That’s it! Henceforth, any time I say or write Kim Davis’ name I will preface it with “Lawless.” Lawless Kim Davis.
Her pro wrestling name?
Actually, the pope can be wrong in things that aren’t ex cathedra statements. In this case, I don’t expect him to know the intricacies and legal history of this case–I suspect that he got some bad advice.
But come on, people–you know he opposes abortion and gay marriage. What is there to be disappointed about, really?
The Pope doesn’t only meet with people who he agrees with or who he supports. Uh, he met with Obama and they have many things they disagree about. He met with prisoners and he does not endorse the crimes they are serving time for. I do find it very strange that he met with Kim Davis because it was stressed over and over that this was not a political trip but one focused on religious matters. Of course that wasn’t true either because he kept bringing up political issues like global warming.
I think the Pope is okay, a genuinely nice person, but I don’t think he’s a great scholar like the two previous popes. He doesn’t consider all the consequences of his actions and what they might mean. He may have agreed to meet with Kim Davis because he thought she was a person who needed his help and guidance, but he didn’t consider how it would look to Americans.
He is probably against lots of stuff. Did he have a clandestine meeting with anyone else? The baker who wouldn’t bake the wedding cake for the gay couple? Maybe she should visit Eric Robert Rudolph in jail too. They obviously knew this was a politically sensitive issue in the US or they wouldn’t have been so mum about it.
Does anybody think the Pope has been reading American newspapers about the Kim Davis case? Somebody advised him that meeting with her would be a good idea.
Thought I read some high ranking person at the Vatican put it on their agenda. That person needs to be demoted.
Certainly we are aware of the Pope’s stand in gay marriage. While he is definitely trying to soften the tone of the Church, it doesn’t mean policy has changed. Having said that, he had a choice as to who he would visit, and he chose Lawless Kim Davis. He visited lawless prisoners, too, though they are being punished for their crimes. Of all the people he could visit, I don’t understand this choice. Further, he is a principled man, so why hide the meeting. I am a bit disappointed.
Got to agree with Hunt. The guy (Pope Frank) is a pastor, after all. Lawless Kim Davis needs all the spiritual counseling she can get. 
I think a lot of people on the left (including me, I confess) had this fantasy that this new Pope was going to wave a magic crozier and change all of the antiquated positions of the Catholic Church that we don’t like. He’s obviously not going to do that. I do admire him for what he has done, though. I think you can only rationally expect so much.
That old line about does a bear poop in the woods, and is the Pope Catholic - well yes, in fact the Pope IS Catholic. But being Catholic can include differences of focus and emphasis. Francis doesn’t support gay marriage or abortion, but neither does he appear to think that the sum total of the church should be about opposition to gay marriage and abortion. As far as I’m concerned, that’s huge.
Under Benedict, the church began an investigation of the Nuns on the Bus because they were not sufficiently anti-abortion. It wasn’t that they were for abortion, but that they were focused on other things such as poverty and lack of education. Francis stopped the investigation, and had an audience with the Nuns on the Bus. Not a difference in belief, but a different focus.
As far as the infallibility of the Pope, I put that right up there with the Immaculate Conception as one of the most misunderstood tenets of Catholicism!
The problem with him seeing Kim Davis is it seems to contradict a lot of what he has been putting out there. The Catholic Church is not likely to change its view on same sex marriage, I doubt very much you will ever see the church sanctifying same sex couples. The problem is that he by seeing her seems to be condoning what she did, that it was okay for her to take the law into her own hands and deny same sex couples there legal rights. In effect, with Kim Davis what the Pope was doing was the equivalent of seeing a prisoner and condoning what they did, rather than simply offering them pastoring, he was de facto endorsing what she did. The Church on one hand has often told its members that there is a duty to the law, that there is a duty to follow the law, yet in this case he is being seen (whether he meant to or not I don’t know) as telling her it is okay to violate the law, especially given she is a civil servant, based on her religious beliefs, which is something the church would not approve of I suspect for other issues.
It doesn’t surprise me, though, because the Pope has done more than a bit of this, he will seemingly soften on some things, and then will come up with a doozy that leaves people scratching their heads.He also is probably worried that Catholic Conservatives were seeing him as being too liberal, so this reassures them that he isn’t changing anything. Part of being the Pope is like any leader, it is political, and he has a lot of people to be accountable to in many ways.
My issue is, of all the thousands of people who would appreciate 10 minutes with the pope, why did he or his people pick her?
We heard afterward that he stopped to see the family poisoned on vacation and that was understandable. There must have been thousands of people who are sick or poor or otherwise in dire straits that he could have seen. Kim Davis is not even catholic and I’ll bet her fundamentalist church has a dim view of Catholics. I mentioned earlier the vicious rhetoric I had read among some evangelical Christians against the pope.
If it is true that he met with her, it is a disappointment.
I don’t see how visiting prisoners is remotely similar to meeting with Kim Davis. He is not condoning the prisoners’ crimes, but evidently he does condone Davis’ lawlessness.
The whole thing has me feeling kind of like this . . .
saintfan, too funny. You found a way to bring football into a discussion of Pope Francis. Good job.
Well the football season also has me feeling like that but for different reasons 
I don’t expect the Pope to stop being Catholic but it seemed like he was going to stop with the witch hunts and fanning the flames of the hard core social issues contingent. I don’t know that it is true because I heard it on a partisan “talking head” show, but the speculation is that a very socially conservative Vatican official scheduled the visit. Here is an account of that report:
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a38440/pope-francis-swindled-kim-davis-meeting/
You make me sad, saintfan. I relayed that story back in post #190. You don’t read my posts? I feel so, I don’t know, lonely. Kind of like I’ve been undrafted or something.
Sorry - I was at work all day and not on the computer - then home to trouble shoot kid at college with overheating car, dinner, dog walk and now am sitting down to catch up on the day. I admit to being one of those people who clicked on the bookmarked threads tab and went to the most recent edition of this thread. I started last page. I was already out of the house when you scooped me at 5:19 am.