish priests, individuals that entered the ranks for personal calling and devotion, doing their best to push back on backwards thought and belief on “pious” communities. Those should garner wide support, when it is the exact opposite that happens, with usually the most reprobate and closed minded individuals being seen as “good” priest and thus rising in the ranks, to keep the status quo, one generation after the other.
Institutions are made of people. That man did little but achieved something to move the creed in a better direction. Most just tend to small affairs or outright go for even more dogmatic understandings of outdated subjects, which by itself drives away more people.
Now that I think about it, as reading or being knowledgeable of what any “holy” book holds is the best way to create atheists, maybe those are doing the best job.
Even the “best” individuals in the catholic church are still the members of a homophobic and misogynist cult persuading people to believe that ghosts are real. catholic church bending and changing its own sacred holy laws as it suit them is more proof of their bullshits.
I have terrible news for you if you think using a homophobic slur is as bad as anything the previous popes and cardinals have been doing.
The homophobic slurs should also be a reminder that the catholic church is a homophobic cult.
If your concept of a religious institution that has more than a billion people listening to it is reduced to “homophobic cult”, how does that differ from being part of a “bigoted cult” because you condemn people based on your simplistic understanding of their religion?
The catholic church is indeed a homophobic cult that condemns homophobia as a sins for which you get punished in hell, having million of followers or being popular doesn’t change the fact. Scientology has millions of followers are we going to give them any credibility because of that?
How does your sentiment differ from someone who would say:
The
catholic churchLGBT is indeed ahomophobicsinful cult that condemnshomophobia as a sins for which you get punished in hellreligion as being a homophobic cult, having million of followers or being popular doesn’t change the fact.You take the broadest brush and just stroke over everything, instead of being willing to accept any nuance.
Probably because one is founded on evidence and the other one is founded on a made up concept by the institution in question.
Francis was known as a liberal reformer, making headlines across the globe by permitting the blessing of same-sex couples and promoting global action on climate change.
Francis worked as a janitor and a chemical technician in the food-processing industry before entering the seminary.
He was outspoken about clergy abuse and called on the Catholic Church to “act decisively” against paedophile priests just months after his 2013 appointment.
Francis was known as a liberal reformer, making headlines across the globe by permitting the blessing of same-sex couples and promoting global action on climate change.
He was also known as the ceo of a homophobic and misogynist cult and for strolling around italy in a private helicopter.
He was outspoken about clergy abuse and called on the Catholic Church to “act decisively” against paedophile priests just months after his 2013 appointment.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/19/pope-francis-victims-church-sexual-abuse-slander-chile
“As if I could have taken a selfie or a photo while Karadima abused me and others and Juan Barros stood by watching it all,” tweeted Barros’s most vocal accuser, Juan Carlos Cruz. “These people are truly crazy, and the pontiff talks about atonement to the victims. Nothing has changed, and his plea for forgiveness is empty.”
Wasn’t this then 6 months later:
Pope Francis begins purge at Chilean church over sex abuse scandal
Francis realized he had misjudged the Chilean situation after meeting with Cruz and reading the 2,300-page report compiled by two leading Vatican investigators about the depth of Chile’s scandal, which has devastated the credibility of the church in a once overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country in the pope’s native Latin America.
“A new day has begun in Chile’s Catholic Church!” tweeted Juan Carlos Cruz, the abuse survivor who denounced Barros for years and pressed for the Vatican to take action.
“I’m thrilled for all those who have fought to see this day,” he said. “The band of delinquent bishops … begins to disintegrate today.”
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/pope-francis-begins-purge-at-chilean-church-over-sex-abuse-scandal https://apnews.com/article/33b208ef4bc84576a503b059629607db
Sounds like you could maybe… forgive him… for making a mistake while attempting to cleanup the worst mess in modern catholic history?
But I’m not a catholic or religious at all
They took action after there was a public backlash. Do you know what the context of the original comment is?
