increasingly seemed to me to be his rigid social views in light of the social transformations that have gone on around the world. For example, at a time in human history when overpopulation seems to be a problem that could have a profound effect on the quality of life, here is a papacy that equates birth control with abortion and abortion with murder. In light of the human misery fostered by overcrowding and murderous competition for social goods, that kind of rigidity seems very short sided. And what is one to make of the problems connected with unwanted pregnancies and the children who are abused because they were unwanted? Would it not make more moral sense to be practical and prudent instead of sexually active and heedless of consequences? Well, not according to this pope, who speaks about birth control and women's reproductive options with the absolute assurance that only a virginal man could have. And meanwhile a lot of supposedly celibate priests are fiddling with children, and the moral weight of the Church is all on the side of the pedophiles. That is not spiritual leadership. It is religious tyranny.
But after all, the papal situation on
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