Unpopular Opinions: 10 Wildly Popular Things in 2013 That Everyone Liked But I Didn’t Understand
The Pope: Recently named Time‘s “Person of the Year,” Pope Francis has taken the usually anti-papist, liberal world by storm with his anti-capitalist declarations and toned-down rhetoric on topics like homosexuality in the priesthood. After the tenure of the ultra-creepy Pope Benedict, which ended upon his almost-never-done-before papal-resignation, it makes sense that anyone who followed would look really good. And I admit that Pope Francis is a way better pope than what any lapsed Catholic like myself would have ever hoped for. But still, even in his apparent goodness, I have some issues with this new pope, namely that he still represents the Roman Catholic church which is one of the most problematic and corrupt institutions in the world. Pope Francis is perhaps best known for saying, “Who am I to judge?” when questioned about gays in the priesthood, and while his response was widely praised, all it did was remind me that, actually, he is exactly who is supposed to judge. He is infallible! He can judge away and his judgments are always right! Which is why the whole pope thing is so problematic. Especially when so many of those judgments lack nuance and are stuck in the teachings of hundreds of years ago. Plus, Pope Francis is still just as dogmatic as other popes when it comes to things like same-sex marriage and abortion and women in the priesthood and…oh, so many other things. I’m glad that the pope isn’t an ex-member of the Hitler Youth too, but really? I’d be just as happy if there wasn’t a pope at all.