**As a born again atheist, I have less than little regard for the theology of the Catholic - or any - church. A church can do good without having any theology because doing good is an end in itself. It's what people do, not what they profess, that matters.
That's why I am impressed with the the Catholic Church's latest Pope. When I saw
this report, cited in my Twitter feed from
ThinkProgress.org, I knew I had to say something about it. The story is about how Pope Francis
"Sneaks out of the Vatican at Night to Serve the Homeless." He is accompanied by his "almoner," the guy who hands out the papal charity. And he doesn't do this with a press release and a gaggle of media. Instead he goes out dressed as an ordinary priest and just walks the Christian walk.
Can it be that the Catholic church will finally do what no leader of any institution has done: show the world by example what it means to be a caring human being? Will the power of the huge institution of the Church force the hands of those hypocrites who profess to be followers of Jesus while rejoicing in the their worldly accomplishments. Tellingly, Francis has said:
How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?
The answer is that the Christian Right, and the Right in general in this country, makes up the obstructionist faction known as the Republican party. The "party of business" is also the party of religious hypocrisy, the lapdog of the 1%, enemies of women and the largest constituent of Faux News' audience. This is not to say that some on the Left are not like them - many are liberals in name only. But at least the Left aspires to the the ideals that the Pope demonstrates in daily life. The Right, on the other hand, screams about "small government," while insisting that government stick its nose and other probes into the bodies of women; that jails pot smokers for years while letting politicians off for smoking crack; that cuts off aid to poor people while awarding bonuses and tax breaks to the very institutions whose greed oppresses poor people and wrecks the economy.
For over 30 years I was a loyal member of the Christian Science church, a bastion of the kind of hypocrisy that Pope Francis repudiates. Though I never acquired the Republican attitude, I and a few other Liberals had to sneak out of the church to do what seemed the Christian thing to do in the style of this Pope. If not always overtly political, the leaders of the church at that time were mostly of the Republican mind set. They were fond of describing their form of charity as above the messy materialism of ordinary do-gooders because they worked in the realm of
thought where "knowing the truth" meant convincing yourself that nobody was really poor, or sick or oppressed. This easy cop-out enabled them to appear charitable because they doled out some of their money to charitable causes. But you would never find them at a homeless shelter or in a soup kitchen or in a hospital or jail. And more than a few church members adopted the attitude that they needn't contribute filthy lucre because they gave all their charity to their own church.
For the sake of the world I do hope this Pope manages to stay alive long enough to turn Catholics - and especially my right-wing-nut relatives - into more genuine Christians who will join a revolution that restores democracy in the world. It will take a long time, but I hope the transformation has enough time to develop into a potent force. This is not merely a tentative hope on my part, but a reasonable doubt, especially if the Church starts to lose lots of members because of him. The last Pope who tried to restore humanity to the Church, John Paul 1, managed to die
mysteriously, to be replaced with more typical leaders.
