Pope urges Catholic priests to help poor, shun careerism
Source: Reuters
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Beginning a busy program of Easter events, Pope Francis on Thursday urged Catholic priests to devote themselves to helping the poor and suffering instead of worrying about careers as Church "managers".
Francis' homily at his first Holy Thursday service as Roman Catholic leader was the latest sign since his surprise election two weeks ago of his determination that the 1.2 billion-member Church should be closer to the poor.
"We need to go out, then, in order to experience our own anointing (as priests) ... to the outskirts where there is suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for sight, and prisoners in thrall to many evil masters," he said during a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.
The 76-year-old former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina has inherited a Vatican rocked by a scandal in which documents leaked to the media spoke of alleged corruption in its administration and depicted prelates as fighting among themselves to advance their careers.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-urges-catholic-priests-help-poor-shun-careerism-112315330.html
Matariki
(18,775 posts)so far.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)I hope he keeps it up. And I hope he doesn't have a short reign if he does do so. There's a lot of cleanup to do.
msongs
(67,405 posts)The Second Stone
(2,900 posts)when is he moving to the official papal apartments and out of the hotel with the other cardinals?
I think that he has to have some security, so he can't just live in any old apartment in Rome, but it would be nice to see him take one or two small rooms.
I think that he might actually do something like that.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)Hekate
(90,674 posts)Word is he never lived in the elegant Bishop's residence in Argentina, but rather kept an apartment of a few small rooms with one heater, and cooked his own meals. He never used the chauffeur-driven car that came with the job, either, but was a familiar sight on public transportation.
The man is the real deal, in terms of personal humility and commitment to social justice.
At the moment he is living in the Vatican's guest house rather than the palace, and apparently intends to continue doing so.
Whether he is able to resist the combined will of all the other residents of the Vatican in eschewing ostentation will be a real test of his own strength, imo.
caseymoz
(5,763 posts)If this keeps up, I could love this guy.
However, if this keeps up, his papacy might end as abruptly and John Paul I.
I'm waiting to see.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)This gives me hope. Finally, a Pope who at least understands what Jesus was talking about.
This could change a lot of things . . . if it lasts.
There is hope, but we shall see what really happens.
FreeBC
(403 posts)Anti-abortion tops everything else, at least in the States. US priests would instruct their parishioners to vote for a party that favored eating the poor as long as they were anti-abortion.
ForgoTheConsequence
(4,868 posts)"help the heterosexual Christian poor".
denem
(11,045 posts)Read up on the guy if you don't know.
ForgoTheConsequence
(4,868 posts)Didn't realize that AIDS/HIV only infected homosexual non-Christians. Do you always associate HIV with gays?
Malik Agar
(102 posts)An official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the CDC's estimate Monday that in the United States AIDS is fifty times more prevalent among men who have sex with men ('MSM') than the rest of the population.
Please don't take this as a gay bashing post.
ForgoTheConsequence
(4,868 posts)There is a reason HIV rates are higher among gay men. That doesn't mean that all people who have HIV are gay. That's plain bigoted and hateful. If you think HIV is a "gay only" disease you're about as dumb as Reagan.