Wow, that was rude...I'm right here. I didn't see whatever that was about the Argentine priests and don't particularly care. Things like contraception, abortion, and gay marriage are the chief issues I care about. There's not much in my life affected by the Pope, so the broad issues surrounding perpetuated bigotry at the cost of lives take precedence for me. Not all of us drink the Kool-Aid, so the bottom line is much appreciated.
As for abortion, gay marriage, and contraception, obviously whoever the new pope was would be against those. The contraception ban will almost certainly fall in the next 30 years or so, but it won't be on a pope's first day, and it will probably be from a pope who had previously fallen in line on the issue.
Gay marriage will probably never come, but I would expect to see Episcopal-style gay blessings by the time we have a pope born in the 1980s or so. Regardless, we all knew what the new pope would think.
And the Church will probably oppose abortion 500 years from now, so it's not worth even wondering what any potential pope would think about it.
As a non-Catholic, could you help me out here? Why do you believe the hierarchy is moving slowly towards SSM and contraception, but not abortion?
Because lots of other similar-style Christians (Episcopals, Lutherans, etc.) have come around on contraception and are starting to move toward some kind of gay recognition. None of them are changing their minds on abortion any time soon, though.
The Church's position on contraception doesn't matter one bit. Everybody uses it anyway. And opposition to the War in Iraq didn't stop conservative Catholics from lining up to vote for Republicans. But it's not just the Catholics, so I shouldn't single them out. Religion is just an excuse to meet people, feel good about yourself, and criticize others for being different.
Fantastic insight! You are the
only one to have ever come close to possessing this knowledge!