Choosing a new pope will not change anything

Francis Kissling is a Catholic. In his article at The Nation, he sees no hope that choosing a new pope will improve the Catholic Church:

[The central teachings of the church are] cynicism—teaching things that are not true—at its most damaging, and it is the foundation of the modern church. The virgin birth is only the start of it. Heaven and hell, the turning of bread and wine into the body of Christ (a core teaching that polls tell us most Catholics reject), the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven (how could her body have gone to heaven when we are now clear it is not a real physical place?), the infallibility of the pope telling these untruths and insisting that Catholics must believe them to be Catholic—this all leads directly to corrupt popes and priests who lack compassion. Lying or just fudging it demoralizes those who teach in the name of the church. From such demoralization stems the need to protect the institution and oneself, to protect pedophiles, to let women die in childbirth by denying contraception, to allow the transmission of HIV and to keep alive a dysfunctional institution. It is no accident that priests have historically had a high rate of alcoholism; not only were they isolated by the solitude of the priesthood but by the dissonance in what they were bound to teach and preach and their own understanding of life and goodness. A new pope will change nothing.

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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

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  1. Avatar of Richard Ramey
    Richard Ramey

    Rome claims a new age of wanting to join together with other denominations. But rome is rome . She will not change. It will be the other denominations who will have to compromise (give up something) in their beliefs and have to acknowledge her as the mother church of Christendom. Rome uses the same tactics that she used in the reformation to fight all who oppose her. Through the jesuits she has no trouble to kill any who will stand up to her as she did of old. The pagan ideals that she allowed into the church so her coffers could be filled in the early years of its growth are a direct contract against what the bible along teaches wrote by the very disciples of jesus. These men say they have a right to change the disciples teachings but Gal. 1 tells us different. About a dozen places in revelation describe who the antichrist is (anti , bibilicaly means “in place of” not modern meaning of against) The roman catholic church fits all of theses descriptions through history. The futurist interpretation that has become popular today with its “secret” rapture. Is from the time of the reformation when jesuits came up with the ideal to take peoples eyes off of the catholic church was being the Antichrist. Who or what person (human) has put himself in the place of God on earth = the pope. Who or what person (human) has claimed that they can forgive sins = catholic priest. In the bible it clearly states that only jesus christ can forgive sins. And there is no other name where we might be saved. But the pope (human) says it it only through him and his church. To claim to be in place of God or as God is called blaspheme .

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