Pope Francis: One Year at the Vatican

[~Legend~]

'Pope Francis Celebrates a Year of Change at the Vatican'

A year after becoming the first non-European pope in more than a millennium, the Argentine pontiff continues to challenge the status quo. That's evident again in his choice to celebrate his first year, untraditionally, outside the walls of the Holy See

Pope Francis has spent his first year in office challenging Vatican custom and the he’ll celebrate the anniversary of his papacy in the same fashion, as the first pope in decades to mark the occasion outside the Vatican walls.

The first non-European pope in more than a millennium will spend the week of preaching and prayer at a retreat with the Roman Curia in a small town 15 miles from the Vatican. The decision to break with tradition by leading the Curia—the Vatican bureaucracy—outside the Holy See for his one-year anniversary evokes Francis’ efforts to reform a church he has criticized for being too insular.

The Vatican has also marked Francis’ first year in office with the release of an e-book that compiles quotations from the pope’s first year in office.

In the 12 months since he succeeded the conservative and tradition-bound Pope Benedict, Francis hasn’t shied from challenging Vatican rules and Catholic custom. He travels in a Ford Focus rather than the papal limousine; he lives in the Vatican hotel rather than the Vatican’s papal apartments; he raised traditionalist eyebrows when, on a flight after a visit to Brazil, he was asked his opinion on homosexuality and answered, “Who am I to judge?” The Argentine-born pope—and TIME’s 2014 Person of the Year—has imbued his office with rare rock star status. He has initiated a profound change in style—if not always in underlying substance—at the Vatican that many believe is reinvigorating the world’s largest religion.   



     

[aleksandar_gojkovic]

The way i see it - ONLY pope that deserves to be a pope. All others were greedy sons of guns :P. I mean, the last one had a POPEMOBILE FFS!

[JDC]

I'm agnostic and I personally despise organized religion, but I like this pope.

Some critics say that he isn't "progressive" or radical enough, citing his refusal to outright accept homosexuality. But in an institution as conservative as the Catholic church, you can't suddenly flip the table without consequences. I would personally like to see this man remain as pope for a long time.

[~Legend~]

I'm agnostic and I personally despise organized religion, but I like this pope.

Some critics say that he isn't "progressive" or radical enough, citing his refusal to outright accept homosexuality. But in an institution as conservative as the Catholic church, you can't suddenly flip the table without consequences. I would personally like to see this man remain as pope for a long time.

Absolutely.

The way i see it - ONLY pope that deserves to be a pope. All others were greedy sons of guns :P. I mean, the last one had a POPEMOBILE FFS!

Just a colloquial name.

All of them have some sort of 'popemobile', but it's generally not a Lamborghini (despite being in Italy), more so something to help them engage with the public while moving around.

[aleksandar_gojkovic]

All of them have some sort of 'popemobile', but it's generally not a Lamborghini (despite being in Italy), more so something to help them engage with the public while moving around.

Yep, but, all of them had a great and rich lifestyle. Point of Christianity is getting rid of material possessions, living a spiritual and humble life, having tolerance to everyone, spreading religion, love, loving everyone and everything including your worst enemies. This pope fullfils everything in this list. One of the examples of how a pope should be is when people came to visited the Pope, pope washed their feet and kissed them. When the man which is in charge of all catholich Christianity does that you know that he is the right one. I presonally hate all Popes simply because they were completly opposite to this one. This one is the true one and even with my hate to catholics i like this one.

BTW, my hate to it is because of this:

As a part of my religiouse teachings we needed to know something about every form of Christianity. I went to a cathedral in Belgrade, and frankly it was beautiful. There i saw a man kneeling, praying and crying, begging the Lord to forgive him for his sins that he did in the wars on Balkans and killing many Serbs. I was touched really. Than a nun approached him and asked why is he crying, what sins he made? He told her about many Serbs that he killed, and she just replied:

But my son, there is no need to cry and beg for forgivnes, killing a Serb is not a sin.

I may be accused here for spreading hate, but sorry people, sorry to all members of catholic religion, but THAT coming from a nun... That is waaay too wrong!

[~Legend~]

Yep, but, all of them had a great and rich lifestyle. Point of Christianity is getting rid of material possessions, living a spiritual and humble life, having tolerance to everyone, spreading religion, love, loving everyone and everything including your worst enemies. This pope fullfils everything in this list. One of the examples of how a pope should be is when people came to visited the Pope, pope washed their feet and kissed them. When the man which is in charge of all catholich Christianity does that you know that he is the right one. I presonally hate all Popes simply because they were completly opposite to this one. This one is the true one and even with my hate to catholics i like this one.

I think some denominations of the religion put more emphasis on living a unmaterialistic life than others (e.g. Protestant churches; their buildings and clothing are generally more simple, perhaps not so grand). I wouldn't say Christianity is about getting rid of material possessions, but more about respecting one another, living responsibly and sustaining the world around - alike other world religions.
The wealthiest person on the planet can at the same time be the kindest and most caring of other people's woes. Being wealthy does not make him impious, and he is not obliged (due to being rich) to care.

The Pope is a lot like a king - he's the only absolute monarch in the whole of Europe, and the papacy was once at the heart of the feudal world as an influential player in the political landscape. The power it wielded came from the territories that it managed and I would say that opulence is often just a by-product of successful rule. The Holy See is easily comparable to nobility around the world, ranging from the Earls and Dukes of Britain to the great princely houses of India. And talking about these latter royals, the Travancore Royal Family are one example who ruled over the southern tip of the country for centuries. In the last 5 or so years they made headlines internationally when a so called treasure trove worth up to $30 billion was found in one of their temples. The maharajas had served as the custodians of these riches for generations, saving them perhaps in case of a great calamity. Despite of all this wealth, which arguably even to this day makes these royals among the richest in the world, they live very humble lives - recently the king even turned down a special edition Rolls-Royce Phantom that was offered for his birthday, saying that he had other cars to get him by.

I think that wealth and graciousness and care for others can all be very independent of each other. Just because someone lives in a palace, surrounded by dozens of attendants does not mean that they are incapable of showing compassion and doing something meaningful for others.
I feel that the various popes have simply carried their mantles differently and expressed themselves as they have chosen to. Their historic background gives them a title and arguably a 'throne' which they don't have much of a say about; in that, they cannot change the actions of the past when their predecessors reigned as feudal patriarchs, appropriate leaders of a time which would have demanded certain qualities which we may not identify with in the 21st century. We shouldn't judge them because of that.
In the last few decades the Catholic Church have ventured on new projects on a global scale and I think they're heading in the right direction.

That nun you mentioned - I think what she said was much more political than anything to do with her religion. Maybe she was just trying to console this person and explain to them that they were merely doing what was asked of them in war (and not murdering someone)?

[Abraham]

I think we're ready for a black pope.