Halloween Around The World

This Halloween thing that started in the British Isles but has been promoted so much in modern times by the U.S. (particularly by all those Halloween slasher films and kiddy films) that it's becoming a world holiday. This is mostly due to the fact that is is fun to pretend and because there are no definite expectations for celebrating or not celebrating Halloween (kids can be rough on cranky old men and old ladies who refuse to hand out treats on Halloween night). The fact that adults have stolen Halloween from the kids must mean something.  Now, other nations are changing the holiday to fit themselves.  Here are some of the places relatively new to Halloween, and the traditions followed in each. Most traditions involved remembering the dead.

-In Austria, some people will leave bread, water and a lighted lamp on the table before retiring on Halloween night. It doesn't sound like much fun, but then, when is the last time an Austrian had fun. When Hitler occupied Austria the fun bubble must have burst.
- In Belgium they light candles in memory of dead relatives. Most of us don't want to be reminded of crazy uncle Joe or Greta the aunt who used to always bring that awful Jell-O salad for Sunday dinners.
-In China, the Halloween festival is known as Teng Chieh. Food and water are placed in front of photographs of family members who have departed while bonfires and lanterns are lit in order to light the paths of the spirits as they travel the earth on Halloween night. Worshippers in Buddhist temples fashion "boats of the law" from paper, some of which are very large, which are then burned in the evening hours. The purpose of this custom is twofold: as a remembrance of the dead and in order to free the spirits of the "pretas" in order that they might ascend to heaven. 

-In Czechoslovakia, chairs are placed by the fireside on Halloween night. There is one chair for each living family member and one for each family member's spirit.
-In France, unlike most nations of the world, Halloween is not celebrated by the French in order to honor the dead and departed ancestors. It is regarded as an "American" holiday in France. And we all know those French Americans and all ideas foreign. I hope Dracula visits France this Halloween and sucks them all dry.
-In Germany, the people put away their knives on Halloween night. The reason for this is because they do not want to risk harm to or from the returning spirits. Hmmmm Maybe they are just hiding those old Nazi relics they seem to love so much.
-In Hong Kong Halloween is known as "Yue Lan" (Festival of the Hungry Ghosts) and is a time when it is believed that spirits roam the world for twenty four hours. Some people burn pictures of fruit or money at this time, believing these images would reach the spirit world and bring comfort to the ghosts. I wonder how they can afford to see all those Kung Fu movies if they burn their money
- Japan has no idea what Halloween is about. But being the masters of copy and improve, they imitate it to every degree, costumes, parties, trick or treat included. I suspect Halloween is most fun in Japan. This proves the old adage that those socialist Swedes will do anything for a day off.
-In Sweden, Halloween is known as "Alla Helgons Day" and is celebrated from October 31 until November 6. This All Hanons Day gives everyone a short working day on the 31st. I suspect this proves the old adage that those lazy socialist Swedes will do anything for a day off work.

May your Halloween be more exciting that it will be for people in these countries.

Pumpkin Pie

It's fall and people are eating pumpkin pie, one of those seasonal desserts that is rarely seen any other time of the year. I love the taste of pumpkin in my desserts, but pumpkin pie is one dessert I do not like. Uh, how can I saw this without appearing stupid as usual? Well, I don't like pumpkin pie because it has too much pumpkin taste in it. For me, eating so much pumpkin is like eating a stick of butter. A lot is sometimes too much when it come to pumpkin pie.

Since pumpkins are the symbol of fall, of harvest time and of Halloween, I understand the crazy for all things pumpkin and I participate in that. I made pumpkin bread the other day and a pumpkin smoothie last night. I prefer the lighter, but similar tasting sweet potato pie to pumpkin pie. So pumpkin pie never crosses my lips. Where did the hunger for pumpkin pie among other humans than I begin, I ask? It seems that pumpkin is a native American food and that it was unknown everywhere outside of North America until European explorers in the late 15th century "discovered" America. They sent pumpkin seeds when returning to Europe and those food mad French (or are the French just plain crazy mad) popularized pumpkin as a filling in various foods.

In America the British colonists loved pumpkin and starting making pumpkin pies. There are pumpkin pie recipes in 16th century English cookbooks, but the taste for pumpkin pies never seemed to emigrate outside of England, Canada and the United States.. This makes me wonder if the taste for pumpkin pie in places where it is eaten isn't more of a fall tradition than a taste preference. After all,  China hasn't found an interest in pumpkin pie, one of the few western products not copied or stolen by China from the west.

There are quite a few adages that use pumpkin pie, but I am not sure any is true nor do I know who started them. You may have heard a number of them, but the one most commonly used is something is "as easy as pumpkin pie". Bakers will say that, despite few recipe ingredients and simple technique, cooking a pumpkin pie is not easy at all. But the results when done well pleases quiet a few.  Long ago, he poet Whittier summed it best.

      The Pumpkin (John Greenlief Whittier 1850)

Ah! on Thanksday, when from East and from West,
>From North and from South comes the pilgrim and guest;
When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored;
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before;
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye,
What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?

Second Lives

Yogi Berra died recently. You may not know Yogi, but he was one of the New York Yankee baseball greats, and a part of my childhood as a result. When I was a boy baseball was the national sport in the U.S., so every male had a favorite team and player.  I played and watched baseball then. Yogi was a member of my favorite team, the New York Yankees. Why am I mentioning this? It's because Yogi's death made me think about people we know of, but never knew. It's the knew of versus knew juxtaposition.  Their lives often impact us more than some humans we have frequent contact with every day in person.  The "we know of" humans include celebrities we watched from afar and either admired or disliked.

Unlike we who live non public lives, I think that the people who have public lives are in a sense born twice, once when at the height of their fame and then at death after being forgotten by their admirers or haters but suddenly being confronted with at their death announcement. We actually continue to learn about those deceased public people, even things we didn't know when we followed their activities in their "first life".

For example, Yogi's obituary said he was one of the first soldiers to storm the beaches of Normandy in 1944's D Day invasion. It also said he received numerous medals for bravery and a purple heart in the war. Yogi was born anew to me in reading that because at no time did I previously know of his war time experiences. But then, people in Yogi's generation were taught that bragging about heroism was not good. I can't imagine many of the  publicity seeking baseball players of today hiding their good deeds from us.

Whenever I read of the death of someone I knew of, often I knew of from my childhood, it makes me reintroduce myself to them and to their exploits. Their death makes me feel the same age I was when they were first publicly born, and I recall not only their lives but the lives of people I knew personally when they were at their celebrity. I even recall my own life experiences when the deceased's life experiences are recalled in the obituary.  It makes me seek more information about them and reflect and appreciate or dislike them even more than I did when they were alive. This is good, yet their death is not. Perhaps that's why when being alerted of their death, I feel a little guilty about not having appreciating them when  they lived their famous first lives.

I wonder if the deceased realized the impact their public lives had on those who watched their exploits. Perhaps they didn't care Anyway, sorry you are gone, Yogi. You were good to me for so long.

Young Cell Phone Addicts Brains Turning To Mush

Those dopey electronic devices keep coming at us. Since I ignore almost all of them, particularly the cell phone and its ilk, I can't even identify them.  I am an adult and can say no to every new electronic device or update Microsoft, Apple and the rest of those annoying companies try to cell. But small children have not the capacity to evaluate the cell phone and other devices that are being thrown at us. Left to their own devices the kiddies would lock themselves in their rooms and live 24 hour virtual realities. Oh..wait....some already come close to doing that.

The most recent statistics show that today more than 30% of U.S. children first play with a mobile device when they still are in diapers, according to Common Sense Media. Furthermore, almost 75% of 13- to 17-year-olds have smart phones, and 24% admit using their phones almost constantly, according to the Pew Research Center. Their parents must know this, but then, the parents are also cell phone addicts and probably never think about the damage the cell phone, I pad and others do to their little darlings small brain.

But medical doctors  such as pediatricians and psychologists are noticing what is happening to the brain of babies who are exposed to too much electronics and not enough human face to face communication. Most common of the recommendations they make are guidelines that discourage “screen time” for children under age 2 and limit “screen time” to two hours a day for children over age 2.  My anecdotal evidence from observing the diaper set in public say the parents are not in agreement with those kinds of rules.

Among the damage a single cell phone use each day by a child under the age of two are: damage brain development by overexposing to the devices causing, attention deficits, cognitive delay, impaired learning, impulsive behavior, and a decreased ability to regulate one's own behavior; restricting movement of the child which causes developmental delays and learning disabilities; obesity, children with any of the devices in their bedrooms are on average 30% fatter than those without the devices; sleep deprivation; increases in a wide assortment of mental illness including, anxiety, attachment disorder, attention deficit, autism, bipolar disorder and psychosis; increased aggressive behavior; decreased concentration and memory; addictions, even an addiction by the parent to technology that separates the parent from the child (who then uses the technology as a substitute for the parent).

Wow! What are too many of today's parents doing to their kids?  fact is.....the ways in which children are raised and educated with technology are no longer sustainable. Children are supposed to be our future, but there is no future for children who overuse technology since many will have damaged their brains so much from their cells and other devices.

Playboy Cleans Its Act

Breaking news (mainly for the males, but interesting news for everyone) is that Playboy Magazine, the first popular magazine to show naked women in centerfolds and as features, has announced that it will no longer show female boobs, and T and A. I can remember as a boy how excited an adolescent became at even thinking of taking a peek at naked women in Playboy. But in this day of Internet porno any kid or adult for that matter can easily find nude men and women, and often free of charge. I suppose the raunchy Internet porno has made Playboy too tame to even bother looking. It's hard to compete with hard core porn if your magazine publishes soft core porn only.

Playboy says it will no longer publish images of fully nude women in its magazine beginning this spring, and  that the magazine and web site will now be nude free.  his will test the old refrain that men used to give. "I only read Playboy because of the articles." I never believed that one.  Playboy magazine circulation was 5.6 million copies in 1975 and has dropped to about 800,000 today. Hmmmm I guess the articles today aren't as "attractive"...or something. Uh, I know I can't remember a single article published in Playboy.

This is probably a futile attempt to save Playboy, given that most print magazines have seen steady declines in readership, with many ceasing publication altogether. But Playboy said in its announcement that it no longer publish unclothed women that it is doing well with non naked photos of beautiful women, for it articles, and content that emphasizes  humor, sex and culture. 

But what will Playboy's niche be? It used to be naked girls. And now it will be as a general interest magazine. I think many readers (mostly men) will become bored with the new Playboy and it may come to an end sooner rather than later. But then, in this age of short burst or non reading, it may have plenty of company in its grave.

Pumpkin Racing

Like it or not, to get you in the mood for Halloween, or at the very least for pumpkins, here is a weird event report right here from Oregon.   It's Tualatin's 12th annual West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta, in which some odd but fun loving people get together one day in mid October for four races around Lake Tualatin. No, not boat races. Instead, the racers kneel inside giant pumpkins that have been gutted out and made.....almost sea worthy.

To think I just found out about this event, and misses seeing it. Tualatin is only 20 minutes or so from my home in happy Valley, Oregon. Next year I will have to see it with my own eyes. Besides, even if it is silliness and pumpkins really drift more on their own than can be guided, the Pumpkin Regatta also has side events going on too. There's pumpkin bowling, pumpkin chucking, a biggest pumpkin weigh in contest and plenty of pumpkin foods to try. The biggest one this year was 1,794.5 pounds. (about 800 kilos)

Twenty-one giant pumpkins made it into the water this year, their tops carved out and guts scooped out. All of the participants reported that paddling around a lake inside a giant pumpkin is not easy, and that it is exhausting to try and control a huge pumpkin. Pumpkins aren't very aerodynamic in the water, so luck usually is the winner. And of course, just like people who enjoy seeing car racing only in anticipating a crash, the Pumpkin Regatta had it's crashes...err...sinkings too. Reports are that a man in the second race had to bail out of his pumpkin two minutes after starting because the vegetable started taking water. Oh well, bad luck but that's better than having to eat Aunt Bertha's dry pumpkin desserts at Thanksgiving.

In order to win the races participants had to gather balls from five baskets in the lake. Some simply exited the pumpkin and swam to each one and got the balls, pumpkin in tow. This sounds like a watching, rather than participation event. The Great Pumpkin must be smiling in pumpkin land at this human pumpkin foolishness.

Breeding Like Rabbits

Who would have imagined it? Humans have become rabbits, breeding their species into what may eventually be an overpopulated oblivion. It does seem to be a little crowded out there. With the world population already at 7.3 billion people, it is expected to add more than a million more in the next 15 years, and more than 2 billion more in the next 25 years. That 2 billion was about the population of the world when I was born. I swear that I am not responsible!

I'm going to point fingers at who is "at fault" because...we all love to blame the other guy. Take a bow Asia and Africa. Asia already has 60% of the world population, and Africa with the next biggest total, 16%, is projected to be the fastest growing region in the future. The rest of the world is small with negative birth rates, with the U.S. and Europe growing very slightly, and only because of the mass invasion of immigrants from the fastest growing regions (they have to live somewhere).

There seems to be a race for first between China and India. China currently has 1.38 billion people and India 1.31. However, India is expected pass China in total population by 2022. This is due to the one child policy instituted (great move) in China, and the resulting aging population there, and because India culturally embraces the "let's have another" child mentality.

So while the world pretends that something it calls "climate change" or "global warming" is the real problem, the overpopulation problem goes unrecognized because... well...it's not politically correct to tell those rapid breeding places to stop having so many babies. For the left it's more fun to pretend that your SUV is "killing the planet". But in real terms, the overpopulation boom is causing severe problems for the world in poverty, unemployment, pollution, deforestation, political instability and mass migration of those who are incapable of adapting to their new homes in the less populated developed world.

Hmmmm Maybe the world should steal and change that Nike motto of 'Just do it' , and morph it into 'Just don't do it" (have kids, that is). The future of the world may depend on it.

Presidents Avoiding The Press

Politics here is changing in many way. One way that I have noticed that began with the Obama presidency is the death of the politician interview by a newsperson/company and replacement of it with appearances on TV or internet entertainment sites.  This is not good for constituents who want their politicians grilled by news reporters instead of entertainers. Obama, a president who rarely gives interviews or puts himself in jeopardy of having to explain his policies or views in a potentially confrontational setting, has made an art of the trivial appearance on TV shows like 'The View', ' The David Letterman Show', 'The Ellen Show', 'John Stewart' and their likes.  For Obama, fluff over-rides substance because  it works.

Those non appearances guarantee that Obama will never be challenged by any questions, and instead will be glad handed with soft-ball and silly "questions" from the entertainer he actually does sit down with for an "interview". I give Obama credit for knowing how to hide from the voters, and for never having to personally justify his programs. Not since Ronald Reagan has a president been so elusive. President Obama has held the fewest press conferences of any president since Reagan's presidency. Among the leading newspapers in the United States, The Washington Post had its last on-the-record meeting with the president nearly four years ago, as did the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times last got to him in the fall of 2010. The Boston Globe has never had an interview while Obama was in office, nor has the Los Angeles Times. Even Obama's hometown papers, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, have never been allowed to interview him.

What Obama has also done is play ethnic broadcasters for all the support he can get, agreeing to "interviews" that are scripted to cheer lead and patronize the ethnic group's special interest topic Obama has pushed. He has mined votes at Spanish speaking TV networks Telemundo and Univision, for example. Instead of asking the President serious questions he was asked "If you had a super power, what would it be?" "What's your favorite song to work out to?" "Red or green (chili)?" "What's your favorite New Mexican food?" So much for accountability of politicians. Using important time to grant interviews with comedians John Stewart and Zack Galifiankis or with make-up diva Bethany Mota might be justified if had not consistently turned down serious interviews  because, as the president regularly declares, "I don't have time for interviews".

And now Hillary Clinton, the next anointed president has taken the Obama script even further and is campaigning for the presidency with virtually no contact between she and the mainstream serious media. Hillary trots out on a stage, promotes a phony politically correct topic, like 'The War on Women', and trots off stage having pleased her voting constituency to no end. Hmmm Welcome to a new political world in which the serious and accountable os replaced by he artificial and inane.

National Holidays Are With Us

Did you know that in this country we just had National Taco Day in the U.S.? Well, I live here and didn't know that until I just read about it after the fact. But then I am not crazy about Mexican food, tacos and the rest. Even if I had known, I probably instead would have eaten  a meatball and celebrated Italy instead, since I love Italian cuisine.  Hey! There might be a Meatball day. I shall research that immediately...hold on while I Goggle the subject.

I am back from Nationalcalendar.com  and guess what? It says that every  March 9th we are supposed  celebrate National Meatball Day. It says that it is not clear how this day got started, but I think many of those National Day events few are aware of have legitimate roots. Anyway, the site says that when celebrating the meatball day some restaurants give a free side order of meatballs, while others are donating money to homeless shelters.  That's nice. At least we aren't supposed to throw our meatballs at strangers.

In looking at the web site I decided to carefully check one month of holidays, just one month because there seems to be many hundreds of special days that I am supposed to honor. I just don't have that much time to celebrate. I picked October and here a few more of the National Days in the U.S. that I will not celebrate:  Cephalopod Awareness Day (I feel itchy???), National Walk Your Dog Day (One day a year Fido gets walked. Gee, he must really have to pee on that day),

Day of Bully Prevention (I guess you don't steal a weakling kid's lunch money on that day), Mad Hatter Day (You are supposed to be silly on MHD. But what will Mr. Bean do that day? Maybe be serious all day?),  National Depression Screening Day ( Sigh, I always feel too down that day and skip the screening), National Pro-Life Cupcake Day (It seems even the cupcakes worry about abortion rights), National Kick Butt Day (You slap someone around, I suppose), National Coming Out Day (Go ahead, announce you are gay and salute Richard Simmons), Free Thought Day (All other days of the year it cost a dollar a thought. No wonder nobody thinks for themselves anymore),  National No Bra Day (I hope that one is for only women under the age of 35), Be Bald and Free Day (Does this imply that bald people are imprisoned the rest of the year?),
National Grouch Day (I already celebrate that every day), Black Poets Day (White and Asian poets are forbidden to speak that day),  Want To Hear Something Gaudy Day (Read what I write and you'll get gaudy non stop, any day of the year),  World Menopause Day (Speaking for every male I plead for you NOT to tell me about your menopause).

It's all too much. One day, we will have a national day for all national days because we ran out of days of the year 
for national days. Oh., just so I won't forget.....Happy Menopause Day!

Thou Shalt Not Post The Ten Commandments

The entitled, politically correct nuts are at it again. This time they are "offended" by the Ten Commandments. This time the alleged offense is to Oklahoma residents. It seems that a granite monument of the Ten Commandments on the Oklahoma Capitol grounds was being removed and will be transported to a private conservative think tank for storage because....well... The Tern Commandments are dangerous for the public to see....I guess?

 According to a ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court's the Ten Commandment plaque violates a state constitutional prohibition on the use of public property to support "any sect, church, denomination or system of religion." Hmmmmm I always thought that, even though the Ten Commandments has a religious origin, they were simply rules of behavior that any sensible person would agree apply to every person who wants to behave well. The Commandments do not refer to any specific religious denomination.  Does the court mean that anything of a religious origin should not be displayed in Public?

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol had increased security around the monument earlier Monday, and barriers were erected to keep visitors from getting close to it.  I guess even the Ten Commandments are subject to terrorism. The state says that it removed the monument under the cover of darkness "to avoid disturbing workers at the Capitol and to keep protesters from demonstrating while heavy equipment was being used to detach the two ton monument from its base".  I also add, it's allot easier to act non sensibly under the cover of darkness.

The individual who instituted the lawsuit that brought about the court order to take the Commandments away is a Baptist preacher who says he loves the Commandments but thinks they should only be displayed on private property. But the real reason ay be that after the Ten Commandments were placed at the state Capital there were requests from several groups to have their own monuments installed, including a satanic church in New York that wanted to erect a 7-foot-tall statue that depicts Satan as Baphomet, a goat headed figure with horns, wings and a long beard. A Hindu leader in Nevada, an animal rights group and the satirical Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster also made requests.

I guess in a democracy all religious symbols have to be treated equally, even when some are crazy. I agree, but place the Satan monument and the others in the Capital restroom...right next to the urinals.

Killing Women

Here's one for those women claiming they want "equal rights". Convicted murder conspirator Kelly Renee Gissendaner was put to death in the state of Georgia by lethal injection Wednesday, September despite a flurry of last ditch efforts to stay the execution. There has only been one female in Georgia in he past 70 years execute for a crime. And even though Gissendaner brutally killed her husband, there is a different kind of outrage at executing a woman than executing a man.

I am against the death penalty in all cases, and fortunately, few state in the U.S. still execute criminals. But our legacy of 19th century wild west justice, the days when people were hanged in the public square, seems to have not totally evaporated. I don't advocate the state killing anyone, but in a perverse way, when it executes a female attention is focused on the entire issue of the death penalty. In an ironic way, that is a good thing.

Few other countries still kill criminals for the rimes they commit. I think they have it w right, but in the United States there is a pioneer culture of guns and violence that never completely disappeared from society as a whole. Strangely, when people in this country are asked if they approve of abortion, more than half say "No". But when the same people are asked if capital punishment is good well over half approve. So for them,  killing is good in one case but bad in another. Humans are inconsistent in their moral views.

Oregon's Big Pumpkin

Halloween is pumpkin season and here pumpkins are grown in some abundance in Oregon. Oregon isn't the largest pumpkin growing state The top pumpkin production state was Illinois, followed by California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan.  Supposedly, 90 percent of the pumpkins grown in the United States are raised within a 90 mile radius of Peoria, Illinois. There is a city in that region called Morton that is  the self proclaimed Pumpkin Capital of the World. Morton where Libby’s pumpkin processing plant is and Libby's cans more than 85 percent of the world's pumpkin each year. I guess it feels like Halloween most of the year in Morton.

Anyway, Most pumpkins are not grown for decorative reasons at Halloween or during fall. Instead they are processed into canned pumpkin and canned pie mix. This is good because even most professional chefs say that canned pumpkin and fresh pumpkin that has been roasted and processed by a cook are indistinguishable. I roasted pumpkins in my over a few times and tried them in recipes, and I concur there is not difference in the taste when either canned or fresh pumpkin puree is used in a recipe.

Yesterday ny morning newspaper had a picture of the biggest pumpkin in Oregon this year. It is just about one kilo of weighing a ton and is said to be the 4th largest ever grown. The biggest last year was grown in the most unlikeliest of places- Switzerland and was about 140 kilos heavier than the Oregon pumpkin.. When the pumpkin farm show where the Oregon biggie is being displayed ends, the pumpkin's seeds will be harvested, and most of the pulp will be used as compost. It seems that the bigger the pumpkin the less value inside because when they get that big they are pretty much all water inside and have little food value. The seeds are highly desired by planters since they produce huge pumpkins when planted.

I've been to some of those October pumpkin festivals and they are fun. The weirdest part is what happens to the big pumpkins that are not big enough to win prizes for size. The losers are generally were raised by a crane to 100 feet and dropped either onto a junk car or into a pool of water. I guess the life of a pumpkin is mostly splash in the water.

Pope Francis' Catholic Model

Pope Francis is making another world tour and among the many places to which he traveled was the U.S.  And it seems less a spiritual tour and more a political/social one. This pope is a different type from his predecessors, who tried to focus on spiritual matters while leaving the temporal to the politicians and world leaders. So Francis hasn't changed church doctrine. Instead,  he has taken more liberal stances on issues like abortion, gay marriage and climate change because these are the trendy ones that have struck a chord that resonate with younger Catholics.

It's a wise move, intended or not, to bring more young back into the Catholic Church, given the young have virtually abandoned Catholicism. In these days the masses are much more likely to pray with the church if the church panders to the issues that the young want to address. Fort example, in contrast to Catholicism's view that gay sexuality is a mortal sin to be denounced and opposed by Catholics, Francis told the Vatican  press, “If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

And then this spring, he released a paper on climate change, in which he supported a partnership between science and religion to stem the tide of climate change. He's a believer in the climate change narrative and seems to suggest Catholics must believe as well. Francis has also granted priests around the world the right to forgive the “sin of abortion” during the “year of mercy,” which is set to begin in December. But his main theme since has been poverty and the distribution of wealth. (This despite the fact that the Pope sits on top the greatest single amount of wealth in the world, the Vatican treasures that are worth trillions but that have never been sold to "help the poor" as Pope Francis claims he wants Catholics to do)

To many Catholics those issues seem to be non theological or are religious based in Church law. They believe the Pope is infallible in spiritual, not social issues. The question arises as to whether a pope should mix religion with political and social agendas. Francis was a socialist before joining the (also socialist modeled)  Jesuit order of the Catholic Church. His dislike of capitalism is open, as Francis sees capitalism as creating an unequal distribution of wealth and too much poverty. This is contrast to all empirical evidence that capitalism is the economic system which does that the least. But when your pope says to take action against the capitalist economic model, are you obligated to do so if you are Catholic?

Too, I wonder if the Catholic Church, having lost so much power and so many members this century to the attracts of the modern, temporal world, might become more a political organization to attract a new segment of members to the church.  Catholics might wonder if one day their Church demands they give up their gas powered cars (the climate change bit)  give their savings to the poor or even vote to approve public funding for abortion. Well, that new Catholic Church surely would be a different one. Have a nice day! How is everything