What is up with the Pope?

I don't know how to process the Pope?

Some people say he is the single most powerful person in the world! He spoke at the United Nations this past week. While at the UN he stated that he believes strongly in religious freedom. What exactly does that mean for him? Is he saying that any religion or belief is game? It almost feels patronizing when someone of dogmatic belief states that he/she believes everyone should have the freedom to believe whatever they want [even though they are totally wrong].

How does someone who thinks his words/edicts carry the same weight as if God himself --as if the spokesperson for God here on earth--get to speak to the UN anyways? My guess is that if I met a guy on the street who claimed that he spoke for God I would classify him as delusional, but for some reason the Pope doesn't get this title. The Pope believes that when he eats bread during communion it turns into the real flesh of Christ and vino the real blood of Christ. The convincing proof for this? No one walks down the street saying these beliefs out loud. Why not?

So many people have beliefs that others don't hold to. If we restricted people of faith from saying anything this would most likely be a quiet world or at least U.S. In the case of the Pope, however, his very identity is that of the Pope and everything he says is 'coming from the Pope'. This is much different than say the Catholic believer who works for some organization that feeds impoverished children. The identity within which that believer functions is as an employee of the organization not an employee, if you will, of God. So when this person go to speak before congress on the issues facing America regarding starving children she will be heard as the advocate for children not a Catholic who is weighing in on this issue.



Here is a quote from his speech I found interesting.

"The victims of hardship and despair, whose human dignity is violated with impunity, become easy prey to the call to violence, and they can then become violators of peace,"

This sounds touching possibly insightful, doesn't it.

First of all, shouldn't the Pope have a talk with God about violating peace by sending billions of people to hell. Second, how can one be a violator of peace when that peace is in the context of economic depression or oppression? Maybe they are the adjudicators of oppression? What is peace under false pretenses? Isn't it just a quiet hell?

Now why does he feel this way about these oppressed people? Is it because he cares about protecting himself or is it because he cares about the victims of hardship and despair? Of whom does he speak in this quote? Most likely Islamic radicals, but alas, we know based on evidence that many violent activists have been highly educated. Let us hope that he doesn't forget about violence between Christians in certain African nations that he claims to have a heart for.

The Pope doesn't believe contraceptives should be passed out for fear of stopping one of God's children from being born [with AIDS]. He says he has concern for Africa. Do his actions really speak to this? Does tying the hands of the nuns who work with the people to prevent the spread of AIDS work to attenuate abject poverty and suffering?

The Pope advocates for peaceful strategies for addressing conflict. Is this based on reason or faith? If on faith, why should I listen to him when someone says the exact opposite also in the name of faith. My point here is that when you make edicts on how the world should work and those edicts are based on faith in a random religion many questions arise about the validity of what this person has to offer everyone. Also, I can't help but wonder that the reason this man is given the time of day has nothing to do with anything substantive he has to offer (aside from power over a certain group of people) but the fact that he represents a religion that is intimately connected to the recent history of much of the world manhandled by the Catholic church. So what is this opportunity to speak at the UN? Some sort of concession? Why do we give such credence to the words of the Pope?