Pope Francis Will Do Nothing

“The new pope inherits a church wrestling with an array of challenges that intensified during [the term of] his predecessor, Benedict XVI — from a priest shortage and growing competition from evangelical churches in the Southern Hemisphere where most of the world’s Catholics live, to a sexual abuse crisis that has undermined the church’s moral authority in the West, to difficulties governing the Vatican itself.” — from Rachel Donadio‘s N.Y. Times report, filed about an hour ago.

In other words, these days fewer Catholics live in the Northern Hemisphere (i.e., northern Europe, the U.S.) where the education and income levels are somewhat (and in some instances dramatically) higher than in the Southern Hemisphere, excluding certain urban pockets in Africa, South America, Asia and the Middle East. In other words, the bulk of the Catholic Church’s current following is among the somewhat less well off and less educated and less hip in the less developed areas of the world — am I reading that right? In other words devout Catholicism has become a culturally downmarket thing.

It’s kind of analogous to the readers of Playboy, no? They were a fairly hip crowd in the ’50s and particularly in the ’60s and ’70s when the sexual revolution was underway, but the demographic has been trending more and more in a downmarket direction since the ’80s.

Correcting Jeff

” In other words, the bulk of the Catholic Church’s current following is among the somewhat less well off and less educated and less hip in the less developed areas of the world — am I reading that right?”

No, but we won’t do your research for you.
jedgeco

Classy way of siding with the oppressed, JW.
- DuluozGray
  
  Oppressed? Who are the oppressors?
  
  Why is it anytime someone’s poor, they must invariably be oppressed by someone?
  - jedgeco
    
    Being born into poverty or a country with low/no economic development is a form of oppression.
    
    Don’t get so damn defensive.
    - DuluozGray
      
      then you’re using the term wrong, like many Left wingers use the term wrong.
      - punkedup
        
        Funny how obssesed this tough libertarian guy is with labeling everything “Left Wing”
moviewatcher

” In other words, the bulk of the Catholic Church’s current following is among the somewhat less well off and less educated and less hip in the less developed areas of the world — am I reading that right?”

So stupid people = religious people.

Oh, jeff, not every single catholic is Michelle Bachman. You need to go back to the “Isaac and Ishmael” episode of “The West Wing” and see the scene:

“Islamic fundamentalism is to Islamic
what
KKK (or the tea party, or creationists) is to catholicism”

Oh and your demographic/geographic research is wrong. I think you need another trip to wikipedia!
- DuluozGray
  
  The KKK or the tea party. Nice, I see what you did there.
  - moviewatcher
    
    hehe, maybe it was a freudian slip. But I just wanted to say that what the KKK believes, and what the majority of the Tea Party believes is not representative of most catholics, who understand that the bible is an alegorical text and don’t think that the woman was actually created off of Adam’s rib.
    - DuluozGray
      
      I’m just curious where you got this idea that Tea Partiers were Catholic? They’re definitely Christians, I’d say, but Catholic? I’d bet not very many at all are Catholic.
- AnnaZed
  
  You seem to be just a tad addled; I can tell you for an absolute certainty that Klan members and Tea Party members are vociferously NOT Catholics and that in fact fierce anti-catholic rhetoric is a pillar of both of these singularly ignorant ideologies.
AnnaZed

I don’t know folks; that’s pretty much what I took away from the event myself – though trust Jeff to throw it and himself out there to the wolves.
coxcable

The Catholic Church signed its death warrant in the sixties when it decided to lay off criticisms of world capitalism. Even with advances in science and physics, it could have maintained a strong moral foothold in the world by just sticking up for human rights and the impoverished. This Jesuit (sort of Catholic Jedi) pope COULD BE a step in the right direction. Latin American Christians are probably the most genuine Christians philosophically.

Just keep watching the American media. If they demonize him for palling around with dictators, he’s probably a good man.
- DuluozGray
  
  Capitalism is the best way to go from being poor to having money.
  - Jerry
    
    Don’t confuse the commie.
http://twitter.com/myownhausfrau myownhausfrau

So, fear and loathing for this pope..? ( I didn’t know Bacon illustrated those Hunter S. Thompson books.)
http://allsortsofposts.wordpress.com/ AHB

This was a great political move by the cardinals. In one fell swoop they please everyone in their fastest growing constituency while ensuring the new guy doesn’t last over 10 years.
http://twitter.com/Jim_Goodwin James Goodwin

Catholics = Playboy readers. Devout Catholics will LOVE that.
zantetsupowaa

So he has something in common with Obama.
Mike

“In other words, these days fewer Catholics live in the Northern Hemisphere (i.e., northern Europe, the U.S.) where the education and income levels are somewhat (and in some instances dramatically) higher than in the Southern Hemisphere, excluding certain urban pockets in Africa, South America, Asia and the Middle East.”

You’d expect someone from the Northern Hemisphere, where education levels are higher, to know that 99% of Asia’s land and population, 100% of the Middle East’s, and the vast majority of the population of Africa are in the Northern Hemisphere.
IRRITABLE BOWEL CINEMA

Some of the most obnoxious no moral compass assholes that I encounter also pride themselves on being elite over-educated hipsters.
Mr Bohemian

Bread tho art and wine tho art and always shall be.

Patrick Magee Luther 1974
what a great cast for an art house movie.
chien_clean

It’s a great thing to not be hip.

Hollywood Elsewhere

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Pope Francis Will Do Nothing

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