In light of his recent death, I’ve seen a massive number of people saying very strong things about him regarding how he is ‘going to hell’ or that he’s a terrible person, etc.
I don’t keep up with any papal administration and have no idea what it was he did wrong. I get that people just can’t handle their emotions on religion but the way people are talking about it almost makes it sound like he did something controversial but I couldn’t find anything on it.
What did he do that has pissed off so many people?
- Not even ten minutes and got plenty of great answers, thank you.
Comments
Apparently he was too woke and kept telling people things like, “love thy neighbor as thyself”.
Google “criticisms of Pope Francis” and you will get a summary.
He did nothing wrong.
He followed the Gospel exactly as his savior intended.
But conservative Christians, who hate LGBTQ people for simply existing, also hate Francis because he ministered to people from that community.
Francis gets hate from both sides. He did make efforts to be more accepting to divorced Catholics, LGBT Catholics, criticized capitalism over climate change etc. which pissed off the conservative factions of the church and gave him a reputation as a progressive pope. But he gets plenty of criticism from the progressive factions as well. It’s more about what he didn’t do than what he did. He didn’t reform the patriarchal and sexist treatment of women in Catholicism. He didn’t address the systemic child abuse rampant within the church or protect victims.
He’s the word of God on Earth, until he says something that goes against their politics , then he’s a super villain, with a whole conspiracy bullshitosphere of stupidity. Maga’d kick Jesus to the curb if came back even remotely mocha.
Too compassionate
In a time when American Catholicism is trending towards conservativism, he was pretty liberal, at least for a Pope. People criticize him on both sides, one side for being too liberal, and the other for not doing enough.
And, of course, there are lots of protestants who just hate the Pope for being the Pope, because that’s a pretty common thing.
He acknowledged that gay people might just in fact be people too, also worthy of love.
He also said we should maybe think about not trashing the entire planet in the name of capitalism.
Edgy, ballsy out-there takes…
He was very liberal by papal standards, which got more conservative Catholics really upset with him.
And then on the flip side, he was still the Pope of the Catholic Church, so he was automatically considered not liberal enough by the standards of many outside the Church.
So basically, there’s some loud people on either end of the spectrum who really hated him, regardless of anything he did or did not do.
One half of it is that as far as Catholics go, he was a very liberal leaning Pope – a lot more of the ‘love they neighbour’ than the ‘hell and damnation’ or the ‘stone the gays’
So this made him some enemies amongst the more conservative Christians.
The separately from that, while liberal, he was still the head of the Catholic faith, and so takes the flak for everything they have done (both historically and in more recent times).
So a few enemies, but honestly the general opinion I got of him seemed very positive – he did a great job of creating a more personable and friendly face to the Catholic church, and did his bit to move it forward with some slightly more modern sensibilities.
Pope Franciscus was actually a good person and not an angry hateful religious people
There were conservative religious people who didn’t find him Christian enough
Pope Francis accepted gay people saying “who am i to judge”. Washed the feet of muslim women refugees
A big think conservative catholics hated was that Pope Francis had his critiques on how the church teaches sex.
Pope francis also put more women in vartican roles
And he criticized the american church.
So really he’s just to nice and people love to be hateful
Pope Frankie will go down as a controversial pope, because while he tried to push newer ideas and a more lax version of the papal path, he stuck to tradition in areas that he thought people would be unlikely to sway from.
I think that considering how entrenched in tradition Catholics tend to be, and as a lapsed Catholic I feel like I can speak with authority on the matter, I think that Pope Frankie did what he felt would be tolerated to bring the church closer to a more loving and accepting place. He couldn’t just get up there and say that everything is fine and this is the new Catholic doctrine, cuz all Catholics need is another schism… but he did push for more acceptance and less hate…
He will be criticized for what he did do. He will be criticized for what he didn’t do.
Overall, as a Catholic that couldn’t deal with the dissonance of doctrine, I think Pope Frankie did what he could… It’s hard to change an establishment so dredged in tradition… especially in a religion that mourns our faith…
That being said, devout old school Catholics…. not big Frankie fans… and I get that… He tried to bring change to a system that doesn’t react well to change… But I do think it’s best he tried. Someone has to be willing to try.
American Catholic here. I like that Francis reached out to LGBTQ+ folks. Catholicism teaches all people are equal in dignity, and Francis insisted on treating the LGBTQ+ community with dignity. This shouldn’t be controversial but is. (I’m also not going to argue this with anyone so if you respond don’t expect a pissing match.) I like that he talked about climate change and the exploitation of the poor.
I’m disappointed that he didn’t address some of the structural problems within the church that made clerical sexual abuse not only possible but thrive for decades. The church needs a truth and reconciliation process that is open and mediated by an outside party. It needs to address clericalism and its culture of secrecy surrounding clerical problems of all kinds.
But I’m just one Catholic and this is just my very humble opinion. I like more than I dislike about him, had great respect for him, and I was very sad to hear he had died.
The people who dislike Pope Francis are not Christians, they are Antichristians. They don’t uphold the teachings of Christ, and view those who do as evil. If you hear anyone say anything bad about this particular Pope, it’s a good sign that they are a terrible person and quite likely that they want the world to be a fascist Christian theocracy.
Pope Francis faced backlash for his more inclusive approach to social issues, such as climate change, immigration, and his stance on certain church traditions, which some felt went against long-held teachings.
Armchair theologians back at it!!
He was as good as popes get, but not powerful enough to end the church’s systemic practice of protectibg chils abusers.
His views on Russian invasion on Ukraine were pretty controversial. Infamous quotes: “barking of NATO at the door of Russia” that provoked the war, “in Ukraine, it was other states that created the conflict”. That’s why he was very inpopular in Poland, despite it being a catholic majority country.
Bro declared dogs go to heaven. He gets a pass.
There’s a few things. I don’t speak ill of the dead but if you’re asking….
One thing he did was restrict the Traditional Latin Mass which a lot of people really liked. Got them going back to church again and raised up their faith. Benedict XVI thought the Latin Mass would enrich the New Mass and for a while, it did.
Now you get a bunch of bishops being mean for no real theological reason and micromanagement from Rome.
Did you know you’re not allowed to say what time a Traditional Mass is? Rome says you can’t.
Did you know that only Rome can decide where you can have one?
But the kicker is that they also invested a lot of money into a Synod on Snyodality which, amongst other things, wants to send power back to the bishops.
Edit: Example of the scenario: let’s say that if you want to remodel your kitchen, you need to file a permit with the city. However, if you want granite countertops, you now need to file a permit with the Trump White House. Doesn’t make sense, doesn’t it, given that the alleged administration wants to send things like abortion and Medicaid and the like back to the states. But for some reason, it still retains the authority to allow you to remodel with a granite countertop.
I lost a lot of respect for him after he thanked and hugged Kim Davis, the county clerk who refused to certify same sex marriages after they became legal, and after she received numerous court orders to do so, to the point where she was jailed for contempt.
The Pope comes to America, and out of all the good, righteous and charitable individuals he could have spotlighted, he picks a woman who is willfully depriving people of their lawfully granted rights. – and she wasn’t even Catholic.
It was not a good look, and reports at the time suggested he knew it and regretted it, but he never admitted it publicly.
He led a worldwide cult that shelters pedophiles, so there’s that.
Have the decades of child sexual abuse traumas been addressed? Anyone held to account?
For a Pope he was pretty dang liberal, but overall was more of a modern “moderate” in a sense so he’s taken alot of heat from both sides.
In his tenure: he’s promoted acceptance, humility, and charity. As part of this he’s openly remarked that LGBT people are made in God’s image as they are and deserving of love and kindness. As are Islamic peoples and refugees, who the Church has a duty to serve and care for with openness. This, of course, made conservatives despise him.
On the left side, you’ll see some more activist liberal elements equally criticize him for not going far enough. Meaning that while he did do the above, he never fully corrected what they see as the broken and discrimatory practices of the Church itself. He never allowed female priests and he maintained a strict ban on gay marriage.
His biggest sin to the conservative church was being an actual Christian.
From my perspective as a lapsed Catholic, it seems that a lot of the provoked ire is derived from his more critical attitude towards Tridentine Mass and his more conciliatory viewpoints towards certain groups that are often at odds with the Church, i.e. Gay People, Divorcees, etc.
Some people who do not understand how Papal infallibility, personal opinion, and rulings that are ex cathedra work were annoyed at Pope Francis’ expressing his opinion on social matters.
I’m NOT Catholic, but I do NOT think he’s “going to hell”! I admired him, I thought he was an outstanding human and I miss him.
As an Italian myself, a quite harsh criticism came from the fact that he did nothing to reveal any relevant circumstance around the case of Emanuela Orlandi. Of course no other Pope before him did anything in this direction, but since he was seen as a progressive one there was a strong spark of hope that he would solve this mystery.
The sin of empathy basically.
There’s a good article in the NY Times about his history and politics of the Catholic church. It has a lot of insight.
He called doctors who perform abortions assassins, when he was leaving our country, Belgium, after meeting with survivors of sexual abuse by priests etc.
I’m not religious person
I think that Pope Francis was the most open, sincere, and kindhearted pope. His detractors didn’t like him because of his openess and acceptance towards everyone.
I know he is in peace. One source, one light, one love.
He had empathy. A crime for the brown shirts.
Pope loved all God’s children…even the nonwhite and lgbt. US catholics are pissed because they are driven by hate for anything not like themselves.
In my opinion:
He did not convincingly address the Church’s child sex abuse, in my opinion.
He did not do enough to speak out against violence in the name of religion, specifically Islam’s killing of Christian peoples. Christians were pretty much zero’ed in every Islamic country under his tenure. And Islam has made major progress subjugating Judeo-Christian peoples and values in pretty much all other countries.
Because the right have this view of Jesus,
https://imgur.com/gallery/bCqRp
The pope had a more ‘Livy thy neighbour’ version in mind
Nothing. Reddit is just full of angry atheists
Anyone saying Pope Francis was a terrible person is, in fact, themselves a terrible person.
He told conservatives to be more Christ-like. They don’t like that
Actually following the teachings of Jesus Christ is a surefire way to piss off all the people who use the Lord’s name in vain.
Which people are saying these things?
American Catholics and American Catholicism?
Or Catholics from around the globe.
Oh god, imagine a pope who attempted to act like his lord and savior, Jesus Christ
He was an old catholic man, so he wasn’t exactly progressive, but whenever there was a reasonable chance that a catholic could have a left-wing point of view, he did. And he was vocal about it. So certain Americans really hated that. But he was anti-war as well, which is usually good but led to some “weird” opinions about Ukraine. So that didn’t win him any friends either.
It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t job
The conservative Catholics thinks he’s too liberal, and the protestants think he’s going to hell just because he’s Catholic.
Said you shouldn’t give mass to people in a dead language if you want people to show up
Said gay and trans people could be good people
Told the ultra rich in power that they should care about brown and poor people
Really gets under people’s skin
Eh. Call me old fashioned but I’m still a little irked over that whole “harboring child rapists” thing but I guess I’m stubborn.
He was head of a large powerful organization that has historically done a lot of bad things and still does. Much the same as the President of the USA. Some people hold him accountable for the evils done by his church.
I thought he was a devout, sincere, and holy man who did his best to live up to the best ideals of his church. Was he a true progressive? Of course not, nor did he ever claim to be. Nor could the Pope of the Catholic Church ever be one.
But if all Christians were as sincere and humble as Pope Francis, the world would be a far better place.
Note all the people who are condemning Francis: not the kind of people you want on your side. When the weird trad-Cath Ross Douthat, the sort of person for whom the phrase “more Catholic than the Pope” was invented, condemns you, you can rest knowing you did the right thing.
He was the first pope to actually echo the teachings of Jesus, and it turns out a lot of Catholics never actually cared much about the word of Jesus, they just wanted to feel superior to others.
Because he called out the VP
He was a relatively kind guy, especially for a pope. That doesn’t earn you many friends in this day.
He told christians to act like christians …. they didn’t like that.
He was against the killing of Palestinian children
He was too kind. Too good. Too much like Jesus. It’s infuriating to the rad right.
Probably because he tried to act as Christ would have expected. In today’s God market, that’s ‘woke’. Because, you know… Jesus was woke and all.
He was one of the good ones. Jesuits are woke.
Hes been a Trump critic.
Popes response to the US clergy, seems directly aimed at Vance spouting ordo amoris as justification for America first.
““Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extends to other persons and groups,” he wrote in his Feb. 10 letter. “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.”
no mere man stands between us and God
Met with Vance, it would give me a brain aneurysm too
I regard him well but I think he had to do more to bring justice to the rape victims.
Karl Donitz was the most liberal leader of the Third Reich.
For real though he’s probably as good of a pope as you can ask for – but when you factor in the millions of African Catholics who got aids as a result of their war against condoms – there’s only so much good faith you can get.
No matter how well he presented himself he was the figurehead of one of the most powerful and influential secret societies that have ever existed in the history of the universe.
Boils down to him being an excellent and politically savvy cult leader – and for many people that’s just not good enough.
There is no world in which Jesus would be proud of how the Vatican, Papal State and the Catholic church have conducted themselves for the last two millennia.
Other than the usual hiding child rapists, ensuring documents were withheld for the criminals he employed, allowing the church to move assets to the victims would never receive compensation, he agreed to a settlement Canadian First Nations victims of residential schools, then, when the scandal was out of the headlines, reneged on the deal.
You know: usual pope stuff.
American conservatives are mad that the pope would call for the death penalty for homosexual and other lgbt groups. Also he supported the homeless and socialist policies like equal rights, universal healthcare and universal education as well as universal housing, he also was against the genocide of Palestine and holding Israel accountable. He also was not a fan of Trump.
If you’re a right wing Christian you would probably see him a antithetical to your views if you’re more socially conservative and anti Jesus Christ ideology like feeding the poor, housing the homeless and taxing the rich and forcing people to live by the golden rule.
I thought he was the most progressive pope we ever had.
But he went a tiny bit off piste, taking about shared responsibility regarding Ukraine so time to crucify him…
Says a lot doesn’t it
I’m a Church of England/Anglican Canadian. I’m not sure he did anything wrong. He seemed to be a pretty decent guy to me. He did seem to try and build bridges between all of humanity so I can’t fault him for that.
He was too liberal for some people.
Pope Francis was far too liberal and leftist for the conservative Catholics’ taste.
He cared about migrants and the poorest humans.
Pope Francis wasn’t a puppet seeking power. He removed Pope Benedict’s large gilded throne and ornaments and went for a much more humble chair.
He preached the Bible and its tenants, you know like be nice to each other, that even means people that don’t look like you. Gays are people too, shocking!
Maybe don’t ruin the only planet we have in the pursuit of gold. Remember Jesus was sold out for a sack of gold coins.
You know he was a pretty great Pope and person, which really pisses off the Christian Right who don’t do any of what they were taught in Church.
He was a real Christian. The nasty right wingers hate that.
He preached and practiced the teachings of Christ, and that really pissed off a lot of Christians.
He was the most liberal leader the Catholic Church has ever had.
Here’s one that made me really dislike him for a while. Telling Ukraine to surrender
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pope-says-ukraine-should-have-courage-white-flag-negotiations-2024-03-09/