Monday, March 18, AD 2024 11:42pm

PopeWatch: Consistency

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Nick Bottom at The Catholic World Report imagines a press conference given by Pope Francis if he decided to use the same reasoning he deployed in Amoris Laetitia to other sins:

 

 

 

Pope Francis: Good morning, everyone.  Thank you for coming.

I have invited you today because I have had a change of heart that I must make public. In a homily recently, I spoke rather forcefully about employers who refuse to pay their workers a just wage.

I have had a chance to reflect on that homily in the light of the principles I set forth in my Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia.  I brought a copy so I can refer to it as I take your questions.  Please be patient with me as I find the appropriate passages, eh?

I believe I was too harsh in describing exploitative employers as “slave drivers” and “true bloodsuckers.”  I too must remember that the name of God is Mercy!  Amoris Laetitia rightly criticizes those who “hid[e] behind the Church’s teachings, sitting on the chair of Moses and judging at times with superiority and superficiality.”  For “it is not enough simply to apply moral laws . . . as if they were stones to throw at people’s lives” (AL 305).  As paragraph 308 of AL reminds us, “the Gospel itself tells us not to judge or condemn” (AL 308).

I also regret another remark I made in that homily.  The pope must be humble, he must be honest, no?  Somewhat precipitously, I said that cheating workers is “a mortal sin! This is a mortal sin!”  I must now express that in a more nuanced way.

In Amoris Laetitia I made it clear that I was “speaking not only of the divorced and remarried, but of everyone, in whatever situation they find themselves” (AL 297).  That of course includes employers who find themselves in the situation of slave-driving their workers.

For them too, we must keep in mind the distinction between objective sin and subjective guilt.  Since there can be in employers’ lives many “mitigating factors . . . it can no longer simply be said that all those in any ‘irregularsituation” – such as exploiting their employees – “are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace” (AL 301).

Now for your questions.

A reporter: Your Holiness, I’m a bit puzzled about who has been saying the things that you say should no longer be said.  But leaving that aside, are you not concerned that making the well-known distinction about sin and guilt here might have the effect of watering down the Church’s teaching on the rights of workers?

Pope Francis: No, no, no.  The Church’s teaching about fair wages remains.  The Catechism is still the Catechism! However, while it is certainly true that exploiting workers does not “correspond objectively to the overall demands of the Gospel” (AL 303), “it is reductive simply to consider whether or not an individual’s actions correspond to a general law or rule” (AL 304).  We must always look at the person rather than the rule.

Indeed, we may even say that sometimes it is impossible for an unjust employer to avoid doing wrong.

 

Go here to read the rest.  Of course the Pope would have to find some way around Lazarus and the rich man, but if the words of Christ can be waved away in regard to adulterous marriages in the name of mercy, what words of Christ cannot be dispatched down the memory hole?

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Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Saturday, July 23, AD 2016 2:32am

So true. The next thing we might expect is for Pope Francis to say is that Christ was overly harsh in some of his dealings, e.g., money changers in the Temple. Pope Francis might say: “These money changers were just trying to make a living. Who can blame them. They have families to support. And, even worse, Jesus started whipping them of all things. Can you imagine Jesus whipping these hard working money changers? He showed no mercy! This makes me so sad. I want to apologize for Jesus right now. I don’t know what got into Him.”

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