World News Korner

Before everybody goes too gaga over the new Pope, keep this in mind.

Courtesy of the Catholic Herald from September of 2013:

An Australian priest who supports the ordination of women has been excommunicated by Pope Francis.

In the first such excommunication since the new pontiff took office Fr Greg Reynolds was dismissed in a letter from the Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart, which stated that “the decision by Pope Francis to dismiss Fr Reynolds from the clerical state and to declare his automatic excommunication has been made because of his public teaching on the ordination of women contrary to the teaching of the Church and his public celebration of the Eucharist when he did not hold faculties to act publicly as a priest.”

Archbishop Hart also told other priests in the archdiocese by letter that Fr Reynolds’s excommunication was “because of his public teaching on the ordination of women”, which are grounds for automatic excommunication.

Fr Reynolds is also a supporter of same-sex marriage and has attended rallies in favour of changing the definition of marriage. He has even reportedly presided at same-sex ceremonies.

He told National Catholic Reporter: “I am very surprised that this order has come under his watch; it seems so inconsistent with everything else he has said and done.”

The Pope says all the right things it seems, and has breathed new life into the Catholic church, but don't forget that when it comes to women he is no less misogynistic than his predecessors, and has done NOTHING to positively impact existing church doctrine.

And the church in the US is still operating just the way it did before Pope Francis put on the pointy Pope hat and played with the golden Pope scepter.

This from the BBC:

Roman Catholic Church official William Lynn has had his conviction for child endangerment reversed by a court in the US city of Philadelphia.

Monsignor Lynn was the first US Church official to be convicted in a criminal court for covering up sex abuse claims.

He was sentenced in 2012 to three to six years in prison but could now be released as early as Thursday.

The court said it had not been proven Mr Lynn had acted with the "intent of promoting or facilitating the crime".

Yep Popes may come, Popes may go, but the Catholic Church will always be the Catholic Church, and with their monetary resources and access to power ultimately nothing changes.

Source