I see that the Pope (not the Burnley keeper) has been quoted as saying that couples not having children is an ‘act of selfishness’.
Bit rich (but not as rich as the Catholic Church) coming from a celibate singleton.
Pope Francis for me is a legend and I can see where he is coming from when you look at what he is saying from a deeper picture :
"Francis was lauding Joseph's decision to bring up Jesus as "among the highest forms of love" when he veered into the topic of adoption and orphaned children today. He then turned his focus on couples that opt for animals instead of children.
"We see that people do not want to have children, or just one and no more. And many, many couples do not have children because they do not want to, or they have just one -- but they have two dogs, two cats ... Yes, dogs and cats take the place of children," the Pope said. "Yes, it's funny, I understand, but it is the reality. And this denial of fatherhood or motherhood diminishes us, it takes away our humanity. And in this way civilization becomes aged and without humanity, because it loses the richness of fatherhood and motherhood. And our homeland suffers, as it does not have children."
Religion has hypocrisy at its heart.
Besides, you can't impregnate alter boys, even with divine intervention.
Religion at its heart is following natures way eg living in harmony . As for impregnating alter boys your going to get bad apples wherever you go eg priests ,teachers, doctors ,lawyers, judges etc .
I’d say buggering kids is selfish too, abhorrent in fact but he doesn’t seem overly interested in really picking at that scab…
Pope Francis has changed the way church deals with child abusers in the church now and is extremely strong on this matter. They cant hide behind religious vows or moved on as has been the case on occasion but have to come clean and feel the full weight of the law.
I say to anyone who knocks Pope Francis take the time to watch a dvd of him titled a man of his word. His love and warmth has brought hardcore criminals to tears . He models himself on St Francis of Assisi a man who gave up a life of riches to live like the poor and to try to help them.
Its the easiest thing to criticise others the pope included as were all flawed and even Pope Francis has alluded to the fact that he is a sinner as well and asks for forgiveness but the man for me is genuine and a beacon of hope for many . If more people cut the sarcasm and mockery and showed a bit more love as Pope Francis and Jesus tried to do the world would be a much better place to live .
Iam saddened that some of you lads eg knutsAndersVostersVoles and Aldi especially have a go at religion as you guys have expressed some nice stuff in the past eg the way you support Grimsby players in times of difficulty and some other nice sentiments. Likewise even Ginny you have showed me you have a heart as well.
I reckon had you been in contact more with genuine members of the Catholic clergy your attitudes would change somewhat for the better. I know this as well eg direct experiences/actions as opposed to empty words are far more likely to change someone stance to somebody/something for the better. I was lucky as well to further have this experience after going to the holy land in 2018 and having a very sincere priest take the pilgrimage. Likewise growing up after many difficulties Ive had genuine priests who helped me enormously deal and try to heal childhood and teenage trauma
Amen.