Confused Pope confuses people over the gospel and homosexuality
The Pope just returned from his visit to Brazil , and three different stories from the trip dominated the religious news last week. First, he declared that retweeting his updates about World Youth Day would help merit an indulgence. Then he led Mass for 3 million people in Brazil, and finally he declared that it is “not my role to judge gay priests.” That’s quite a news cycle, but hardly news. If you are not familiar with the differences between Catholicism and the gospel, here is a one paragraph theology lesson followed by a one paragraph history lesson: The Roman Catholic Church teaches that people can be saved from hell through a combination of faith and works (works energized by faith, if you will). Of course, salvation from hell is only part of the story, because according to the RCC, at death your soul goes to purgatory where the remaining sin is purged through suffering and torment. The difference between purgatory and hell is one of duration, and clearly the doctrine...