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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   26040 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 5, 2025

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Congratulations United States, you are Pope!

Edit: Sorry if that is too short but I am currently watching the livestream from Europe and am totally baffled.

Apparently a progressive in general terms, albeit not a radical one by the standards of the church.

He has an X account which, unfortunately, seems to be aimed at dunking on the US republican party.

That twitter post mostly links to a longer article on the National Catholic Reporter.

It starts by quoting JD Vance:

"There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that."

Now, JD Vance is is a Catholic, and he is making a claim about a "Christian concept" which is vaguely reminiscent of Subsidiarity.

Now, I am not a fan of non-political organizations meddling in day-to-day political affairs, be it the American Mathematical Society or the RCC. But that does not mean that these organizations should keep quiet when they feel that their teachings are misrepresented. If Trump claims that 15 is a prime number, then I will not consider it undue meddling if the AMS releases a press statement which says that he is wrong. If JD Vance had called it a common-sense, Protestant, Jewish or Hindu concept, then I would consider the NCR reaction undue, like most cases of "my religion says what you do is bad". But a bishop disagreeing with a Catholic who explicitly invoked Christianity does not seem undue to me, never mind "dunking"

Because pope Francis famously didn’t like American conservatives and Prevost was known as a brown noser.

Oh yeah, the universal teaching of the historic Church has been all about anti-the Republican Party of the United States.

I'm being forcefully reminded why Americanism was declared a heresy.

What are you on about? Pope Francis was known for disliking and distrusting conservative Americans regardless of other factors even as the USCCB became more close to the Republican Party, not less.

I don’t doubt that pope Leo XIV’s criticisms of the Trump admin are genuine, but his decision to emphasize them rather than issues with democrats(abortion, some stuff with religious freedom/antidiscrimination and education policy, LGBT+, etc) was probably contingent. He’s literally a registered republican.

I am generally skeptical of “he was only pretending to be [x]” arguments.

He was also a registered Republican.

That just means he's a US bishop, they (and indeed the hierarchy in general) tend to be seen as "quasi-Communist" on economic matters and "rabid sexists/homophobes" on sexual liberation matters.

Well, yes, because Christianity is quasi- or proto- Communist.

Luke 12:48 has "from each according to his abilities", Acts 4:32-45 has "to each according to his needs".

Interestingly, the previous Leo was not exactly pro-Socialist...

To remedy these wrongs the socialists, working on the poor man's envy of the rich, are striving to do away with private property, and contend that individual possessions should become the common property of all, to be administered by the State or by municipal bodies. They hold that by thus transferring property from private individuals to the community, the present mischievous state of things will be set to rights, inasmuch as each citizen will then get his fair share of whatever there is to enjoy. But their contentions are so clearly powerless to end the controversy that were they carried into effect the working man himself would be among the first to suffer. They are, moreover, emphatically unjust, for they would rob the lawful possessor, distort the functions of the State, and create utter confusion in the community.

His Bachelor's was also in Mathematics. I am liking this new pope more and more by the minute!

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