Your Progressive Pope

[Content Note: Anti-choice rhetoric; Christian Supremacy.]

Hey, remember when Pope Francis said that the Roman Catholic church has become "obsessed" with abortion, same-sex marriage, and contraception, and that they shouldn't talk about it so much anymore, and everyone was all "WOO PROGRESSIVE POPE!" and I was all "UH, NOT REALLY!" and then everyone just kept ignoring when Pope Francis said stuff like abortion is "horrific," so they could maintain this fantasy about a Pope who loves to talk about poverty but refuses to support women's control over their own reproduction, which is one of the most crucial means by which women have of avoiding poverty? Remember all that?

Well, here's some more terrific stuff for everyone invested in the Progressive Pope meme to ignore!

Ahead of the weekend's [historic sainthood mass in Vatican City], Pope Francis showed glimpses of that complexity on Friday, when he made a seemingly rare statement to a group of African bishops in which he strongly condemned abortion.

"Abortion compounds the grief of many women who now carry with them deep physical and spiritual wounds after succumbing to the pressures of a secular culture which devalues God's gift of sexuality and the right to life of the unborn."

Pope Francis has made a habit of focusing on poverty and social inequality rather than abortion, which remains a divisive issue both within and beyond the Catholic church. Two weeks before, he had called abortion "an unspeakable crime" during a speech to an Italian anti-abortion group.

Let's just review that: "Abortion compounds the grief of many women who now carry with them deep physical and spiritual wounds after succumbing to the pressures of a secular culture which devalues God's gift of sexuality and the right to life of the unborn."

Said Shakesville contributor Aphra_Behn, who sent me this story, which I'm sharing with her permission: "I really enjoy the way he worked in slut-shaming, mental health myths, AND a fundamental disrespect for bodily autonomy into one pullquote. Pope Totally Awesome!!!!!!!"

And NOT ONLY THAT! But he managed to work in heterocentrism and ciscentrism, while disappearing atheists and victims of rape. There's an awful lot of wrong packed into that quote!

But he's totes progressive blah blah fart.