Pope Francis condemned the “very strong, organised, reactionary attitude” in the US church and said Catholic doctrine allows for change over time.

Pope Francis has blasted the “backwardness” of some conservatives in the US Catholic Church, saying they have replaced faith with ideology and that a correct understanding of Catholic doctrine allows for change over time.

Francis’ comments were an acknowledgment of the divisions in the US Catholic Church, which has been split between progressives and conservatives who long found support in the doctrinaire papacies of St John Paul II and Benedict XVI, particularly on issues of abortion and same-sex marriage.

  • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    They’re already doing that, have been for a long time. I have a Baptist coworker who thinks Catholicism isn’t real Christianity…

    • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I had a Catholic coworker who said some of her Catholic relatives were becoming “Christians”, which turned out to mean Evangelicals.

      • Pat12@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I had a Catholic coworker who said some of her Catholic relatives were becoming “Christians”, which turned out to mean Evangelicals.

        in the US they refer to Protestants as “Christians”, mainstream Christianity is made up of Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants

        • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Right—my point is that my coworker (like the previously-mentioned Baptist) was implying that Catholics were distinct from Christians, in spite of being Catholic herself.

          • klemptor@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            I was raised Catholic and the distinction was always made between Catholics and Christians. I didn’t really understand that Catholics were a subtype of Christians until someone pointed it out to me when I was a teenager - I just thought Christians was a catch-all term for non-Catholics that believed in jesus.

            • bluebooby@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              What country were you raised in? I was raised Catholic in the Philippines and in the US and it was made explicitly clear in my education that Catholics are Christian.

              • SCB@lemmy.world
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                I’m from Ohio and there is a massive Catholic community in my hometown and “Christian” as a term was always used as a throwaway term for the various non-denominational evangelical sects.

                Catholics and Protestants do not get along, even today. When I went to college and people thought I grew up Catholic, they would try to “convert” me away from “ancestor worship and idolatry.”

    • CADmonkey@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Baptist coworker who thinks Catholicism isn’t real Christianity…

      I’ve seen a lot of that and not just recently.

    • dartos@reddthat.com
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      I think all religions are just fake copycats of the one true god.

      Praise be Flying Spaghetti Monster

    • NotYourSocialWorker@feddit.nu
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      1 year ago

      I mean, most protestant Christians dislike Catholicism, that’s why they are called protestants after all.

      The new part is American evangelicals and other extremists thinking that catholicism not being conservative enough…

    • root_beer@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Conservative Protestants have been saying that for a very long time though. The attitude is so pervasive that my wife, who grew up Catholic (but has not been one for decades), has to be reminded that Catholics are Christians.

    • atempuser23@lemmy.world
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      It’s hard to imagine now , but Catholics were not considered Christians and it was ok to openly discriminate against them. I know of people fired for that. People still try and convert me to ‘Christianity’ and claim all sorts of stuff.

      The KKK and Nixon were vocally against’Papists’