Friday, March 29, AD 2024 1:02am

PopeWatch: Is the Pope Anti-Catholic?

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Dale Price has an intriguing post over at One Peter Five:

If you are a typical observant Catholic who has struggled with this papacy, dealt with distress caused by his words and actions, and generally struggled with dislike for the pontifex, it’s OK. Well, all right, it’s not: honestly, it is both strange and painful for a Catholic to be at odds with the Successor of Peter.

It is, however, completely understandable.

Why? Because, in this case, he gives every indication of not liking you first.

In fact, I think it’s safe to say that we are dealing with the fascinating–and unique–spectacle. Namely, a Bishop of Rome who truly dislikes the Church.

Except as cautionary tales, he has no apparent use for Catholics who risk all to be faithful to unpopular teachings, who find value in allegedly outdated forms and supposedly archaic and incomprehensible languagewho propose solutions grounded in past experience or the fundamentals of the Churchwho practice traditional devotionswho defend the words (as opposed to the “spirit”) of Catholic doctrine…the list could be multiplied. Consider the first major writing of the pontificate which was purely his, with its exhortation to boldly rethink the goals of evangelization, amongst other modest suggestions. Though that same document does wisely point us to the need of focusing more on the Word of God and not the Pope (see paragraph 38).

Go here to read the rest.  Imagine, just imagine, the reaction if the Pope bashed other religions as monotonously as he has bashed traditional Catholics.  The news would be filled with charges that the Pope is a bigot.  The Pope famously observed that he wanted priests to have the smell of their flock.  Well, the evidence is clear that the Pope thinks a lot of Catholics stink, and would be quite happy if they would simply run off.

 

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Philip
Philip
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 4:53am

F
R
E
E
M
A
S
O
N

Penguin Fan
Penguin Fan
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 5:42am

I repeat – this Pontiff is a product of his screwed up time, his screwed up order and his screwed up nation.
Bishop Williamson of the SSPX was in his diocese and Williamson is nuts. The Society of Jesus should be suppressed for hetetodoxy. Argentina was pro Axis in WWII and Peron destroyed their economy.
No, he doesn’t like people such as me who go to the TLM. Fine, I don’t like him either. People often end up with jobs for which they are grossly unqualified. Jorge Bergoglio and Barack Obama are prime examples.
The Church has had other incompetent Pontiffs in the past and will have more in the future. Do not let this man get you down. This, too, shall pass.

DonL
DonL
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 5:53am

” People often end up with jobs for which they are grossly unqualified”

Penguin fan; certainly you wouldn’t be speaking literally of the most appropriately worded, “Peter principle?”

Thanks for the laugh. God knows we need one about now.

DonL
DonL
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 6:09am

At the link to the NCR rag, the pope was dissing Pelagic belief because it “brings us to have trust in structures, in organizations, in perfect plans, however abstract.”

Is this the same pope that then dares to demand that nations (structures) take our wealth to redistribute and also has socialist “inequality is evil” tendencies, while he speaks of salvation through better worldly “economic structures” and global warming agendas through the international structure of the UN?

David Spaulding
David Spaulding
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 6:31am

This quote sums up my feelings well:

“[I]f I professed my love for my wife and then proceeded to offer a seemingly endless list of criticisms and things she needed to change, she’d have reasonable cause to doubt that love. Not to mention cause to heave blunt and heavy household objects at me.”

The author points out a discrepancy between word and deed, between His Holiness acting as though he despises us and calling for universal love and tolerance. Pope Francos has negative words for much of what I believe is good and right.

One of my biggest disputes with him is that he seems to have no,sense of the rhythm of the practice of our faith, thw movement through the liturgical year, the penance and preparation of Advent, followed by the joy of Christmas that leads us to the penance and preparation of Lent, followed by the joy of Easter; all punctuated by time before the cross, timw before the Eucharist, rosaries, devotionals, Mass, Reconciliation, and the blessed sacraments that puncuate famiky life. All of this, together, keeps the Christian focused properly and creates space for our relationship with God.

His Holiness never talks about this. It is as though he would have us flit from crisis to crisis like the world around us. I fail to see how that will bring us closer to God.

His Holiness is wrong, terribly so, and it will be difficult to undo what he has done.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 7:08am

“Is the Pope anti-Catholic?”
.
Yes

.Anzlyne
.Anzlyne
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 8:24am

Look again at the 12th chapter of Matthew.
Here is part of Haydocks comment:
Ver. 30. “He that is not with me.” This sentence is not to be understood as directly spoken of heretics and schismatics, although at first sight it may appear so, but of the devil, who wishes to lead the souls of men captive, whilst Christ wishes to free them. He entices men to wickedness, Jesus Christ draws them to virtue: how therefore can the works of Christ be compared with those of Satan! (St. Jerome) — There is no medium. We must either be with Christ, or against Christ: if we are not of Christ, whose then must we be, when nothing but sin can separate us from Christ and God? Oh, where will the generality of Christians, who shew themselves so indifferent with regard to salvati, find themselves at the last day? Can they say they are with Christ?
.
We know the devil is the father of confusion and so we are called to increase our prayers.
God help me to not give into worry- but to pray with faith and hope.

epb
epb
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 8:31am

Pope Francis gives us new meaning to the “Peter Principle”. 🙁

Ken
Ken
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 8:54am

I don’t believe it stops at just Catholics or the Church, but Scripture and Christ. Where in the Bible do we ever get a sense of wiggle room? Where was Jesus willing to compromise? When crowds departed from Christ did he chase after them saying,”Come back; we’ll find an easier path for you.” The NT seems to obviously state that salvation is available to everyone, but that many are going to reject it. The pope seems to believe that he can make Christ open the door wider.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 9:01am

Argentina was pro Axis in WWII and Peron destroyed their economy.

The Argentine populace tended to favor the Allies and the government was formally neutral. Peron’s been dead for 40-odd years and (bar a brief interlude) out of office for 60 years. He had a wretched effect on the country’s political culture, but he cannot be held personally responsible for two generations of cant-get-it-right in the realm of economic policy.

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 9:22am

“Bishop Williamson of the SSPX is nuts” (Penguins Fan). Yes: but I think PF (Penguins Fan, not the other guy) knows Williamson is “formerly of the SSPX” (expelled in 2012), just an observation. And yes, he is certifiable, too nutty even for the SSPX.

DonL
DonL
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 2:36pm

“…Peron’s been dead for 40-odd years …but he cannot be held personally responsible for two generations of cant-get-it-right in the realm of economic policy”

Couldn’t one well argue with that same reasoning, if it were altered to say, Lyndon Johnson and the impoverished Black community? He certainly shares in some of the destruction of such, and it’ll be generations before it turns, if ever, to self-help, intact family structures, and positive citizenry.

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 6:45pm

The supposedly neutral Argentine Government looked the other way when Eichmann made his way there. The Mossad did take him out of “neutral” Argentina.

Oh, Argentina still suffers from Peronism. Why not? FDR gave us Big Government. Social Security is still with us and going broke.

+Williamson is loony. Compared to the Roman Pontiff, the SSPX is a bedrock of sanity.

Pray for the Pontiff and ignore the Pontiff.

The Bear
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 6:57pm

Just came to a similar conclusion after studying the latest “Terror at 20,000 Feet” report. I don’t even think he his Catholic as most of us would understand it. If you look at his career as Pope through the lens of garden variety leftism, it all makes perfect sense. Humanitarian leftism is his engine, not Catholicism at all.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 9:02pm

The supposedly neutral Argentine Government looked the other way when Eichmann made his way there. The Mossad did take him out of “neutral” Argentina.

We have controversies now in this country over illegal immigration. Why? Because the government does not have the manpower and information retrieval equal to the task. You think maybe in South America in 1960, similar problems may have been manifest?
He arrived in Argentina several years after the war carrying identity documents obtained under false pretenses. If you wanted to accuse someone of being complicit, you’d have a better argument against the Red Cross than against the Argentine government. He was captured by the Mossad in 1960 and transported to Israel to stand trial. Israel did not trust Argentina and did not work through official channels. They may have has satisfactory reasons for that, but it’s a bit peculiar to refer to Arturo Frondizi’s government as ‘pro-Axis’ fifteen years after the end of the war. Frondizi was a populist electoral politician who’s political activity had been within parties which pre-dated the Peronist era. He was about as pro-Axis as Jim Hightower.

FDR gave us Big Government. Social Security is still with us and going broke.

Social Security is an income transfer program, not a pension fund. It makes little sense to say it is ‘going broke’. ‘Big government’ is cant.

Penguin Fan
Penguin Fan
Thursday, December 3, AD 2015 10:53pm

Like clockwork, I mention Latin America and Art picks an argument. Art is as annoying as the Pope.

Eichmann did not end up in Chile or Cuba or Brazil.

The Social Security trust fund has been raided by Congress since LBJ was in the White House and consists of US Treasury IOUs.

Phillip
Phillip
Friday, December 4, AD 2015 4:28am

“Humanitarian leftism is his engine…”

I agree. As is with many clerics, I believe Francis to be, what I call, a Christian materialist. All efforts are directed at the perfection of this world (which of course means a socialist – even neo-Marxist world.) All is directed to material well-being with no effort directed towards the redemption of souls or consideration of our eternal end. For those somewhat spiritually minded, there is the hope for the “just society” they create leading to a morally good people. But most don’t even pay lip service to this. For them, only material goods matter.

As for Jesus, he may be the Son of God for some. Or maybe a good human that has been elevated to the Divine by his “social justice.” Or perhaps he is merely some preacher of Roman Palestine who gives us one example among many of how to act justly. No matter however, there is almost never the desire to bring others to a relationship with him, acknowledge him as savior of the World through his atoning sacrifice (they in fact deny that) nor any recognition that his words mean more than a drive to social equality. In the end, he merely provides a veneer for their materialism.

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Friday, December 4, AD 2015 4:39am

Maybe the question should be: Is the Pope anti-Catholic? I think it is a settled issue that he is not a Catholic in any normal (non-Liberal) understanding of the word. It is as if the devil himself was sitting on the Chair of Peter instructing us that this world is all there is and we should make the best of it. There is no City of God, only the City of Man.

.Anzlyne
.Anzlyne
Friday, December 4, AD 2015 7:23am

This may be true of him… and it gives him a kind of gloss of goodness in that he has good intentions even though humanistic…good for goodness sake.
But for the rest of them! They are not even humanists! Just selfish. Not trying to improve the world. Just living their own lives.
The devil operates on lots of different levels. There are those who have soured the milk of the Church– who are not interested in a better world; they are interested in themselves… not altruistic in any way shape or form not marxist, not secular humanist. Just selfish.
I went to priests and the bishop and cried and explained the facts and the bishop said “there there.” 4 years we have been trying to get Courage Encourage going here in our tri diocese area and NO HELP at all from anyone but a newly employed lay minister grad of Steubenville. who is just beginning to find all he is up against.

Philip
Philip
Friday, December 4, AD 2015 8:25am

Anzlyne.

Apathy.

It’s a contagion, a plague of sorts.
There are pockets of resistance. Our small community is a fine example. Men and women making a difference, engaged and aware of the struggle. I feel for you and your diocese. Apathy, indifference are sure signs of the enemy encroachment into society but they will not last.

I wish I could prove this point… It is perpetual Eucharistic Adoration that has made all the difference. To see men come together for 3 1/2 hours on a Thursday night, football night mind you, to gear up for the game that matters…life, salvation,virtue building.. it is Jesus! He is respected and adored here, and for twenty one men to gather last night for that length of time to study, adore and have fellowship in Christian community is HOPE.
It is Jesus that is changing apathy into Holy action. It is Jesus moving hearts.
Find a Adoration Chapel near you, and find our Captain and King there. He makes it happen.

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Friday, December 4, AD 2015 9:02am

I am “sensing” (I hate that liberal word, and I am using it) that everyone is a bit on edge and quite irascible, likely due to this offensive “Papa” (abusive is better: pray for his bitter angry soul), the callous, calculating President we have, the San Bernardino jihadist shootings, and all this after the Paris attack. When, now scores and hundreds of innocent lives are snuffed out, both these leaders posture and pontificate showing their utter coldness for the ordinary person.

So, Philip has the best “help” for the moment, although I find praying the rosary with my brother (Ha! He is autistic, and knows all his Rosary prayers: I have a yoga-loving sibling that would fail that test) and am fortunate he keeps me on task for at least 1 rosary a day as we drive around the SF Baytheist Area. Keeps me going.

.Anzlyne
.Anzlyne
Friday, December 4, AD 2015 9:12am

I know you are right Phillip and Steve and I am not to give up hope. It’s kind of a dark night right now and I have to actually do some serious overcoming to even pray my rosary or go to Adoration.kind of operating on fumes right now.

.Anzlyne
.Anzlyne
Friday, December 4, AD 2015 9:14am

Philip I apologize getting your name wrong

Philip
Philip
Friday, December 4, AD 2015 9:24am

No apology necessary.

It’s okay. 🙂

BTW. Phillip has great comments.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, December 4, AD 2015 3:08pm

Eichmann did not end up in Chile or Cuba or Brazil.

No, Joseph Mengele ended up in Brazil. Others ended up in Uruguay, arguably Latin America’s most affluent and politically benign country (bar Costa Rica). The number of Nazis on the lam who did so did not break into four digits. The population of the Southern Cone was about 26 million in 1950 with another 52 million in Brazil. That’s (illegal) chain migration, not some sort of official program to harbor Nazis.

The Social Security trust fund has been raided by Congress since LBJ was in the White House and consists of US Treasury IOUs.

It’s an accounting convention, not a trust fund, and it has always consisted of Treasury issues. It has never not been raided.

Micha Elyi
Micha Elyi
Sunday, December 6, AD 2015 4:54pm

I don’t believe Pope Francis is anti-Catholic. After the prior two popes, he’s just a reversion to the mean.

Phillip
Phillip
Monday, December 7, AD 2015 9:06am

“After the prior two popes, he’s just a reversion to the mean.”

Given some of the comments of this Pope, its more a reversion to mean.

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Tuesday, December 8, AD 2015 9:01am

,, A reversion to very, very mean, and very specifically as to whom this pope is particularly “hating on”..

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