The Pope and a Pastor
While I am an ordained minister, I tend to stay far away from religious discussions, outsides of academic intrigue.
A favorite point along this line, academic intrigue, oblique that it might be, is the currently unresolved conundrum about Shakespeare’s faith. Catholic and Church of England (nominally Protestant) claim him, and with the witchery in various plays, King John, The “Scottish Play,” and A Midsummer’s Night’s Eve come to mind immediately, making the author’s very pagan beliefs quite clear, what it amounts to is we don’t know. There’s even a sense of a Buddhist ideal in the quote I used for this year’s overview, “Love all, trust few, do harm to none.”
The current Pope is doing a substantial job of bringing the High Church up to more modern understandings. See this take?
“In comments likely to enhance his progressive reputation, Pope Francis has written a long, open letter to the founder of La Repubblica newspaper, Eugenio Scalfari, stating that non-believers would be forgiven by God if they followed their consciences.”
I’ve encountered two “holy men” that truly embody this energy. One was a chance encounter after a fishing trip when I bought Catholic Priest a cup of coffee, a random act of kindness, that sparked a conversation that left me changed – for the better.
The other a Virgo guy, Mama’s pastor. He’s in my feed on social media, and I love his willingness to take a stand, sometimes, in opposition to the mother church’s dogma.
So this current Pope, he seems to embody that radical thinking that we should let love …
