As a former Catholic, I find the current Pope to be an out lander, which is the kindest descriptive term I can muster. He is going against all the most sacred tenets of the Church. With familiar tradition still holding a sentimental value for me, it pains me to see what is going on. If today's Catholics turned to any of the various forms of orthodoxy, I would not only understand their reasoning, but have a greater respect for them, even if I find religion too difficult to believe personally. I still value many of its its metaphorical stories and universal insights (repeated Good vs. Evil showdowns, Joseph Campbell's demonstrations of a human rulebook for getting along). It is indeed the greatest story ever told. The stuff that's meant to control people (like making people feel shame for their biological urges) ...well, not so much. Of course, as you'd know, we as child lovers are not mentioned in any derogatory terms in the book of the strict Christian faith. The old "millstone" quote gets presented with many assumptions, but there is nothing at all about "lying down with" as is expressly written for others. God himself would be arrested today for what he supposedly did to Mary, after all.

Don't assume what I point out above to depict what I personally believe.

I'm just sayin'...

On labor, yes. I have mixed feelings. I think what Bolivia has done is potentially a wonderful thing, but they are also tamped down on any sort of predatory business system and letting it have political power. As you may remember (or not) I was in support of children being "allowed" to work, but not required to work. At that time, as I still do, I feared having them be targeted as a cheap labor pool, not so different than a slippery slope that led wives to working just to maintain the same family income level as the husband or one partner used to be able to provide. In other words, I just don't trust that kids working in our society would remain "optional" for long. The greed is nearly incomprehensible. After all, if you can fool the people into forcing both spouses to work for the same income that one used to be able to provide, then the rancid thinking also follows that you can make the entire family work in order to maintain that old level of income.

So I'm wary of it, even if I see the good parts of part-time work for youths.