Monday, March 18, AD 2024 10:28pm

PopeWatch: Why?

VATICAN-POPE-AUDIENCE
Francis Cardinal George in an interview gets to the heart of the questions that arise about Pope Francis among orthodox Catholics:
Let’s talk about Pope Francis. Recently veteran Italian writer Sandro Magister said many American bishops seem “uncomfortable” with Francis, and hinted that the American bishops may have to become the defenders of tradition rather than the Vatican under this pope. What do you make of that?
I hope he’s wrong! It’s not because I don’t trust the American bishops, I do, but that’s a very broad statement about the pope and the Vatican.
Are you concerned that there’s a wholesale abandonment of tradition?
I don’t think there’s a wholesale abandonment of tradition. The pope has said he wants every question to be raised and it has been, so he’s gotten what he wants, and now he has to sort it out. He himself has said that the pope has the charism of unity, and he knows very well that it’s unity around Christ, not around him. Therefore, the tradition that unites us to Christ has to be the norm. How he interprets that, and how somebody else might interpret that, is where you get into conversations that shape a government.
I can see why some people might be anxious. If you don’t push it, he does seem to bring into question well-received doctrinal teaching. But when you look at it again, especially when you listen to his homilies in particular, you see that’s not it. Very often when he says those things, he’s putting it into a pastoral context of someone who’s caught in a kind of trap. Maybe the sympathy is expressed in a way that leaves people wondering if he still holds the doctrine. I have no reason to believe that he doesn’t.
Until the Synod of Bishops in October, most mainstream folks in what we might loosely call the ‘conservative’ camp seemed inclined to give Francis the benefit of the doubt. Afterwards that seems less the case, with some people now seeing the pope in a more critical light. Is that your sense as well?
I think that’s probably true. The question is raised, why doesn’t he himself clarify these things? Why is it necessary that apologists have to bear that burden of trying to put the best possible face on it? Does he not realize the consequences of some of his statements, or even some of his actions? Does he not realize the repercussions? Perhaps he doesn’t. I don’t know whether he’s conscious of all the consequences of some of the things he’s said and done that raise these doubts in people’s minds.

Go here to read the rest.  PopeWatch does not know what he would find more troubling:  That Pope Francis is completely oblivious to the impact of his remarks, or that he simply does not care.  PopeWatch does know what would be the most troubling explanation:  That the remarks are not casual at all, but are part of a master plan to change Church teaching.
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bill bannon
bill bannon
Thursday, November 20, AD 2014 7:41am

. Last week, a 61 year old Asian husband with his wife was traveling on the NY subway and as the train approached, a 34 year old thug pushed the husband in front of the train to his death. The pusher, arrested days later, has 30 previous arrests and is only 34 years old. Pope Francis, by the logic of his penology views, doesn’t want the pusher executed nor given a life sentence. Pope Sixtus V executed hundreds perhaps thousands of such criminals in his clean up of Rome in the sicteenth century. Is Pope Francis a
“development” of Pope Sixtus V or of the four Popes between 1796 and 1850 who executed 500 criminals?
In 2012 another older Asian man was on a subway platform in NY, and he was pushed to his death by another young man who explained that he was angry for two days because an aquaintance had tossed his timberland boots two days ago. Pope Francis wants both now young men released someday because he says a life sentence is a hidden death penalty. Maybe releasing them someday is a hidden death penalty of another Asian husband in NY. Maybe the Pope should talk to the wives who are now single with one social security check instead of two. The young men in non death penalty NY will now get three meals a day. medical and dental and probably little labor. In Africa there are many starving slowly who would volunteer for that situation.

Mary De Voe
Thursday, November 20, AD 2014 10:11am

Amen to that bill bannon.

bill bannon
bill bannon
Thursday, November 20, AD 2014 11:16am

Mary,
I at one time worked in NY and traveled the subways. I always, when waiting on a subway platform, stayed far from the train edge of the platform due to such stories way back then…and I’m 6’3″ /222 lbs. Old Asians are the perfect victim to thugdom…they are light and polite.
Christ would have stayed away from the edge of the subway platform because He knew what was in man according to John chapter 2: 23 ” Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.”
LOL… Christ…was streetwise…in the deepest sense….He knew what was in man.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Thursday, November 20, AD 2014 11:29am

When the guilty are not punished the innocent suffer.

Mary De Voe
Thursday, November 20, AD 2014 11:46am

“Jesus was streetwise” Great insight, bill.

Paul W Primavera
Thursday, November 20, AD 2014 2:51pm

To Bill Bannon – Luke 4:28-30
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28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and put him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong. 30 But passing through the midst of them he went away.
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People have not changed in 2000 years. Not one iota. We got toys and engineering and science, but we are still full of all manner of concupiscence.

bill bannon
bill bannon
Thursday, November 20, AD 2014 4:01pm

Paul,
Amazing….first Satan in the desert brought Him to the parapet of Jerusalem’s Temple earlier in your cited Luke 4 and wanted Him to throw Himself down from the parapet of the Jerusalem Temple…..and then your passage shortly thereafter was His own townspeople a little later trying to throw Him down from a precipice. Luke 4 should be called the involuntary air flight chapter. Ironically the Ascension upward was the only flight He took and allowed to Himself.

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Thursday, November 20, AD 2014 8:37pm

I have not read “Lord of the World” – I will. Francis vocalizes concern about the spiritual war often. He’s a confusing man. I appreciate that he is very cognizant of the devil.
I am trying to underatand what the pope is doing and trying to figure out “why?”
{- same as the POTUS.. why?} ..but motivation may not be as important as understanding “what” is being done and what the effects are.
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“What “both of these too elected leaders are doing is disrupting and opening the door to rebellion against legitimate authority, or at least inviting the people to push the door open, and even egging them on in such an effort. They are both opening floodgates of Law-lessness… we don’t know why they are doing this, but we do see what is happening.
My own proper reaction… in both cases, would not be to stew. but to willingly engage in the spiritual warfare. Examination of conscience, turning, and prayer.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Friday, November 21, AD 2014 4:32am

Why, indeed.
It seems to me that little or nothing of substance has happened.
There has been no formal doctrinal teaching from the Holy Father at all; no Apostolic Constitutions, no Encyclical Letters. No documents have been issued from the Roman dicasteries. Canon Law has not been amended.
An Extraordinary Synod has been held and a discussion paper has been produced, in preparation for an Ordinary Synod next year.
That is all.

Lily White
Lily White
Friday, November 21, AD 2014 6:30am

Pope Francis is traditional in doctrine. He is trying to be Christ-like. He hates the sin, but loves the sinner. The general discourse quibbles more about who’s right than what’s right.

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Friday, November 21, AD 2014 10:22am

you are right Michael. BUT Vatican II’s formal teaching on the Mass looks very different than the application of the informal teaching, which prevailed.

Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon
Saturday, November 22, AD 2014 10:45am

“They are both opening floodgates of Law-lessness… we don’t know why they are doing this, but we do see what is happening.”

Obama is doing it because he has a god complex and he literally despises our American form of govt/society. He feels it is now & has always been oppressive and unjust. He therefore does not feel bound by it in the least.

trackback
Sunday, November 23, AD 2014 4:37am

[…] Tierney, Catholic Exchange Paint the Town Red, G. K. Chesterton – Shaun McAfee, Epic Pew Cardinal George: Why the Confusion, Pope Francis – D.R. McClarey JD Five Unlikely Celebrity Fans of the T. L. M. – Mark Greaves Issues […]

cpola
cpola
Friday, November 28, AD 2014 6:12am

With the Pope leaving many faithful Catholics confused. With “Gay Marriage” gaining grounds everywhere. With fewer and fewer places remaining with excuse of not having heard about Jesus Christ. Is there still any serious Catholic who doubts that we are in the end of the End-Times. Maybe St. Malachy’s prophesy is true afterall.
Meanwhile more warnings have just been issued for Rome and all of us:
http://www.popeleo13.com/pope/category/harvest-of-plagues/

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Friday, November 28, AD 2014 7:26am

St. Malachy provided 112 prophecies concerning the Popes.

John Paul II. Likley, was the 110th. It is “De Labore Solis” (Of the Solar Eclipse, or From the Toil of the Sun). The corresponding pope was John Paul II (1978-2005). John Paul II was born on May 8, 1920 during an eclipse of the sun. Like the sun, he came out of the East (Poland). Like the sun, he visited countries all around the globe.

Today the final two prophecies remain to be fulfilled:

The 111th prophecy is “Gloria Olivae” (The Glory of the Olive). The meaning of the olive is unclear. The Order of Saint Benedict ? not St. Malachy ? has claimed that this pope will come from its ranks and Saint Benedict himself prophesied that before the end of the world his Order, known also as the Olivetans, will triumphantly lead the Catholic Church in its final fight against evil.

The 112th prophecy says, “In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Petrus Romanus (Peter the Roman), who will feed his flock amid many tribulations; after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people.

Pope Benedict abdicated. Maybe, if he were a warrior instead of an aged, infirm academic . . .

It seems that Pope Francis has no desire to fight against evil, except for such moral maladies personal responsibility, private property, and centuries-old tradition . . .

Mary De Voe
Friday, November 28, AD 2014 6:11pm

Vatican II redefined the Church as only the faithful on earth, only the Militant Church on earth, notwithstanding the Triumphant Faithful in heaven and the Suffering Church in purgatory. Absent the Saints in heaven and the souls in purgatory, the Church is denied her true place as instituted by Christ.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Saturday, November 29, AD 2014 3:47am

Mary de Voe wrote, “Vatican II redefined the Church as only the faithful on earth, only the Militant Church on earth”
Except it didn’t: “For all who are in Christ, having His Spirit, form one Church and cleave together in Him. Therefore the union of the wayfarers with the brethren who have gone to sleep in the peace of Christ is not in the least weakened or interrupted, but on the contrary, according to the perpetual faith of the Church, is strengthened by communication of spiritual goods. (Lumen Gentium 49)

Mary De Voe
Saturday, November 29, AD 2014 9:00am

Michael Paterson-Seymour: “Mary de Voe wrote, “Vatican II redefined the Church as only the faithful on earth, only the Militant Church on earth”
Except it didn’t: “For all who are in Christ, having His Spirit, form one Church and cleave together in Him. Therefore the union of the wayfarers with the brethren who have gone to sleep in the peace of Christ is not in the least weakened or interrupted, but on the contrary, according to the perpetual faith of the Church, is strengthened by communication of spiritual goods. (Lumen Gentium 49)/
.
Lumen Gentium 49 is true. How many pewsitters, if they have pews and kneelers anymore, realize this truth while they are clapping for the choir or irreverently talking in church with their backs to the altar? The Church Militant has turned into the Church slothful and lazy and are disposed to neglect the Saints and the Suffering.

Mary De Voe
Saturday, November 29, AD 2014 9:03am

Triumphalism is being dunned by the current Pope, Francis. The Church Triumphant is the Church Triumphant is the Church Triumphant.

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