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Pope Francis has died

reuters.com

161–170 of 875 posts

Re: Pope Francis has died

#161

Last year, an interviewer asked Francis how he envisages hell. His response stayed with me: “It’s difficult to imagine it. What I would say is not a dogma of faith, but my personal thought: I like to think hell is empty; I hope it is.”

Nothing from the Bible indicates that hell is empty, so that is indeed an interesting response from the Pope.

[deleted]

Re: Pope Francis has died

#162
post #95

Why is this posted on HN, even twice? It’s not like other news sources won’t announce this. The pope had its good and bad sides, but in the end we should remind ourselves he’s just a human being. It’s OK for HN to inform about people here, but shouldn’t they be somehow related to any topics HN touches? The popes was just a guy who somehow got popular because of some quite successful religion - but I’d personally pref…

Two thoughts:

- The pope was not only a very important religious and political leader but also wrote and spoke about the relationship between humans and technology [1, 2]

- I joined Hacker News due to its links but stayed for the community of smart and thoughtful people (and the great moderation). Oftentimes, a HN submission acts as a seed crystal for "off-topic" discussions that people want to talk about. As the people that make up this community get older, and as the times change, the topics we discuss change, too. At some level, technology always has political, moral, ideological implications. For me, HN is one of the best places to discuss these.

[1] https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pu...

[2] Tim Cook on how Pope Francis influenced his thinking: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1541230109287507

Re: Pope Francis has died

#163
post #103
post #44

I think he will be mostly remembered as a terrible politician, first alienating conservatives with progressive policy and then alienating liberals with very questionable opinions on war in Ukraine. In the end, nobody was really happy with him. On the other hand, he definitely had a will and a spine to stick to his own opinions - I guess that counts for something.

A good politician is a people pleaser?

A good politician is able to garner support to enact change.

Re: Pope Francis has died

#164
post #44

I think he will be mostly remembered as a terrible politician, first alienating conservatives with progressive policy and then alienating liberals with very questionable opinions on war in Ukraine. In the end, nobody was really happy with him. On the other hand, he definitely had a will and a spine to stick to his own opinions - I guess that counts for something.

How very Christ-like

Yeah, nothing says Jesus like siding with the aggressor due to your own prejudices.

Re: Pope Francis has died

#166

[flagged]

What "public relations games" are they playing? He was out in public yesterday afternoon. And they announced the death a few hours after it happened. The death of a Pope will get maximum media coverage regardless of the time or day it happens - it's going to be headline news for weeks.

Re: Pope Francis has died

#169
post #44

I think he will be mostly remembered as a terrible politician, first alienating conservatives with progressive policy and then alienating liberals with very questionable opinions on war in Ukraine. In the end, nobody was really happy with him. On the other hand, he definitely had a will and a spine to stick to his own opinions - I guess that counts for something.

>> In the end, nobody was really happy with him.

This is true if you live in a bubble. Most Catholics don't hold strong opinions on the Pope. The people who do are, as usual, the extremes on either side - not the majority.

Re: Pope Francis has died

#170

:( And for political side - in Poland, he was seen as way too leftist/liberal for the conservatives in Church, and too pro-Russian for the liberals in it - he had not condemned Russian invasion of Ukraine.

At one point Francis said "The Patriarch cannot become Putin’s altar boy", in reference to Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church [1]. Maybe Francis recognised that working to get Kirill to temper his support for Putin would be more effective than his own public condemnation, which might allow propagandists to whip up a Western vs. Orthodox religious frenzy to unify Russians behind Putin?

[1] https://www.wn.catholic.org.nz/adw_welcom/pope-says-kirill-m...

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