Dang

It's official: Pope has not abolished sin, says Vatican

The Vatican felt compelled on Tuesday to deny that Pope Francis had "abolished sin", after a well-known Italian intellectual wrote that he had effectively done so through his words and gestures.

The singular exchange began on Sunday when Eugenio Scalfari, an atheist who writes opinion pieces for the left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper, published an article titled "Francis' Revolution: He has abolished sin".

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Wishful thinking on the part of a libertine, or, rather, atheist.

Abolishing sin doesn't lead to Rousseau, it leads to the Marquis de Sade.

Sounds like Eugenio Scalfari got a little bit over excited there :shock:

Maybe Scalfari thinks he has the power to abolish faith?

Faith cannot be explained to those that do not have it, nor does it need explanation to those that do have faith. Faith is not a uniform state either. The faithful can 'believe' differently as well (we see that illustrated by Christians on DP every day).

Scalfari said he had not used a tape recorder or taken notes when he met the pope but reconstructed the long session from memory afterwards and made additions to help the flow of the article.

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Must be nice to be so all knowing that he was able to use his "memory" and "make additions" from the Pope's own words so that he (Scalfari) could make such a revelation.

Beaudreaux said:

Maybe Scalfari thinks he has the power to abolish faith?

Faith cannot be explained to those that do not have it, nor does it need explanation to those that do have faith. Faith is not a uniform state either. The faithful can 'believe' differently as well (we see that illustrated by Christians on DP every day).



Must be nice to be so all knowing that he was able to use his "memory" and "make additions" from the Pope's own words so that he (Scalfari) could make such a revelation.

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At least he and other non-believers are getting a positive message from this Pope albeit extremely misguided if they think sin no longer exists according to the Pope.

Monserrat said:

Sounds like Eugenio Scalfari got a little bit over excited there :shock:

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So did Berlusconi.

SBu said:

So did Berlusconi.

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Inappropriate.

He got over excited with the wrong people aka teenage kids.

Monserrat said:

Inappropriate.

He got over excited with the wrong people aka teenage kids.

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Eh, not everyone has a sense of humor.

SBu said:

Eh, not everyone has a sense of humor.

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Especially over the internet

Monserrat said:

At least he and other non-believers are getting a positive message from this Pope albeit extremely misguided if they think sin no longer exists according to the Pope.

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I've said this before but will repeat myself: Many progressives may be destined to disappointment because they are going to learn that the Pope is Catholic.

nota bene said:

I've said this before but will repeat myself: Many progressives may be destined to disappointment because they are going to learn that the Pope is Catholic.

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Sin is subjective among Christians, note.

nota bene said:

I've said this before but will repeat myself: Many progressives may be destined to disappointment because they are going to learn that the Pope is Catholic.

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eh...all it takes is one person to sway their opinion on the Catholic church. This pope hits the right buttons with them and they're too shortsighted to look any further then that.

Risky Thicket said:

Sin is subjective among Christians, note.

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Not really just some forms of it have a greater appeal to humanity then others.

Monserrat said:

eh...all it takes is one person to sway their opinion on the Catholic church. This pope hits the right buttons with them and they're too shortsighted to look any further then that.

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They will see clearly when he affirms his church's stand on abortion.

nota bene said:

I've said this before but will repeat myself: Many progressives may be destined to disappointment because they are going to learn that the Pope is Catholic.

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Conservatives can't seem to hide their disappointment!

I'm not, nor have I ever been a Catholic, but I've seen the clips of the annual homilies by the pope, which show up every Christmas, and Pope Francis doesn't say much that is different in substance than the previous two right wing popes. But, the difference is where he puts the emphasis! For JPII and Benny, they did their thing about the poor and greed being one of the 7 deadly sins, and then it was on to getting in women's vaginas! But, this new pope says let's turn down the heat on those issues and get back to talking about the importance of the social gospel.

Worth noting here that some independent religion observers in Latin America believe that one of the big reasons why Catholicism has gone from being the only religion to collapsing in Central America, Brazil, and even Chile and Argentina, started with the complete repudiation of liberation theology by JPII and wrapping it all together with communism, so any references to social justice and taking on the militaries, wealthy landowners and foreign corporations was frowned upon, while the bishops and cardinals went palling around with the members of the ruling class.

Pope Francis had to walk a fine line during the days when Argentina's military rulers were using death squads to disappear everyone they didn't like, while trying to alleviate the suffering of the lower classes. When he makes statements like this one during the spring: “A way has to be found to enable everyone to benefit from the fruits of the earth, and not simply to close the gap between the affluent and those who must be satisfied with the crumbs falling from the table, but above all to satisfy the demands of justice, fairness and respect for every human being.” That's a little more underlining than the Catholic rightwingers are comfortable with hearing.