A friend of mine, a former Jesuit priest, is probably the most notorious opponent of the death penalty in our very conservative county. Last week, he was a speaker at a forum on the death penalty at our local community college. There were no speakers on the panel who were in favor of the death penalty, and the right-wingers were outraged. They claimed this was "brainwashing" our junior college students, a horrible thing indeed.

Posters in this forum often decry Catholic leaders who speak against birth control and homosexual marriage. The implication is that this is "brainwashing" poor, mindless Catholic lemmings. While I disagree with the Catholic Church's opposition to birth control and homosexual marriage, I don't really think they're horrible for holding those positions. That's what they think. I am free to think otherwise. If I'm a lemming, it's my own damn fault.

Pope Francis is unlikely to change the Catholic position on birth control. I'd like him to, but I won't hate him if he doesn't. In general, I try not to hate people who have thoughts different from mine. I might try to change their minds, but I won't hate them.

Same with Mother Teresa. I disagreed with her conservative thinking, but I hardly think she was an evil person for thinking as she did. I think she did the best she could to help the poor of Calcutta.

-Joe Offer-