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Notes -
To give a charitable interpretation to what Pope Francis is doing at that "pagan ritual" (better Catholics here please correct me).
The Catholics basically believe that other religions of the world might be somewhat directionally correct, but imperfect. This is what allowed The Church to integrate so many "pagan" practices (like traditions around Christmas) into the religion, and was a major contributor to its spread. So a Catholic encountering some pagans in the 5th century or whatever might say "well, yes, I can see that you are trying to approach and understand God, but you haven't gotten in quite right. God revealed something to you here, maybe, but we've discovered or had revealed to us a lot more; you are in fact worshipping the same God, and there might be something useful here, but we're a lot further along in our understanding. You should convert to Catholicism and we'll share what we've learned with you."
Basically Pope Francis is watching this ceremony the way I might watch my child explain an idea about how to make a racecar. I'm happy that he's trying to think through the problem, and I don't want to discourage him, so I'll entertain it; but my actual hope is that someday he grows up.
I don't know I have my gripes with Pope Francis (leave the latin mass alone); him watching some native american dance thing is pretty low on the list.
Hell, he might grow up, earn a degree in mechanical engineering, and...build racecars.
Indeed! At least thats what the Irish did.
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