What is the pope really up to?

It’s been a long time since Catholics have had a pope who likes to float trial balloons. Saying things like, he wasn’t going to judge homosexuals, or that Christ redeems even atheists.

Then this week, he told reporters on the Papal plane that: “Some think, that in order to be good Catholics, we have to be like rabbits, but no.”

As with previous remarks it was later “clarified,” but all this ad-libbing has baffled conservatives. Among them, former Senator Rick Santorum, who hoped that Vatican advisers would prevent any real change in church teaching on contraception.

“You know, the pope is the pope, but the most important thing is, as a Catholic I believe he has the holy spirit and the holy spirit isn’t going to let him make this kind of mistake,” said Santorum.

The question is, why does the pope keep doing this?
At Seattle University, Theology professor Michael Trice has a theory. The pope is telling the world, it’s OK to question these things. It’s OK to discuss what it means to be a good Catholic in 2015.

“Isn’t he already affirming many of the core values that we have hunches about already? But to have some say that globally, and have it be amplified, requires us to respond in a way by getting us in to the conversation right now,” explained Trice.

I think he’s doing what a lot of people want to see Islam do – acknowledge that the world has changed.

He’s not just telling Catholics but he’s also telling other religions that you can discuss these sensitive issues at the highest level, and God doesn’t hurl lightning at you. You can even discuss them in an airplane zooming over the ocean at 37,000 feet, while standing up without a seat belt, and God doesn’t hurl lightning at you.