In Name Only

Once again the Catholic Church has missed an opportunity to enter the modern age. Instead of electing a progressive, inclusive Pope with an understanding of the complexities and diversity of our society, they have installed another stern, authoritarian figure sure to drive more worshippers from the ranks by imposing his narrow- minded views of morality on the rest of us good Catholics. When will the dogma driven patriarchy in Rome realize that they need to stop desperately clinging to outdated traditions and quaint beliefs more suited to a less enlightened era? It's time to drop the nostalgia act boys and join the real world.

It begins with their simplistic Manichean view of "good" and "evil". Come on. We don't live in a black and white world. Reality is much more subtle than that and the Church hierarchy needs to begin seeing the world in its true shades of gray

Then there's the whole "forgiveness of sins" thing. So judgmental. Who are they to decide that what I did was wrong? Don't judge me until you've walked a mile in my sandals Padre.

We all know that you can't legislate morality. When is the Church going to get off its high horse and understand that you can't preach it either? Nothing drives people away from their faith faster than when the Church tries to tell them how they should act. We're all adults here. And the choices that we make on our own time shouldn't be anyone's business but our own. I don't need some Probing Priest in my bedroom, my doctor's office, or my hospital room lecturing me on what I have to do to be a "good Catholic."

The Catholic Church would be great it wasn't for the religion.