Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 9:27am

PopeWatch: FRATELLI TUTTI Summarized and Translated from the Original BOMFOG-Part II

Go here to read Part I.

51.Developing nations tend to ape more economically advanced nations and despising their own culture.

52.Pope goes full tin foil hat:  Destroying self-esteem is an easy way to dominate others. Behind these trends that tend to level our world, there flourish powerful interests that take advantage of such low self-esteem, while attempting, through the media and networks, to create a new culture in the service of the elite. 

53.Pope is against alienation, at least in developing countries.

54.Look on the sunny side of life.  Pope points to caregivers during the Black Sniffles.

55.Pope likes hope.

Chapter Two:  A Stranger on the Road

56.Parable of the Good Samaritan.

57.”Am I my brother’s keeper?”

58.We are all connected with each other.

59.Love your neighbor embraces all of humanity.

60.Golden Rule.

61.Love your neighbor embraces all of humanity.

62.Love of neighbor is not restricted to the groups we belong to.

63.Good Samaritan showed compassion to a stranger.

64.Do you resemble the Good Samaritan or the people who declined to help?

65.Kitty Genovese syndrome.

66.We should emulate the Good Samaritan.

67.Ditto for society.

68.We should emulate the Good Samaritan. (The Pope tends to repeat himself.)

69.All of us have in ourselves something of the wounded man, something of the robber, something of the passers-by, and something of the Good Samaritan.

70.Divides the world between those who help others and those who do not.

71.Applies the story of the Good Samaritan to the world in general.

72.Pope doesn’t like robbers.

73.Condemns indifference to the plight of the poor.

74.Pope goes Saint James on religious people who pass by those in need.

75.Pope dons tin foil hat again:  Plunging people into despair closes a perfectly perverse circle: such is the agenda of the invisible dictatorship of hidden interests that have gained mastery over both resources and the possibility of thinking and expressing opinions.

76.Condemns indifference to the plight of the injured man.

77.We should all be Good Samaritans.

78.More of this theme.

79.More of this theme.

80.We should be neighbors to all.

81.We should be neighbors to all.

82.Samaritans were despised by the Jews.

83.Samaritan woman at the well.

84.No strangers for Christians.

85.Recognizing Christ in those at need.

86.Condemns narrow and violent nationalism.  (Yes Holiness.  Argentina should really stop obsessing over Las Malvinas.)

Chapter Three:  Envisaging and Engendering an Open World

87.Human beings need to love others.

88.Love creates bonds.

89.Pope is really on his high horse about love being restricted to closed groups.

90.Points to monastic orders who help wandering strangers.

91.Without charity to others we possess only apparent virtues.

92.Bashes traditional religious believers:  Yet some believers think that it consists in the imposition of their own ideologies upon everyone else, or in a violent defence of the truth, or in impressive demonstrations of strength. All of us, as believers, need to recognize that love takes first place: love must never be put at risk, and the greatest danger lies in failing to love.

  1. Love is movement towards others citing Saint Thomas Aquinas.

94.Love makes us wish for the best for others.

95.Love impels us to universal communion.

96.This applies between countries and regions.

97.Condemns racism and other forms of exclusion.

98.Names among groups excluded the disabled and the elderly.

99.A love capable of transcending borders.

100.Pope is not proposing an authoritarian and abstract universalism.  Does not want a globalism that crushes diversity.

More tomorrow.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
8 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, October 8, AD 2020 4:30am

Wouldn’t use the term ‘tin-foil hat’ for the two passages you quote. ‘Accusatory psychobabble’, perhaps.

Point 86 reminds you of C.S. Lewis remark about the tendency of one generation to fixate on the vices of the previous generation (or, in this case, that of the great-grandparents of today’s middle-aged adults). The particularism which is most threatening today is the stew of resentments within China’s political culture; that’s a latent but potentially catastrophic problem. Less threatening is the sub rosa Russian nationalist discourse, where the chatter is about reconquering old Soviet territory (eastern Ukraine in particular). Violent particularism is to be found in Iran, in Turkey, in Afghanistan, parts of Pakistan, in Iraq, in Syria, and in Lebanon (and stoked by Iran or by Turkey in these last places. I don’t think any of these countries have been placed on the Pope’s blacklist and he’s been downright indulget with China.

Don L
Don L
Thursday, October 8, AD 2020 5:47am

Point 100 merely raises the obvious question; Why, Holy Father, did you feel you had to preempt the inevitable accusations, unless you have a history of “walking like a duck” on this issue?

BPS
BPS
Thursday, October 8, AD 2020 7:13am

“Destroying self-esteem is an easy way to dominate others. Behind these trends that tend to level our world, there flourish powerful interests that take advantage of such low self-esteem, while attempting, through the media and networks, to create a new culture in the service of the elite.”
Maybe the pope doesn’t know about the perversity of “high self-esteem”
“Black teens score high in self-esteem–US study confounds anti-racism activists”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/jun/04/anthonybrowne.sarahryle

Foxfier
Admin
Reply to  BPS
Thursday, October 8, AD 2020 7:24am

Self-esteem is not black and white– unintentional, there– it’s a needed element but not enough in and of itself to do anything.

The destruction that does go on destroys the foundation of folks’ self-esteem, and replaces it with something the destroyer can use to control them.

It’s sort of like boot camp, gangs, or “dying to one’s self.” Radically different goals, but it involves changing what someone’s self worth is based on. Obviously, that last one there is a MUCH better foundation, but is out of favor because it’s very hard for the users to abuse.

Pinky
Pinky
Thursday, October 8, AD 2020 10:16am

Your short description of 92 seems a stretch. Traditional religious believers don’t do those things, or at least it’s not essential to them to do so. I don’t even think it’s a tendency.

I’ve only read that small portion of the encyclical (paragraphs 91-94), but there’s four references to Aquinas there, which is basically all I want. Although, looking at the notes, those might be the only four Aquinas references in the whole encyclical. Oh well.

Frank
Frank
Thursday, October 8, AD 2020 12:06pm

I enjoyed Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s tweet.
“I’ve skimmed through Fratelli Tutti. The paragraph where he mentions Jesus is good.”

Mark
Mark
Thursday, October 8, AD 2020 5:55pm

At 43K word length, I will pass, TYVM.
Who really reads/writes these encyclicals anyway? Read Sheen and Rutler, instead.

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Friday, October 9, AD 2020 8:07am

Every day that I do not have to think of this fake “Pope” as leader of the Catholic Church is a good day for me. So today,…oh well.

At least my late sainted parents do not have to bend their minds around the complex notion of explaining this hypocritical heretical “pope” as head of the CC.

A Ray of light in everything

Discover more from The American Catholic

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Scroll to Top