A "Progressive" Pope is an Oxymoron
Any Pope that doesn't immediately move to accept all people and right past wrongs is a Bad Pope
As an atheist and critic of religion, I didn’t expect to be writing about the goings on in the Catholic church regarding the selection of a new pope. The media is abuzz with the potential replacement, and as of the writing of this piece, one has just been decided upon. From the initial reports it seems to be an American, Robert Prevost of Chicago, who has been critical of notable right-wing politicians and policy on social media. Some are saying this is a continuation of the “progressive” legacy of the late Pope Francis as this is the first Pope from North America.
However, the evidence is simply not stacking up behind this claim.
A few tweets here, a hedging of comments there, and not outwardly going after certain groups does not make a religious leader a progressive. As Hemant Mehta points out over at the Friendly Atheist-
- the previous pontiff was never really a progressive in policy or in ways it mattered. A few tweets here, a hedging of comments there, and not outwardly being a bigot does not make
It takes more than that, especially if you’re the head of a sovereign state like the Pope is. Remember, same sex marriage remains illegal in Vatican City, women can’t hold high ranking office, and the church routinely blocks access to reproductive services anywhere it can. This is not to mention the child abuse cases that run rampant through the Catholic church.
This is something that every single Pope, including even the newly chosen one, Robert Prevost of Chicago, has been complicit in covering up. Even as recently as 2022, Prevost has been in headlines for refusing to open investigations into child sex abuse allegations. These allegations specifically involving Prevost predate the death of Francis, yet in under 24 hours, the conclave saw fit to give this individual even more authority.
One would think an organization with an eye towards the future would find this kind of thing disqualifying, yet the highest levels of leadership in the Catholic church find just the opposite.
Prevost and the church also maintain that women are lesser than men and ought not hold high religious office. The new Pope has consistently held that members of the LGBTQ community are lesser in the eyes of his god and are not due the same blessings and respect as others. Furthermore,he has supported, as did the prior Pope and high-level leadership, the opposition to removing statute of limitations laws concerning sexual abuse crimes against children. Why would this supposed “progressive” head of the church be in favor of that?
We need to be clear on what this means for a purported spiritual and moral authority that has billions of followers world wide -I hope the honeymoon period for the first American Pope concludes quickly. The Catholic church has very serious problems, problems that any Pope could take massive steps to resolve very quickly. For all of Pope Francis’ lip service to the concepts of acceptance, he did very little to make it possible with the authority he had. If anything, he kept the church treading water in the middle of the last century while the rest of us freethinkers moved on.
That is not progress.
The Pope could tear down its gold-plated statues and gilded halls and secret vaults and use that treasure to feed the world. He could reject anti LGBTQ policies around the world – the new Pope has seen firsthand how love is love and equality under the law is extremely important – and not just say things that are later walked back by a PR team. Finally, the church could, under an ostensibly progressive Pope, turn the corner on its decades of known child abuse from residential schools to contemporary allegations and live up to the purported moral authority to which the church claims to be.
You don’t have to be an atheist to know that hands that DO are better than hands that pray, let us all hope this new Pope understands that too.
Agreed