Chateau Lloyd

It's kind of weird, but I think the case can be made that a once-obscure nerd-dominated roleplaying game has had a profound impact on 21st Century theology.

D&D was once a very fringe activity, the subject of television exposes and my very religious Methodist grandparents confronted me with its evil.  In my own limited way, I showed them that it was just a form of telling adventure stories and that the job of the good guys was to beat up on the bad guys.

By contrast, my Catholic grandparents were not troubled at all, because fighting demons is very much a thing.

Anyway, one of the core rules of the game that has descended down from the 1970s is that while there are such things as objective good and objective evil, the rewards visited to various characters are judged solely on their fidelity to their chosen faith.

That is to say, a worshipper of an evil god, who is obediently evil, will have just as happy an afterlife (in its own fashion) as a good character serving a good god.  Obviously, the celestial realms seemed better - clouds, sunshine, evergreen fields vs brass walls and perpetual torment, but as long as you're the one holding the whip, it's not so bad.

While I doubt Pope Francis can tell the difference between a rogue and ranger, he seems to have bought into the "many paths to salvation trope," which is a bit surprising, given that he hold the keys to heaven.

I mean, it is fully within the Catholic faith to assert that nothing exists without the permission of God, and that the various false faiths and heresies are ultimately serving His divine purpose.  But that isn't to say that - on an individual basis - you're better off in the afterlife if you are part of the Body of Christ than a Wiccan.

The funny thing is, the pope's remarks would have been perfectly in alignment with my pre-conversion mentality.  If we're all trying to get to the same place, what difference does it make in the path we choose?  Moreover, observant Christian girls were far harder to get into the sack than the Wiccan ones.

Still, there is something disturbing in the Vicar of St. Peter spouting the theology of a horny 25-year-old agnostic.  I think the reaction has been muted because 1. Pope Francis is assumed to be a bit off, and no one takes him seriously anymore and 2. the whole world is crumbling, and this is just another example of it.

The most remarkable feature of Francis' late pontificate is how little anyone cares about it.  In a sense, he's achieved true "synodality" insofar as the bishops in priests are too busy waging spiritual warfare on the village/community level to pay much attention to what he says.  I'd love to have a pope who speaks clearly, firmly in defense of Church doctrine, but in the absence of that, I am comforted by the Sacraments and the leadership shown in my diocese and parish.

God truly works in mysterious ways.