Pope Francis arrives in Thailand at start of Asia trip

It's kind of heartening to see the faithful (or some of them) embrace his visit.

Double-edged sword for me, but one edge isn't as sharp.

It means that change can be accepted and religion can be seen (occasionally) as a force for good. And I say this as a non-religious person

I'd prefer large strides, but even baby steps keeps us moving in the correct direction.

Fair enough. Change begins slowly, by tends to accelerate.

It's kind of heartening to see the faithful (or some of them) embrace his visit. It means that change can be accepted and religion can be seen (occasionally) as a force for good. And I say this as a non-religious person.

All joshing aside, I wish the Pontiff well in his mission, I guess he means well. Especially compared to his predecessors - it feels he's actually concerned with addressing certain wrongdoings and crimes against humanity. As Popes go, he's an improvement.

Fair enough. Change begins slowly, by tends to accelerate.

By gossip, I hope you mean verified facts.

Hey, that's what powers this site ;-)

All joshing aside, I wish the Pontiff well in his mission, I guess he means well. Especially compared to his predecessors - it feels he's actually concerned with addressing certain wrongdoings and crimes against humanity. As Popes go, he's an improvement.

A few of them like holidaying in Thailand, so the gossip goes.

By gossip, I hope you mean verified facts.

To avoid inflaming sensitivies, I will avoid referring to those individuals as religious extremists.

A few of them like holidaying in Thailand, so the gossip goes.

Careful, now. You might upset excited adherents.

So many ways to proceed. To avoid inflaming sensitivies, I will avoid referring to those individuals as religious extremists.

Agreed, given the blight of pedophelia on his organization.

Careful, now. You might upset excited adherents.

I hope Francis might have a word to say about the rampant sex tourism that blights parts of Thailand.

It was TOYOTOMI Hideyoshi, not TOKUGAWA Iyeyasu, who banned Christianity first. Their fearsome master, ODA Nobunaga, was very generous toward Christianity and Western culture, using Jesuit missionaries to his advantage. Hideyoshi inherited that tradition in the early days of his shogunate. 

Then he must have heard about developments in Southeast Asia -- the Western advance of colonialism and Christianity to the region. It was really unfortunate that Christianity was used by colonial powers as forerunners for colonization of "pagan" countries in the world.

An incident in western Japan made the last straw for Hideyosi to crash Christianity. The converts in the regions started vandalism on Buddhist temples, destroying statues of Buddha and other religious relics, saying they were no worth to worship and so must be destroyed.

Iyeyasu's ban on Christianity was inherited from Hideyoshi but his was more systematic and complete, even closing Japan's doors to the West except the newly rising non-Catholic country that was Holland.

@semperfi

Do you not think that taking a stand on the ethics of weapons of mass killing and destruction fall beneath the reasonable teachings of a head of a religion? He has plenty of in-house matters to clean up, I'll agree with you there. But I don't see this as venturing too far from his appointed mission.

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The pope should stick to the office he was elected to hold - that is, leader of the Catholic Church.

Leave politics to the politicians.

I think that the Pope should take his anti nuclear message to North Korea instead... What's the worst that could happen? lol