• BarrierWithAshes@fedia.io
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    3 days ago

    I’m just going to ramble so sorry if it’s a little incoherent.

    One of the most progressive popes in recent memory. He continuously stayed in touch with the parishioners in Gaza and continously spoke out against the genocide, even on his deathbed he kept in touch with them, he encouraged Marxists and Catholics by becoming the first pope to outright acknowledge the similarities in Marxism and Christianity (doing so many times over the years), he replaced about 80% of the current cardinals with ones more progressive like he, hopefully solidifying his message and became the first ever pope to apologize and start to reconcile the relationships with the indengeious Canadians and what the church did to them with residential schools.

    He encouraged unity between the Catholic and Orthodox churches, by working out and having both churches celebrate easter for the first time since the schism over 1000 years ago, helping to mend the churches possibly even more so than Ecumenism. He was one of the only public figures actually talking about the genocide in Darfur.

    He was a proponent of LGBT peoples in the church. Definitely not on the same level as some progressive but he was the first pope to allow a LGBT+ advocacy group (Jonathan’s Tent) and give them spotlight, even giving them their own events in the calendar, also changing the direction of the church’s opinion on the LGBT community.

    He was quite often criticized by conservatives as a socialist and Marxist but really he was just following the doctrine. He also had views on refugees and migrants that I can’t recall exactly right now. With regards to the sexual abuse scandals that rocked the church in the 90s (rip Sinead o’ Connor), he toughened the canon law to further go after the priests responsible. I recall he either fired or excommunicated some priests involved in the scandal but I can’t recall atm. Imo, he should have gone farther on it but it was as a start.

    I think he should have railed a little harder against the American televangelists and the American tradcath movement but there are Christian groups doing that on their own (like the Trinity Foundation). He wasn’t perfect by all means. There were homes demolished during his visit in Timor-Leste and people displaced and he excommunicated Carlo Maria Viganò but when comparing him against the previous popes he left behind a tremendous legacy.

    He is also the only pope to release a prog rock album.

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      So he successfully put on a friendlier face on his inhumane, repressive and hopelessly backward organisation without substantially changing anything? Big whoop.