Sneaky Media, it isn't April Fools.

The other day I read the headline of the U.S.A. Today.  You should never read the headlines of U.S.A. Today.  I was floored.  I was stunned.  I made loud exclamatory noises and whooping cries to the air.  It was a good thing no one else got off at my train stop or I might have gotten the transit police called on me.  "On the subject of gay people, Pope Francis says 'Who am I to judge?'"

Now my excitement was later tempered when other major Catholic figures came on the various media channels.  Figures like Cardinal Dolan who clarified that Pope Francis was just reiterating the old "Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin" argument the Catholic church has been dusting off for centuries.  Its not that the Catholic Church has anything against gays.  They just have something against gays acting in a gay way.

Well it is certainly a warmer more loving position then that taken by former Pope, Cardinal, and shiny red elf shoe wearing Ratzenberger.  Pope Benedict's stance on the temporal and theological rights of gays could be described differently.  I can almost picture Pope Benedict with a position like, "If you are gay I will burn you with my Pope laser beam eyes of extreme disapproval and condemnation".

Well, I think I am really growing fond of Pope Francis.  I like the austerity measures he is introducing into the Vatican City.  I like his humility and piety.  I like his honest good will and the feeling of real warmth.  In short I get a really nice vibe from him.  The kind of vibe I haven't really felt since John Paul passed away.

I recognize that Pope Francis is in a very difficult position.  It is not easy being the charismatic leader of an organization that has been founded for the last 1500 hundred years on the principle that it is never wrong.  'We are never wrong, we never have been wrong, and we never will be wrong'.

Even at times in the past where a Pope or other Vatican leaders have admitted the catholic church may have been in error on a particular stance and printed an apology, usually for events over a century old.  Before long, the next Pope will come along and declare that the people who suggested the Catholic church might have been wrong were themselves, guess what, wrong.  The Pope is supposed to be infallible, you say.  Then how can one Pope say another Pope was in error?  I know, makes my mind go bendy too and I feel like I need a Tylenol.

In the spirit of "Love the Sinner but hate the Sin", I render this.  I am going to have to say that I love Pope Francis, but am not always fond of the office itself.  I am fond of the man, but I am not fond of the Pope the man holding that office is pressured into being.