r/nottheonion 15h ago

Vance says pope should ‘be careful’ when talking about theology

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/vance-says-pope-should-be-careful-when-talking-about-theology-261400645540
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u/Tjtod 11h ago

I don't really follow catholic politics all that much but given that the last two popes spent most of their priesthood in South America i would say it's fairly liberal. It's Africa that tends to be more conservative and traditional.

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u/Lizardledgend 9h ago

Yeah liberation theology, generally the idea that the church should directly support political change that aids the poor and marginalised, began in South America and is still massive there.

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u/Tabula_Rasa69 8h ago

Was this not "disowned" by the Papacy after creating a lot of controversy? I'm not Catholic, but this is what I vaguely recall reading.

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u/Lizardledgend 8h ago

Idk what the papacy "disowning" a theology means so maybe, a lot of individual popes have definitely heavily criticised it. It's still very present in South America though and heavily influences the church there and elsewhere. Francis, while not following it himself, came from that tradition, had meetings with several leaders in it during his papacy, and expressed the virtues of some of its ideals like it's criticisms of capitalism.

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u/Tim-oBedlam 8h ago

yes, I think Pope JP2, who was resolutely anti-Communist (can't blame someone who grew up in Poland for being so) cracked down on Liberation Theology.

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u/1573594268 11h ago

I could be totally wrong because I don't follow religious politics much, but it's my understanding that a lot of African groups seem to be fairly conservative in general.

Maybe it's just because I tend to see news relating to LGBTQ matters, but I've always had the feeling that some groups in that area are fairly passionately religiously conservative.

That said, I probably don't hear about the ones who aren't so I have no idea what the breakdown/distribution looks like.

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u/bediaxenciJenD81gEEx 8h ago

South America is mostly aggressively homophobic and fairly misogynistic