Sigh. Pope Leo’s first sermon…

[CurlewKate]

“"A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society,"

I don’t know why I expected anything different. Maybe because he likes Wordle?

Maybe people were hoping he would say something of substance. The Catholic Church has a lot of things to sort out before people start seeing them as someone who can speak about morality in my view….

There’s no way this thread would be still standing if it was about any other religion.

That’s really not what the pope does. He’s the head of the Catholic Church 🤣

The leader of the Catholic church is not irrelevant to anyone who isn't Catholic at all. The church is powerful and many people in positions of power throughout the world are Catholics. The leader of my secular country is a Catholic. So the direction the pope sets does ripple across the world in different ways, with different levels of influence - to think the catholic church is irrelevant is very naive.

Of course, people who have faith often neglect mercy and are involved in the appalling violations of human dignity and inflict wounds on society.

Just because someone has faith does not mean they are a good person - and can't do awful things.

A new roof. Isn’t that what every god fiddler wants?

Why are you assuming that all, or even most nazis were atheists ? Statistically it's likely a fair number of them were religious as atheists are such a tiny minority in the world. And yes I know the official party line was not church-friendly, but that doesn't mean they were all atheists, just as promoting the tall blond aryan ideal doesn't mean that Hitler and his cronies came anywhere close to said ideal.

And if you add up all of the body counts throughout history I'm fairly certain religious people win the palm.

I don't need a two thousand year old book with outdated notions of right and wrong to teach me ethics and morals.

Oh, honey.

No need for the pathos. I note the OP fucked off fairly early on in proceedings however.

It's not like Mumsnet at ALL for some Goady McGoadface to swing in, drop a few clangers, then sail off into the sunset.

I appreciate the pope’s focus on the poor and oppressed as well as the need to love God and love your neighbour. The two are hand in hand to me. I have friends who are athesists but they think I’m wrong and I think they are wrong. We can live with that & still be friends but it’s silly to pretend that people of faith and atheists don’t disagree significantly. It would be very worrying (and bizarre) for Christians if the pope thought it was no big deal if people are atheists. You can’t simultaneously believe in a life giving God, creator of all life and source of all love and mercy…. And think it’s completely unimportant if you believe or not.

Agreed. And on the flip side there are many decent atheists in the world doing the right thing because of integrity rather than because their god is watching.

Not catholic but I am pleased with the new Pope, seems a good act to follow Francis, who was mostly a good egg in my book.

Quite. Some of us would like to watch the news without this being the top story.

Agree with you OP - linking belief in God to good morals is absolutely wrong. You don’t need to believe in God/follow a religion to be a good person and know the difference between right and wrong. Do unto others…it should be in all of us regardless of belief

@CurlewKate Is it a slow day today, OP?

I have a faith and some of the best and most loving and honourable people I've known in my life didn't/haven't.

However, expecting a Pope to do anything other than disseminate traditional belief of the RC kind would be like asking an atheist to become a cheerleader for organised religion.

I guarantee that you don’t know the kind of adversity that spawned religion.

He's the Pope! If he can't big up faith, who can. Not everything is about everyone. Just because something is on TV doesn't mean that it's message is intended for every person who hears it. He's talking to catholics, not to you.

That’s all well and good, but OP was complaining about the fucking POPE linking faith to good morals, which should really not be surprising to anyone, whether they agree with his points or not.

But he’s not. He’s talking about people without faith. Those people may therefore have something to say about what he said.

That’s some narcissism in play there, chick. Have you thought about reading the Bible? 😂

The more I read it back, the more I think he's speaking directly to Donald Trump. But that could be wishful thinking.

You could say that vegetarians oversaw the most murderous regime, seeing as Hitler was a vegetarian.And also a Christian.

There have been many regimes where people who are supposed to be religious and to believe in the 10 Commandments have been in charge of murderous regimes, including Hitler.

Then look at the way people have been treated, and continue to be treated, by people who claim to be religious.

Jesus would be labelled as woke nowadays and his views on how others would be treated would be mocked by some leaders who proclaim their faith.

The Good Samaritan - I bet that some leaders don't understand the meaning of that parable.

So basically - just because you have faith does not automatically mean you are a good person.

And not having faith does not mean you can't be a good person.

Linking faith to good morals.

I can think of so many people who have faith who lack good morals and have certainly forgotten some of the basic teachings of Christianity.

This!

Being seen in church each weekend is not the same as having faith and actually living a Christian life.