The church doctrines are basically socialist, but with a god as the elite leader. No wonder the pope promotes socialism as a good thing.

Turn the other cheek, you are your brother's keeper, and other such garbage is what the church promotes, after all.

The pope is supposedly the one with GOD's phone number, and therefore in some sort of control of whether you are going to "heaven" or "hell" (wherever THEY are...). Thats the source of his power.

I HEREBY CONDEMN THE POPE FOR BEING IRRATIONAL

And read Ayn Rand"s article "Requiem for Man" in Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal.

Well, is anybody surprised?

He is a pedo file enabler if not one himself.

= Child Protective Farce? What is it supposed to stand for?

I know, I'm preaching to the choir on this forum, but I just felt the need to say it! :-)

Somebody should remind the Pope of the old saying, "A rising tide raises all boats." I would rather enjoy the standard of living I enjoy in the USA today (upper Middle Class) than be the pharaoh (number 1 dictator in all the known world) back 3,000-4,000 years ago. For one thing, if I have a tooth abscess, I can go to a dentist. Back then (even if you had access to the best court magicians in the world), chances are you're not going to get cured. (Note that they believe Ramses II had horrible teeth that caused him excruciating agony every minute he was awake.) Then again, we have air conditioning. The pharaohs had slaves that waved big fans on them, but I think I'll take central A/C any day. Where did this higher standard of living we enjoy today come from? (refer back to my first sentence). Real knowledge of the physical world and how it operates may take awhile to get started, but after awhile knowledge becomes exponential (because it grows on itself). The motivation to succeed (and given sufficient patent protection of inventive people) means that good ideas benefit more people under Free Markets (aka "Capitalism") than under Central Planning (aka"communism"). Long live F. A. Hayek AND Ayn Rand!

Belief in fantasy has unfortunately kept mankind from evolving for years, and it could ultimately destroy us. Religion is simply evil. We can do so much better.

I was brought up Catholic but got rid of that monkey decades ago. I always noticed the paintings and statues in the churches always had facial expressions as if they were totally stoned on some really strong weed or snorted a bit too much coke. I figure this pope got into the Vatican stash and hasn't any brain cells that function rationally anymore. A good advertisement to avoid mind altering drug use.

As an ex-catholic, the Roman Church has lost it way starting back in the 1100's AD and it been on a slow decline ever since. The current Pope is so ingrained from his roots in So. America he is preaching a Socialist agenda. I feel for all the world wide believers that they don't see the eventual demise of the Church.

Belief in God is individualistic and self serving, the other attributes and altruistic attitudes may be part of the individuals belief system.

I was raised Catholic and was well schooled in pope-worship. I attended Catholic school, so I got a full dose of the nun's adoration of him, and I understand where it is coming from, even though I share literally none of it. In addition, my mother was a convert (the worst kind of Catholic) who really wanted to have all the credibility and recognition of a nun, without all the pesky requirements of having to give up everything and going to live in a convent.

The thing I don't understand is why the pope is considered to be a world leader, and why do even protestants pay him FAR more attention than I think he would garner, given they don't share his religion. I mean, why do they even notice him? Yes, I know he's the leader of a huge religion that has ridiculous amounts of money....but I have NEVER seen Catholics give more than a passing glance at, say, Billy Graham, or other protestant leaders such as MLK. And yet people of all faiths (except Muslims and people of no faith) just get all goo-goo eyed over the pope. If they think THAT much of him, why aren't they Catholics?

C P F????a new anacronym??

Indeed. It applies to every level. It's why we shouldn't be in the business of government welfare either, because there you are taking money from people to give to those whom the politicians think are in need. We used to rely on individuals for charity and our nation was the stronger as a result. When government gets involved, it just imposes burdens on everyone involved - and usually ends up bungling everything anyway.

He is a commie! No two ways about it. I am not a Catholic....but I wish we had John Paul back. Being Polish....he knew the evils of collectivism.

On a national level, that's taking care of America first.

Are we inter-dependent? To some degree, sure. But can we ever care for someone else if we haven't first seen to our own needs? Nope. And that's self-interest in a nutshell. Doesn't matter if its a parent-child relationship, a child-elder parent relationship, or anything else.

Yes, from now on he is Communist Pope Francis
to me!

He's not hypocritical. He means it. He a misanthropic mystic viro collectivist who hates life on earth and individual achievement for individual goals. Everything belongs to the collective for the common good, which we have a duty to serve by the standard of living for a supernatural beast in another world. Pure evil. At least some previous mystic collectivist popes opposed the Communists. Not this one.

Any organization that hides kid diddlers is the lowest of the low. Bilge scum...

Laughed at "communist pope"...

Poopie...haha...

He was a communist before he was pope...now he's a communist pope...just another swamp creature to expose.