Serious question, for those who know more about Catholicism and its influence on the world: Should we be concerned about the passing of this pope?

Submitted by twovests in vote_satan

I know the pope has some weight of influence, and that this pope was on the liberal/inclusive edge. I know he wasn't a radical leftist trans catgirl or whatever, but it was probably a good thing he was saying "If you're 'gay' that's basically 'a-okay', c'mon" and not "Science says gays are disordered and God says they go to super hell."

But, I really don't know how important he was. Is he a totally unimportant funny little guy with a funny hat and a funny car? Or does his position in the Catholic world have a ton of influence on peoples culture, belief, and politics?

I feel like the entire world is sliding towards fascism, and losing this guy might actually be a bad thing. I just have practically no pulse whatsoever on how much

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cute_spider wrote (edited )

djt is doing bad things to the far-right brand rn, especially in europe. So I have hope.

And as far as Wrestlemania Easter is concerned, Easter had the biggest story moment. Holy shit. So I think this pope has opportunities to re-establish what it means / looks like to be righteous. That feels like too much hope but that's fine i can have...

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twovests OP wrote

Replying to cute_spider (#24,863)

I totally forgot it was easter. I guess there is some relevance. I can understand why the lore of the pope makes him a big deal (jesus's nth-removed best friend!), and the whole "easter, jesus, death" think.

I've worked indirectly with a church of radical leftist catholics (this is not an exaggeration, these guys fucking rule) but I don't know how large the fraction of catholicism they represent.

I very much want a reason to have optimism for the world, and these thoughts gave me new things to consider which adjust me a small notch more optimistic. The positive delta for hope for humanity is not much, but we've been increasingly starved for such positive deltas for so long that this small morsel feels like a feast.

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hollyhoppet wrote

with so many other things to be worried about the uncertainty around how the next pope will be is pretty low on my list

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missingno wrote

It's hard to really say for sure whether the next pope will be better or worse, or what impact they will have.

But I do think the pope's influence is somewhat diminished by how hyper-polarized the world has become today. No homophobic Catholic will hear the pope say that gays aren't so bad and have their minds changed, they'll dig in their heels and complain that now the pope has gone woke too.

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Alessia wrote

I hear that Frankie was stacking the College with his boys, like 80% of eligible voters were appointed by him. The new guy is still going to be top dog of the world's biggest reactionary institution but I don't think he's going to be the flog 'em and hang 'em type.

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underscores wrote

I'm pretty sure most of the cardinals that decide the next pope were put appointed by this one, so I don't expect they'll be that different. But there's more than a billion catholics, so even minor differences can have big effects.

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