The celebrated Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, who was brought up a strict Catholic and trained for the priesthood, discusses Pope Francis in a thoughtful radio interview with Michael Des Barres airing today, describing the pontiff's recent acts of humility as empty gestures that won't fundamentally change the Catholic Church.
Byrne says Francis is showing signs of being just as disappointing to those hoping for radical reform as Tony Blair was in Britain when he became prime minister on a tide of popular optimism in 1997, and as Barack Obama has been in the United States since his insurgent presidential campaign in 2008.
"Like Barack Obama, a bit like Tony Blair, he's a figurehead, a CEO - a man who does the bidding of the masters who hide behind him," Byrne says of the new Pope in a frank hour-long conversation on the Michael Des Barres Show, which airs online on TradioV.com at 3 p.m. PST, today. He described the Church as an "innately conservative" institution, more like a corporation than a true fount of spiritual inspiration.
Byrne says Francis may have set a different tone by doing "Christ-like things" - bathing the feet of prisoners and embracing a severely deformed man. Those things are "nice", but not enough, because the church's attitude to fundamental questions like the bans on women priests and married priests shows no sign of shifting.
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