When I was growing up, Papa Goldstein, a veteran, told me of how a Catholic member of his Army unit said he felt really sad, because my dad was a nice guy but he was going to Hell. Jewish, you know. Fate was sealed.
Similar thing happened to me in college. In the midst of a session involving adult beverages, I jokingly asked a Catholic fraternity-mate if I was going to Hell. His response was no joke - he tensed up, got defensive, and wouldn't answer. I was blown away. And this was not Liberty University, if you know what I mean.
I wasn't actually worried about going to Hell, of course. And it was disturbing to see such a high-functioning individual believing in such things. But what blew me away was the sense of separation I suddenly sensed between me and my buddy. He didn't think of us as exactly a brotherhood of people: he saw me as an outsider, a very different person with a very different trajectory.
As I've moved through life, I've come to accept that seeing others as outsiders is the root of all evil. We cannot hurt what we know to be the same as us. When we think others are different, the hurt becomes more abstract and easier to inflict for a few shekels or some other cheap thrill.
So it gives me tremendous pleasure to read that Pope Francis seems to believe that good people are good people, that Catholics don't have a monopoly on redemption. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but it seems like a tremendous step forward for the Church and for humanity. We are all basically the same schlubs, trying to have decent lives, who basically want to do the right thing.
I hope that Francis' move means that my son doesn't have to deal with such weirdness in a few years when he's out drinking with his buddies. And that it will be easier some portion of our planet's 1.2 billion Catholics to feel closer to the other 4.8 billion of us. And vice-verse.
I understand that the Pope isn't OK with gays, gay marriage, abortion, and married priests. And probably a bunch of other things. But remember, that's how 90% of people in the US, and probably on Earth, felt about those things just 25 years ago. And Francis doesn't seem to shun anyone - he just disagrees, but will gladly wash their feet.
I may be a Pollyanna here but seems like Pope Francis has moved his Church's point of view forward by centuries during his brief tenure in Rome. That's quite a lurch, and I'm beginning to understand why the Jesuits are known as God's Marines. This seems to be one heck of a forced march.
I sure hope that Francis moves the dial on the time machine all the way up to the present. But for now, Francis seems to be a bit of lightness on a globe that seems otherwise quite dark these days.