So, a couple of weeks or so ago, someone showed up in DC. He was an old man. They call him his holiness. Or the pope. He came to see his followers in the new world, to say hello and to create a buzz. Guess what? He did.
The pope's visit out here seems to have been quite a successful venture for the Catholic church. He addressed probably the one big taboo that no one really thought he would... or perhaps he would brush it by or pretend it didn't exist or something else. But, refreshingly, he didn't do any of those. He took on the issue head on. He apologised for it. He prayed. He met with the victims of abuse. He apologised again. He told his flock to do better.
I am impressed. While I am not sure if it was an elaborate ruse to put the sceptics off or not, whatever the case, he pulls it off without sounding smug or looking down on the rest of us. I fully would have expected those two options. But, he seemed genuine. And he reiterated it plenty of times. No, I am not about to renounce my 'heathen' beliefs and be baptised and save my soul or find salvation or whatever...but I will say this much; his holiness pulled something awesome out of his magic trick bag. I hope the people who were abused feel a bit better. I am sure no amount of apologising can fix all that went wrong... but maybe they'll finally know that someone cares and hopefully, the bad ones get weeded out of the system.
By the way, there are three popes that I know of right now. The Greek Orthodox Pope, the Coptic Orthodox Pope and of course the most recognised pope, the Bishop of Rome.
The pope's visit out here seems to have been quite a successful venture for the Catholic church. He addressed probably the one big taboo that no one really thought he would... or perhaps he would brush it by or pretend it didn't exist or something else. But, refreshingly, he didn't do any of those. He took on the issue head on. He apologised for it. He prayed. He met with the victims of abuse. He apologised again. He told his flock to do better.
I am impressed. While I am not sure if it was an elaborate ruse to put the sceptics off or not, whatever the case, he pulls it off without sounding smug or looking down on the rest of us. I fully would have expected those two options. But, he seemed genuine. And he reiterated it plenty of times. No, I am not about to renounce my 'heathen' beliefs and be baptised and save my soul or find salvation or whatever...but I will say this much; his holiness pulled something awesome out of his magic trick bag. I hope the people who were abused feel a bit better. I am sure no amount of apologising can fix all that went wrong... but maybe they'll finally know that someone cares and hopefully, the bad ones get weeded out of the system.
By the way, there are three popes that I know of right now. The Greek Orthodox Pope, the Coptic Orthodox Pope and of course the most recognised pope, the Bishop of Rome.
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