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Aswad -> RE: "Lesbian couple in Wyoming denied Communion" (4/8/2007 8:05:35 AM)
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ORIGINAL: vield
Best run for pope if you wish to make significant change in the Catholic church. They make their own rules and enforce them. It is NOT a democracy.
If you want to make a significant change, the correct office is not pope. It is the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. Even the pope listens to them, most of the time, and the current pope was previously the leader for this congregation. Bear in mind that, to the Catholic faith, a pope is a representation of the divine on Earth, and is not supposed to say anything that isn't in line with the doctrine unless said pope has had a divine revelation to the contrary.
One assumes LGBT has no effect on the likelyhood of a divine revelation occuring.
And, no, it isn't a democracy. Many things aren't. I don't get why it is necessarily always a good thing, either, as humanity is one sum that is less than its parts. Whenever people form packs, whether they be social units or nations, they act less rationally and intelligently as a whole than the individual members do. I think this is why all currently practiced democracies are based on limiting the amount of damage any one term can do, rather than maximizing the amount of good.
Democracy became a fixture following the contrast-rethoric of WW2, where it was used as a contrast to fascism.
When you consider that democracy is not only allowing, but empowering, the majority to impose their will on the minority, that a revolution can only be accomplished by defeating the majority (arguably wrong), that major change is a case of a minority making a sustained effort over time to overcome the inertia of the majority, and that the majority contains enough conditioned beliefs that they will defend against the minority opinion... It's not a pretty picture. And it is not improved by the fact that mass media and such allow powerful groups to fortify their positions as powerful, as well as giving them disporportionate control over the majority.
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A good friend was barred fron the catholic church after sexual reassignment surgery. She has gone up through many levels of the hierarchy trying to win acceptance, but the best she has gotten was that if she confesses she was wrong and promises to practice celebacy she might be allowed back in.
Yes, changing a majority opinion can be a challenge for a minority, or an individual. It only takes one correctly placed individual to change it for all, though. The previous pope was rather progressive; the current one is preserving the status quo until he dies, as he very definitely didn't want the position in the first place; the next one will most likely either be a coloured person, in which case we'll most likely see few big changes (as he'll likely be more concerned with not doing anything wrong than with doing something right, in order that more coloured people be considered for positions in the church in the future), or he'll be someone progressive, in which case we will see changes; after that, a progressive pope is exceedingly likely, and we'll see further changes.
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