The 3rd Vatican Council.

Well the Pope’s stirring it. The third Vatican Council is like thinking stuff! Didn’t Catholics use to be died in the wool none thinkers, like a rule’s a rule and ever more shall be so? Well not now. “Through humility, soul searching, and prayerful contemplation we have gained a new understanding of certain dogmas.” Lady bishops and even Pope are now a possibility. All religions are now accepted as equally ‘true’. The Bible is great but “some passages are outdated. Some even call for intolerance or judgement.” Call me cynical but all this sounds like Conservative Party policy after consulting a few focus groups. If Catholicism’s truth is love and tolerance how can Islam’s numerous calls for the dismemberment of none Muslim infidels be also true? That’s the trouble with starting to think, you’re not very good at it to begin with. And then Pope Francis spent an hour haranguing racists and governments limiting migration calling them the “ultimate evil in the world”, and “a racist casts aside his humanity to become a beast, a demon! He is the embodiment and personification of evil, a Satan! ….We will consider excommunication for those whose souls willingly dwell in the darkness and evil of intolerance and racism.” Not much love and tolerance there. They seem to have jumped from the frying pan of dogma straight into the fire of teenage self-righteousness where love and tolerance are exclusively reserved for those of a similar opinion and intolerance is the righteous and appropriate response towards those who think differently. I’m beginning to agree with Cardinal Arinze of Nigeria who asked, “what do we stand for if we declare that truth is relative? On the contrary, truth exists independently of our personal feelings. All of this talk of love and tolerance is hollow if we have no identity of our own, if we stand for nothing.” In his country, “under Islamic Sharia law Catholics are no longer free to practice their faith publicly”, adding, “Is it racist to desire to preserve one’s own culture and a future for your people and your children? Have white people gone stupid today?” So Mr Pope welcome to moral complexity. It’s not easy is it.