Big Guy Posted July 24, 2015 Report Posted July 24, 2015 While North America represents the richest Catholics in the world it does not contain the greatest number of Catholics. Just Brazil has more than the USA and Canada combined. I believe that the Pope is quite prepared to lose a few in North America to maintain or increase the flock in the rest of the world. Quote Note - For those expecting a response from Big Guy: I generally do not read or respond to posts longer then 300 words nor to parsed comments.
WIP Posted July 28, 2015 Author Report Posted July 28, 2015 While North America represents the richest Catholics in the world it does not contain the greatest number of Catholics. Just Brazil has more than the USA and Canada combined. I believe that the Pope is quite prepared to lose a few in North America to maintain or increase the flock in the rest of the world. And he's probably noticed that the nations of the world with the large Catholic populations do not accept the American way of doing things. I'm sure a lot of his re-emphasis on issues like poverty have to do with the huge falloff in numbers the Catholic Church experienced under JPII and Benedict. They were taken for granted as masses of people who would also be there....until they stopped coming to church and joining new evangelical churches and such. What I've noticed from what's been covered on the Pope's Encyclical, is that his core message has largely been overlooked: that being that he sees the environment as an issue where people have to demonstrate concern for those who live far away from them and even for those in the future, who haven't been born yet. Some ethicists like Peter Singer, have challenged readers to show how their ethical concerns relate to those who are far removed from them personally; apparently the Pope is declaring that Catholic ethics has to be truly universal in both space and time....which I see as good news in an otherwise bleak subject area. Quote Anybody who believers exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist. -- Kenneth Boulding, 1973
-1=e^ipi Posted July 28, 2015 Report Posted July 28, 2015 And he's probably noticed that the nations of the world with the large Catholic populations do not accept the American way of doing things. That's probably why they are so poor. Catholicism encourages poverty. Quote
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