‘Existential’ refers to the actual experience of living life. When the Pope is using ‘existential alienation’ he’s referring to the living experience of being alienated from Gods love. As human beings we experience Gods love primarily through our real life relationships with other people. People can know about the theory of Gods love for them and believe in it but still not experience it.
There are people who are materially poor and people who lack knowledge - true knowledge - of right and wrong. Some are not putting their aging parents in nursing homes. They are caring for them even if it means they can barely get by.
I’m not really sure of what point you are trying to make, Ed?
Amen!
This is a very astute observation. It gives clarity to the ambivalence that may of us feel when we hear the pope speak in this way.
Sure. And instead of stating that homosexual acts can lead to hell we got “who am i to judge”
God bless Pope Francis. God bless those who help the poor.God bless Francis.
Yes, it is difficult to know exactly who the rich are. Those who have a billion dollars are obvious. What about those in the West who can afford cable TV? Or an occasional novel from the bookstore? Billions of people can barely afford enough food to keep up their health let alone anything someone in the West would call a house. By global standards, most of us are “rich”. Can very easily lead to scrupulosity. The Western and global definitions of “barely getting by” are very, very, very, very different. Even the homeless of my Canadian city, whom I do feel compassion for and support through donations to the Archdiocese’s charitable arm, don’t go hungry…there are so many soup kitchens available everyone is well fed if they want to be. That’s not sure for much of the world.
And that’s the problem.
Some things are not clear. Life is not a series of clear cut, black and white, yes/no decisions. We each have to make our own decisions and do our best to live properly. That is what life is. There are no easy simple answers to some questions.
Not all decisions are black and white - a choice between good and evil. Many times, it is the choice between a good and a lesser good.
Yes, but we cannot provide false clarity where none exists out of fear that the masses are incapable of handling the more nuanced or complex reality. People are better and more capable than their “leaders” sometimes suppose. People are capable of working through the messy issues of life; they don’t have to be fed kindergarten-level simplistic explanations. They can handle the real world.
So what you are saying is that since there is no clarity, we can make up our own reality.
If that is what I meant, that is what I would have said. The fact that a system is complex does not mean it is completely undefined.
Not all topics are amenable to simplicity. Why is it that people understand that there is nuance, subtlety and complexity in the arts, and complexity and uncertainty in physics and science, but want religion to be black and white with child-like simplicity? That is simply not the way the world works. Life is complex. Telling people its not is not doing anyone any favors.
Rule number one of reading the newspaper… Don’t only read the journalists imaginative headline and think that’s the whole story. “POPE SAYS 'YOU DON’T HELP THE POOR, YOU GO TO HELL”. That’s not what Pope Francis said.
No because the Church is not against sinners.
Well, your answer lacks any explanation about the proud and powerful sinners being threatened with fire and brimstone.