Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 12:23am

PopeWatch: Down Argentine Way

 

 

 

 

Pope Francis is still popular in Argentina, but not quite as popular as he used to be:

 

More than four years since his election, although most Argentinians, Catholic and non-Catholic, still celebrate Pope Francis’ style and message as a blessing, enthusiasm has dimmed in some sectors of the population. A poll published in the mass-circulation Clarin newspaper in March last year suggested that his popularity had dipped to its lowest point, of 75 per cent. A recent poll taken in Buenos Aires and its province lifted the figure to 82 per cent. However, this was still lower than the approval ratings of well over 90 per cent that he enjoyed in the first months after his election.

The fact that a global spiritual leader is a fellow countryman was always bound to be a refreshing experience, as well as a source of genuine pride, for a country that previously counted football stars – Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi – as its most popular international exports.

Francis’ many admirers see a reassuring familiarity in the humility that characterised Jorge Bergoglio’s years as their archbishop and his devotion to the poor and those on the “peripheries”. They have warmed to his readiness to reform the Church and to open up the discussion of controversial issues. However, he also faces criticism.

Politically conservative and traditionalist Argentinian Catholics see him as too radical and as unsound in theology. Over dinner in fashionable restaurants, they whisper about his reliance on instinct and charisma, like his childhood political idols, General Juan Perón and his wife, Evita. Social media is sometimes excoriating.

More measured doubts are aired in conservative parishes or in informal conversations at which government officials or business executives are present. Occasionally, a sceptical journalist or politician gingerly advances their views in public, as did Elisa Carrio, a conservative Catholic ally of the current centre-Right government of President Mauricio Macri.

After Milagro Sala, an indigenous community activist in northern Argentina, was arrested last year on charges of fraud, extortion and illicit association, Carrio described Francis’ gift of a rosary to her as a “grave error of judgement”. As Jose Maria Poirier, editor of the Catholic magazine Criterio, commented: “The waters are rather divided. There seems to be two perceptions of the Pope Francis: an international, and a national one – and they are very different.”

Concern that Pope Francis is being unwittingly drawn into Argentina’s politics as the nation gears up for mid-term congressional elections in October recently led Jorge Lugones, Jesuit bishop of the densely populated Buenos Aires diocese of Lomas de Zamora, to lament that Francis “was so valued and loved around the world yet so questioned in his own country”.

 

Go here to read the rest.  It surprises PopeWatch that Pope Francis has not yet made time to visit the country that left so indelible a stamp upon him.  Of course the Pope spent almost all of his career in Argentina, and much of it was not happy for him.  As is so often the case with this Pope, the word odd comes to mind that more than four years into his Pontificate the Pope hasn’t paid even a brief visit back home.

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Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Monday, July 24, AD 2017 4:33am

The current Pontiff quite enjoys the power he wields at the moment. He appears to be more of a politician than a religious leader.
How often did Bill Clinton go back to Arkansas? Or Obama Chicago? Not much.

S. Armaticus
S. Armaticus
Monday, July 24, AD 2017 6:22am

He doesn’t want to go back because they hate him. Pretty simple, actually…

Art Deco
Art Deco
Monday, July 24, AD 2017 6:30am

The Pope has no interest in measures which would be tonic for Argentina. That’s true in the realm of social teaching and in every other realm.

Mary De Voe
Monday, July 24, AD 2017 6:42am

Not a single member of the Lavender Mafia is a priest in good standing, that is, not excommunicated, by his rejection of Jesus Christ’s virginity.
And consider this: Men who are complicit in the crime of assault and battery known as the addiction to sodomy cannot receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders, no more than a female can be ordained.
The Holy Spirit not embraced is an impediment to the Rite of Ordination, Jorge Bergoglio among them.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Monday, July 24, AD 2017 6:44am

I think Penguins Fan’s observation is very pertinent. How often after achieving power and fame did Bill and Hillary Clinton return to Arkansas to thank those who gave them their start? How often did Barack Obama return to his old stomping grounds in Chicago to thank those who gave him his start? Jorge Bergoglio is of the same cloth: nothing but a worldly politician occupying the See of St. Peter. More and more I am coming around to the viewpoint held by a certain Mundabor over at his blog by the same name. As I go to Novus Ordo Masses and converse with the average Roman Catholic, I become more and more disgusted at the ignorance of Scripture and Tradition held and even practiced where the effeminate gospel of social justice, the common good and peace at any price replace the authentic Gospel of conversion and repentance, righteousness and holiness, manliness and womanliness. A pox on this Pontiff and all his works. May he be quickly and summarily deposed and anathematized along with all the lavendar mafia clerics whom he has appointed both in Rome and abroad!

trackback
Monday, July 24, AD 2017 1:03pm

[…] WON’T FRANCIS STOP BACK HOME TO SAY HI TO ALL HIS FRIENDS BACK IN […]

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Tuesday, July 25, AD 2017 2:14am

Pope Francis is a political opportunist. Perhaps he thinks there is nothing to be gained by a visit to his home country.

Canon212
Canon212
Tuesday, July 25, AD 2017 5:30am

Simple – they do not like bergoglio in argentina because they know what he is like.

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