The Center for Inquiry US has issued an official statement on the election of Pope Francis entitled “Secularist Group Pessimistic for Church Modernization Under Pope Francis.” The statement is weak, and conciliatory; it appeases and mollifies an institution that deserves no consideration or respect from CFI US, a secular group that works to combat intrinsic vice and wickedness all over the world. Center for Inquiry president and CEO Ronald Lindsay claims,
we sincerely hope for the best for Pope Francis. However, even leaving aside the fact that the institution he oversees is based on a fundamentally false understanding of reality, at this stage one cannot be too optimistic about the prospects of Francis bringing the Church into the 21st century. Indeed, even the Church’s dipping a toe into the 20th century seems unrealistic.
Is the Catholic Church’s fundamentally false understanding of reality Ron Lindsay’s biggest objection to the Catholic Church? Is Lindsay’s wish list limited to hoping that Francis will change his “mindset that gives priority to dogma over basic human compassion” and bring the Church into the twenty-first century?
Lindsay’s statement is so diplomatic that it would have been better for him to make no statement at all. Lindsay calls the Catholic Church “a deeply troubled, and troubling, institution” instead of calling it a homophobic, controlling, misogynistic institution that abuses the vulnerable and steals from the gullible. It is time for people with secular power and influence to recognize and treat Francis as just another oppressor, another uncontrollable autocrat who has been elected to run the most criminal institution in the world: the Roman Catholic Church.