Pope Francis has urged Vatican bureaucrats to avoid “rigid ideological positions” that prevent them from understanding today’s reality
Pope Francis urged Vatican bureaucrats Thursday to avoid “rigid ideological positions” that prevent them from understanding today’s reality, an appeal made days after he formally allowed priests to bless same-sex couples in a radical change of Vatican policy.
Francis used his annual Christmas greeting to the Holy See hierarchy to encourage the cardinals, bishops and laypeople who run the Vatican to listen to one another and to others so they can evolve to truly offer service to the Catholic Church.
Speaking in the Hall of Blessings, Francis told them it was important to keep advancing and growing in their understanding of the truth. Fearfully sticking to rules may give the appearance of avoiding problems but only ends up hurting the service that the Vatican Curia is called to give the church, he said.
“Let us remain vigilant against rigid ideological positions that often, under the guise of good intentions, separate us from reality and prevent us from moving forward,"the pope said. "We are called instead to set out and journey, like the Magi, following the light that always desires to lead us on, at times along unexplored paths and new roads.”
Yeah it’s… Pretty bad here. I used to be proud to be Canadian but when I look at what I wrote, it drives home how our country is just a shadow of the place I grew up in. The average Canadian is barely getting by, and quality of services is degrading rapidly.
Sounds like you’re in Europe. I’ve often wondered what it would be like, if we could start a new life somewhere civilized.
I’m electrician and electric motor systems technologist by certification, systems integrator, programmer, millwright and machinist by skillset, CTO is my current job title. Wife has degrees in physics and controls technology, used to work oilfield engineering, now teaches science and math at post-secondary level. Daughter is a 9yo Linux desktop user and Python programmer, deserves a better future than this country has to offer. Got her an Arduino robot kit for Christmas.
Any market for people like us over there? I would love to abandon this sinking ship.
Your first paragraph: replace Canadian with American and it still works. I’m horrified about the future we’re leaving for our children.
Also while private education isn’t a no-cost option for Americans, the experience is largely similar to what you’ve described. Public school aims for getting the lowest performing students across the state-defined “functional” line at the expense of the average and above average students, and when parents raise the issue we’re expected to defer to the Ed.D on the school board who hasn’t seen the inside of a real classroom in decades.
If you move to the EU, not only your skillset will determine how easily you can find a decent job, but also how well your diploma translates to the ones we have here. My guess is that for technologically or scientifically oriented degrees, that’s probably not too much of an issue, on the condition that the level of education for the degree you have in your country of origin is good enough.
If you’re seriously considering this, I’d suggest finding some people who made the same decision and talk to them about their experience.
The EU has its own problems of course, but I have the feeling there’s generally less inequality than in a lot of other first world countries. Access to good education and healthcare is generally cheap or at least affordable. Some countries cope with waiting lists for specialized healthcare however, although that differs from country to country.
As a Canadian, the language shouldn’t be an issue. In large parts of Europe, you can get by with French and English. In a larger, multilingual company, people usually default to English. I know a Syrian family who fled the war with their kids (the youngest wasaround the age of yours), and the kids learned the language (Dutch) very quickly and did well in school, moving on to university education. The parents had a harder time adjusting, since their degrees weren’t very compatible, but also the language remained an obstacle for them.