[phaster]

just wondering what others think of the pope?

http://www.youtube.com/embed/76BtP1GInlc

personally I think its a good thing!

[Cog]

What I think is that there is already a 15 page thread about the Pope. see page 14 and 15 the thread below.

the-pope-thread-merged-t23692.html?hilit=Pope

[kanon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'T')he earth will care not if you worship it or not. Waste of time.

[Apneaman]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'W')hat I think is that there is already a 15 page thread about the Pope. see page 14 and 15 the thread below.

the-pope-thread-merged-t23692.html?hilit=Pope

[dohboi]

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Apneaman', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'W')hat I think is that there is already a 15 page thread about the Pope. see page 14 and 15 the thread below.

the-pope-thread-merged-t23692.html?hilit=Pope

[Cid_Yama]

Pope to Chastise Republicans in Address to Congress
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he funniest line of the last few days came from Arizona's Republican Congressman Paul Gosar.

Resentful that Pope Francis might blaspheme the sacred chamber of the World's Greatest Deliberative Body with some inconvenient truth about global warming, Gosar announced he would boycott the Holy Father's visit to Capitol Hill. He then declared, "If the Pope wants to devote his life to fighting climate change then he can do so in his personal time."

Now that's funny. Not intentionally funny because this is a member of the House of Representatives who says many silly things and actually means them. Like the time earlier this year when he told a town hall that the cash from Social Security and other government benefits that undocumented immigrants allegedly were sending home made up the second largest component of Mexico's gross domestic product. Who told the White Mountain Apache tribe, "You're still wards of the federal government." A man who, though Catholic, won't give the pope the time of day but once accepted the endorsement of controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio and drove to Nevada to declare his support for right-wing lawbreaker and racist Cliven Bundy.

Also, I wonder, what exactly does Rep. Gosar imagine the pope usually does with "his personal time?" Catch up on his Netflix? Chow down at Olive Garden with his Never Ending Pasta Pass? Head to the rifle range for some target practice?

Instead, I'm guessing thoughtful prayer and meditation. (And come to think of it, what personal time?)

Nevertheless, what is surprising and undeniably significant about Francis's message is the forceful way he foregrounds a radical systemic analysis of the deep structural causes of the climate and ecological crisis, the kind of radical response required, and the political and economic forces standing in the way.

"We lack leadership capable of striking out on new paths and meeting the needs of the present with concern for all and without prejudice towards coming generations," he wrote in his June encyclical Laudato si' (On Care for Our Common Home). "The failure of global summits on the environment make it plain that our politics are subject to technology and finance. There are too many special interests, and economic interests easily end up trumping the common good and manipulating information so that their own plans will not be affected."

Example: last week's revelations from the Pulitzer Prize-winning website Inside Climate News. Their eight-month investigation, including extensive interviews and access to internal documents demonstrates that as early as 1977, Exxon Corporation was warned that "carbon dioxide from the world's use of fossil fuels would warm the planet and could eventually endanger humanity."

The petrochemical giant "assembled a brain trust that would spend more than a decade deepening the company's understanding of an environmental problem that posed an existential threat to the oil business." They seem to have been decent corporate citizens -- especially compared to today. The head of theoretical sciences at Exxon Corporate Research Laboratories even wrote, in 1982, that their "ethical responsibility is to permit the publication of our research in the scientific literature. Indeed to do otherwise would be a breach of Exxon's public position and ethical credo on honesty and integrity."

And so they did publish, but then, according to the Inside Climate News investigative team:

Toward the end of the 1980s, Exxon curtailed its carbon dioxide research. In the decades that followed, Exxon worked instead at the forefront of climate denial. It put its muscle behind efforts to manufacture doubt about the reality of global warming its own scientists had once confirmed. It lobbied to block federal and international action to control greenhouse gas emissions. It helped to erect a vast edifice of misinformation that stands to this day.

And so it goes. "The alliance between the economy and technology ends up sidelining anything unrelated to its immediate interests," the pope wrote in his climate encyclical. "Consequently the most one can expect is superficial rhetoric, sporadic acts of philanthropy and perfunctory expressions of concern for the environment, whereas any genuine attempt by groups within society to introduce change is viewed as a nuisance based on romantic illusions or an obstacle to be circumvented."

An obstacle to be circumvented -- which brings us back around to the GOP of Paul Gosar and his ilk. Just two weeks ago, Politico's Andrew Restuccia reported:

Top Republican lawmakers are planning a wide-ranging offensive -- including outreach to foreign officials by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office -- to undermine President Barack Obama's hopes of reaching an international climate change agreement that would cement his environmental legacy.

The GOP strategy, emerging after months of quiet discussions, includes sowing doubts about Obama's climate policies at home and abroad, trying to block key environmental regulations in Congress, and challenging the legitimacy of the president's attempts to craft a global agreement without submitting a treaty to the Senate.

It is not for nothing that since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the gas and oil industry has contributed more than $1.8 million to McConnell (and it's not for nothing that in the short time since 2010, when he was first elected to the House, Paul Gosar has collected nearly $200,000 from the energy and natural resources sector).

Joe Romm of the indispensable Climate Progress blog wrote:

McConnell's actions end the pretense that the GOP leadership has any interest whatsoever in trying to globally address the gravest preventable threat America faces... I'm not sure a major political leader has ever pursued a strategy that is so directly counter to the health and well-being of all Americans, their children, and the next 50 generations.

It is cynical, hypocritical, mercenary and willfully destructive: many things this pope seems not to be. By all means, let him speak to Congress. When it comes to climate change, he will be a breath of fresh, unpolluted air.

[Cid_Yama]

Following the Pope's speech to Congress which chastised Republicans and called on them to support Progressive values, John Boehner, A lifelong devout Catholic, has decided to resign as Speaker of the House as of October 30th.

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cid_Yama', 'F')ollowing the Pope's speech to Congress which chastised Republicans and called on them to support Progressive values, John Boehner, A lifelong devout Catholic, has decided to resign as Speaker of the House as of October 30th.

[Cid_Yama]

Boehner is not only resigning the speakership but also his seat in Congress. He can no longer support the Republican agenda. It is contrary to his principles and his faith.

[onlooker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t is not necessary to believe in God to be a good person. In a way, the traditional notion of God is outdated. One can be spiritual but not religious. It is not necessary to go to church and give money , for many nature can be a church. Some of the best people in history did not believe in God while some of the worst deeds were done in his name.

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cid_Yama', 'B')oehner is not only resigning the speakership but also his seat in Congress. He can no longer support the Republican agenda. It is contrary to his principles and his faith.

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('onlooker', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t is not necessary to believe in God to be a good person. In a way, the traditional notion of God is outdated. One can be spiritual but not religious. It is not necessary to go to church and give money , for many nature can be a church. Some of the best people in history did not believe in God while some of the worst deeds were done in his name.

[Cid_Yama]

Onlooker, that quote is false. Someone made a facebook post with a picture of Pope Francis and that quote attributing that quote to him, and it went viral. But he never said it.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/popeatheist.asp

And, unsurprisingly, Cog attacks Catholicism.

[onlooker]

Thanks Cid, I suspected so.

[Cid_Yama]

The Pope took Boehner's Confession before he announced his resignation. I would have loved to have been a fly on that wall.

Wonder what Republican evils he revealed.

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cid_Yama', 'T')he Pope took Boehner's Confession before he announced his resignation. I would have loved to have been a fly on that wall.

Wonder what Republican evils he revealed.

[onlooker]

Dont know what to make of his crying was it genuine or not? I suspect not a I also saw that senator Rubio a Republican crying. Too much of a coincidence.

[Cog]

Catholics get real emotional about the Pope for some reason.

[Cid_Yama]

The Pope DID NOT meet with Kim Davis
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')his is what it sounds like when a pope gets mad.

On Friday, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi released an extraordinary statement, personally approved by Pope Francis, debunking nearly everything that has been reported this week about a meeting between the pope and Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who has refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The private meeting between Davis, her husband, Joe, and the pope, which Davis’ attorney says took place at the Apostolic Nunciature (Vatican Embassy) in Washington, D.C. last Thursday? It didn’t happen. Instead, Davis was one of “several dozen persons who had been invited by the Nunciature to greet [Pope Francis] as he prepared to leave Washington for New York City,” Lombardi said in the statement.

The statement stressed that “the only real audience” — private meeting— “granted by the Pope at the Nunciature was with one of his former students and his family.” As CNN reported Friday afternoon, that student, Yayo Grassi, happens to be an openly gay man who brought along his partner of 19 years. “Three weeks before the trip, [Pope Francis] called me on the phone and said he would love to give me a hug,” Grassi told CNN.