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In reply to the discussion: Pope Francis Kisses Sick Man With Boils Showing The Healing Power Of Compassion [View all]AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)The pope is not a compassionate man. Not on the whole and in context. He is the figurative and literal head of an organization that actively works to:
1. Prevent compassionate, voluntary end of life care including Physician Assisted Suicide/Death with Dignity statues across the nation, and fights those laws with millions in political spending. An option that some people use to end suffering that cannot even be assuaged by large doses of morphine, to mask the pain while they are asleep. People who suffer for MONTHS, towards an inevitable death anyway. This is NOT compassion.
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Washington_%22Death_with_Dignity_Act%22,_Initiative_1000_(2008)#Contributions_2
2. Prevent same sex marriage laws, again, spending millions nationwide. Which leads to situations like one partner in a hospital, and another force to sit outside during the final moments of their life. This is NOT compassion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/us/politics/16webhosp.html?_r=0 (Lisa Pond lived not far from me)
3. Ban abortion/late term abortion. Forcing women to carry to term children that aren't going to survive anyway. This is NOT compassion.
http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/companion.asp?id=20&compID=39
These are not progressive, compassionate positions. The pope could change any of them, and he has not. This sort of opposition injures people who aren't even catholic.
So yes, I do judge the pope, and his entire organization, from the ground up, on ALL issues related to 'compassion' when I see this sort of charm offensive underway. I'm not buying it.