Why Does the Left Hate the Pope?

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Brofessor said:
No problem! Everyone gets upset sometimes. I think you and I are essentially making the same point, actually. I very much agree with you in that many left-wing Catholic politicians, most visibly Biden, Pelosi and Kennedy, do a pretty bad job of living their faith. On the other hand, so do, say, Gingrich and Santorum. It’s such a shame to see. Let’s pray for a change of heart in our Catholic politicians, and for a viable candidate to emerge who respects all church teaching, both from human dignity and social justice perspectives.
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You might not like their looks or think they have “icky” personalities … heck you might even think them not good political campaigners or that they don’t have the skills that would make either of them a successful POTUS,BUT in what way do either of them “do a pretty bad job of living their faith?” (Santorum or Gingrich)
 
JoanREDirector said:
You might not like their looks or think they have “icky” personalities … heck you might even think them not good political campaigners or that they don’t have the skills that would make either of them a successful POTUS,BUT in what way do either of them “do a pretty bad job of living their faith?” (Santorum or Gingrich)
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The thing to remember about all of them is that they are politicians. Their interest is in gaining power, not representing any faith tradition. They’ll use whatever they have to in order to get and retain that power, including representing themselves as devoted followers of faith.
 
So the comment, “do a poor job living their faith” was about American politicians in general?

At least, Gingrich and Santorum appear to have publically repented of sins committed before their conversions. They seem to be living exemplary lives now. Neither has publically misstated or dissented from Church teaching. Neither has been anything but respectful to their parish priest, bishop, the pope or the Catholic church in general.

I’ve never heard either of them tell the poor to “eat cake.” You may disagree with their views on the budget or government management of health care and aid to the poor but I be interested in how you figure such views reflect badly on their faith life.

From what I can see, their understanding of social issues such as gay marriage and abortion are from a sincere conviction that mirrors what the Church has always taught. Does that make them “haters” or “bigots?”

Only God knows for sure what is in their hearts, but, if I were making a judgement about the five politicians from the public evidence available to all of us, I wouldn’t put Santorum and Gingrich in the same catagory as Pelosi, Biden, and Kennedy.
 
Speaking as an evil progressive, I view both rather the same. Where their goals and mine coincide, I support them. The support and outreach to the destitute to cite just one example. But the majority of the ‘deeply held religious beliefs’ of both individuals, Dalai Lama and Pope, run contrary to that which I accept.

I think the reason why the Pope gets more negative press amoung the Left in the United States is simply because he is the symbol of the dominant religion that opposes alot of the more progressive ideas. If we lived in in a country where the majority denomination were Buddhist, not Catholic, more focus would be given to them.

Roughly 80% of the population of the United States is Christian. Roughly 25% of the Unite Stated is specificly Catholic (Largest Christian denomination iirc). Total number of Buddhists is roughly less than 1% of the US population. Dalai Lama is the head of one Tradition of one of their denominations, Tibetan Buddhism (The Gelug Tradition).

So which is more in the lime light? Which has greater say in the United States? The views of the Dalai Lama affect far less in the world then the views of the Pope, who is at the head of one of the largest Religions on the planet.
 
They can’t stand being proven wrong, especially by someone like the Pope.
 
EviPolevhia said:
If that was true then why no outcry against the Dalai Lama who supposedly holds alot of the same social views as the Pope?
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I’m talking about them being proven wrong by someone who holds conservative views.
 
I’ve seen in this forum that people make a correlation between liberalism and the left.

In other countries liberal views and ideologies pervade both left and right wing parties.

Sadly, the parties in line with Church doctrine are usually in the fringe or unpopular.

Blessings!

🙂
 
I don’t purport to read leftists’ minds, but a great deal has been written about the ultra-leftist regimes and their methodologies.

The hard left is necessarily totalitarian in its heart of hearts because it seeks to make people do things they would not otherwise do; things that are contrary to the urgings of natural human conscience and human nature.

It is in the nature of totalitarian regimes to demand absolute ideological adherence, because it must do so in order to gain and retain control over human beings.

The Catholic Church is a promulgator of a competing ideology they cannot readily control because it is large and unchanging.

The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church.

And that’s why the left hates the Pope.
 
Ridgerunner said:
I don’t purport to read leftists’ minds, but a great deal has been written about the ultra-leftist regimes and their methodologies.

The hard left is necessarily totalitarian in its heart of hearts because it seeks to make people do things they would not otherwise do; things that are contrary to the urgings of natural human conscience and human nature.

It is in the nature of totalitarian regimes to demand absolute ideological adherence, because it must do so in order to gain and retain control over human beings.
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Same can be said for the hard (insert any direction here). If you go far enough into any direction, you reach control freak fanatics. Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, and Kim Il Sung. Not all on the same place in a political scale. But yet all of their governments were/are(I feel bad for North Koreans) about absolute control.
 
EviPolevhia said:
If that was true then why no outcry against the Dalai Lama who supposedly holds alot of the same social views as the Pope?
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I don’t think the Dalai Lama condemns artificial contraception.

And most of his social teachings are not exactly publicised. If many leftists who admire him knew of those social teachings, they’d join in on hating him as well as the Pope.
 
EviPolevhia said:
Same can be said for the hard (insert any direction here). If you go far enough into any direction, you reach control freak fanatics. Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, and Kim Il Sung. Not all on the same place in a political scale. But yet all of their governments were/are(I feel bad for North Koreans) about absolute control.
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I did not say that only the left has totalitarian instincts. It is, however, among those political movements that do. In the 20th Century, certainly, it was far and away the most prominent of them all demanding ideological obedience and in the suppression of religion that utter ideological adherence requires.
 
BobCatholic said:
I don’t think the Dalai Lama condemns artificial contraception.
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I said alot, not all.
BobCatholic said:
And most of his social teachings are not exactly publicised. If many leftists who admire him knew of those social teachings, they’d join in on hating him as well as the Pope.
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That is pretty much the point I was making. The Pope is in the lime light because Christians and Catholics are a massive part of the western world. Buddhism, not so much
 
da_nolo said:
The pope is not a monarch though
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Vatican City is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state, ruled by the Bishop of Rome—the Pope.

“The politics of Vatican City takes place in an absolute elective monarchy, in which the head of the Roman Catholic Church takes power. The Pope exercises principal legislative, executive, and judicial power over the State of Vatican City (an entity distinct from the Holy See), which is a rare case of a non-hereditary monarchy”

“Nevertheless, the pope has full and absolute executive, legislative and judicial power over Vatican City. He is currently the only absolute monarch in Europe.”
 
The left hates the Pope because they hate Jesus, and the Pope maintains the teachings of Jesus faithfully. They hate the Pope because they are full of pride. They don’t want anyone telling them what to do, not God or any of God’s messengers. May they repent of their pride so that they don’t die rejecting God.
 
livingwordunity said:
The left hates the Pope because they hate Jesus, and the Pope maintains the teachings of Jesus faithfully. They hate the Pope because they are full of pride. They don’t want anyone telling them what to do, not God or any of God’s messengers. May they repent of their pride so that they don’t die rejecting God.
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Perhaps pride is not so exclusive to the left…
 
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