“You’re looking so well, darling, you really are. They’ve done a marvelous job. I don’t know what sort of cream they’ve put on you down at the morgue but I want some. Honestly, you look better than you have in years. You look like you’re alive.”
He was a genuinely good man.1 And the best Pope of my lifetime. He will be missed.
That's coming from an atheist.
1 Edit: after reading through feedback on this comment, I agree with the dissent. While I think he really wanted to make a change to the Church in positive ways, he was never going to be able to clean the stain of the child SA scandals and moving priests around instead of prosecuting.
I think that is the strongest point of dissent; he was at the helm during one of the worst SA scandals the world has ever seen. There is no defense for this. Nor would I even want to try to defend it.
But I also think it's fair to say he was still the best Pope of our lifetime. I'm aware that's not saying much, as the Church is not a net benefit to humanity. None of them are.
If we're all lucky, one day we won't have religions f'ing everything up. I would love to Baker Act the whole lot of them. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Scientologists, Hindi, Flat Earthers, et al. They all sound the same as the guy wearing a tinfoil hat running up to people on the street yelling about demons or monsters or some other such nonsense.
I'm not religious at all, but I can respect people who actually listen to the teachings of their holy book and use it to spread peace rather than to use it as justification to be a shit human being. Pope Francis was a progressive voice that the world needed, and I only hope that his successor doesn't undo the good he was trying to do.
flickerdown on April 22nd, 2025 at 12:20 UTC »
“You’re looking so well, darling, you really are. They’ve done a marvelous job. I don’t know what sort of cream they’ve put on you down at the morgue but I want some. Honestly, you look better than you have in years. You look like you’re alive.”
HaveNoFearDomIsHere on April 22nd, 2025 at 13:12 UTC »
He was a genuinely good man.1 And the best Pope of my lifetime. He will be missed.
That's coming from an atheist.
1 Edit: after reading through feedback on this comment, I agree with the dissent. While I think he really wanted to make a change to the Church in positive ways, he was never going to be able to clean the stain of the child SA scandals and moving priests around instead of prosecuting.
I think that is the strongest point of dissent; he was at the helm during one of the worst SA scandals the world has ever seen. There is no defense for this. Nor would I even want to try to defend it.
But I also think it's fair to say he was still the best Pope of our lifetime. I'm aware that's not saying much, as the Church is not a net benefit to humanity. None of them are.
If we're all lucky, one day we won't have religions f'ing everything up. I would love to Baker Act the whole lot of them. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Scientologists, Hindi, Flat Earthers, et al. They all sound the same as the guy wearing a tinfoil hat running up to people on the street yelling about demons or monsters or some other such nonsense.
IncognitoBombadillo on April 22nd, 2025 at 14:44 UTC »
I'm not religious at all, but I can respect people who actually listen to the teachings of their holy book and use it to spread peace rather than to use it as justification to be a shit human being. Pope Francis was a progressive voice that the world needed, and I only hope that his successor doesn't undo the good he was trying to do.