Forum Post: A bit of religious news for everyone to peruse part 1

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/is-the-vatican-throwing-its-support-behind-occupy-wall-street/

To summarize, it would appear that the Pope has sided with Occupy Wall Street against corporate greed. He and the Holy See are not happy with global financial regulation. Not happy at all. A recent paper released from Rome sees profit for its own sake without any moral control as dangerous and cruel. They see Occupy Wall Street as having every right to protest such conditions. (For the non-Catholics out there, to explain, greed is one of the 7 deadly sins; repeated instances of it will get you an awful dressing down by your pastor not to mention a long time doing penance . Going over the document released (and remembering my catechism from when I was a youngster) it would appear that to the bigwigs in Rome feel that 4 out of 7 cardinal sins have been committed-in other words, on Wall Street, sinning is off the charts and change must come..NOW.)

Granted, the Vatican is definitely not the best source for social progress on a lot of things. The truth of the matter is that it is headed by an 85 year old man who hasn't had sex since the early 50s. Benedict probably can't understand that AIDS is a disease that isn't spread by being gay and a gay priest is a moot point if an oath of celibacy is taken. And while he is right that abortion is something that should not be taken lightly (his view is understandable considering what the Nazis did to pregnant women and the retarded, including a member of the Ratzinger family) he is wrong when he says it is not warranted in an emergency, where the mother's life is at grave risk or the fetus shall not thrive outside the uterus (when the brain functions are confined to the inner brain, and no consciousness is possible.) He's also wrong about contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancy/disease.

But these are fishes to fry later.

The reason why the Vatican siding with OWS is good news is on a few counts: first, consider that Rome's OWS went violent and people started setting things on fire. This all happened on His Holiness's doorstep and he is STILL a supporter of anti-corporatism, so curmudgeon though he is, that is a HUGE deal. Second, the Pope did not support liberation theology in South America-in other words, when priests and nuns wanted to overthrow their governments in the name of the Catholic Church, he vehemently was against it-the fact that he is for OWS protesting, again, is a BIG deal. The biggest denomination of Christianity in New York City is Catholicism-45% of the city's population. That means hundreds of parishes in all five boroughs, rich and poor. It means one of the biggest charities New York State with a lot of nuns bound by poverty and obedience vows to help the downtrodden and whole orders dedicated to this pact. It means a chance to speak to the average priest, nun, or the occasional monk (they are in the phone book, go look for them) and ask for help getting supplies with their considerable resources, taking up a Sunday collection, even marching if they so please as the men in the red robes cannot grab them by the clerical collar on this one. Cardinal Dolan shall probably not be amenable to help out OWS (he's so conservative he may have been potty trained at gunpoint) but he can't overrule any of the bishops or priests that answer to him when the Pope has approved a paper with an anti-corporate message.