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>why is it that there has never been a black pope? There were a few popes of African descent, though; don't know if their skin color happened to be black Stil

by vik0 3y ago

>why is it that there has never been a black pope? There were a few popes of African descent, though; don't know if their skin color happened to be black Still, I don't get why it would matter to any Catholic (I'm not Catholic), except to (some) Catholics in the US of A maybe, since race seems to reign supreme over there, even more than God Himself to (some, supposed) believers

silverquiet 3y ago
Well, this is a different rabbithole than I would have expected to go down, but why not? I have no idea of the Catholic experience outside the US and if that image means anything to them. I can get into my personal feelings if it matters; I don't think they matter much to anyone except me. The quick summary is that I dug the grave of a great-great Aunt of mine by hand at a small cemetery attached to the Catholic church in the tiny, forgettable town she was born in. One quirk of this rural, very white (I assume the entire population is a fairly close cousin of one type or another to me), Catholic town is that the priest is an African immigrant. My aunt was quite racist and so I thought it was a sort of ironic that the last group of people who saw her out of this world were twenty-five percent black. So an AI-generated image of a black pope made me stop and think for a minute about what Catholic identity means; a concept that as someone who was raised in that tradition but is unable to myself believe in the divine has always been problematic. Basically, it was good art, though I don't think that was the intent of the corporation that created it.
- Apocryphon 3y ago
  I’m not actually sure if those with political proclivities to get upset over Google AI generated artificial diversity would get mad at the prospect of a black pope- many on that side of the spectrum are fans of Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, as he is a stringent moral traditionalist and is often favored as a potential future pontiff to them.
carlosjobim 3y ago
Africa used to mean something completely different in the past.

by vik0 3y ago

silverquiet 3y ago

Well, this is a different rabbithole than I would have expected to go down, but why not? I have no idea of the Catholic experience outside the US and if that image means anything to them. I can get into my personal feelings if it matters; I don't think they matter much to anyone except me. The quick summary is that I dug the grave of a great-great Aunt of mine by hand at a small cemetery attached to the Catholic church in the tiny, forgettable town she was born in. One quirk of this rural, very white (I assume the entire population is a fairly close cousin of one type or another to me), Catholic town is that the priest is an African immigrant. My aunt was quite racist and so I thought it was a sort of ironic that the last group of people who saw her out of this world were twenty-five percent black. So an AI-generated image of a black pope made me stop and think for a minute about what Catholic identity means; a concept that as someone who was raised in that tradition but is unable to myself believe in the divine has always been problematic. Basically, it was good art, though I don't think that was the intent of the corporation that created it.

Apocryphon 3y ago
I’m not actually sure if those with political proclivities to get upset over Google AI generated artificial diversity would get mad at the prospect of a black pope- many on that side of the spectrum are fans of Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, as he is a stringent moral traditionalist and is often favored as a potential future pontiff to them.

carlosjobim 3y ago

Africa used to mean something completely different in the past.