From Dave Griffey at Daffey Thoughts:
Pope Francis is more political activist than pope
Though he’s hardly alone in that. It’s just Catholicism, unlike Protestantism, has a few restrictions that make simply tossing out an old teaching you no longer like a bit difficult. And therein lies the tension I think.
Pope Francis uncritically takes leftwing talking points and narratives at face value. He just does. On those rarest of occasions where he calls out a leftwing sin – say homosexuality or abortion – he’s ever so careful to make sure he only condemns the sin, not the sinner. And then, to hedge the bet, he also makes it clear it doesn’t really matter if you endorse or engage in these sins. Not optimal perhaps, but certainly not a deal breaker. All one big, happy family. The important thing is that you accept at face value, as he accepts at face value, an endless string of leftwing narratives, platforms and agendas: global warming, immigration, gun control, systemic racism, the latest Covid-19 solutions, and on and on.
His wrath is forever aimed at faithful Catholics who believe that Catholicism is somehow uniquely important. What’s worse, they believe its teachings are really non-negotiable. Or they attend the Latin Mass, which seems to bother Pope Francis more than Larry Flynt bothered Jerry Falwell. And if you question these various leftwing narratives or agendas, he comes down on you like white on rice. Not only does he condemn your position, but he’s not adverse to hyper-politicized rhetoric, and even some select judgementalism aimed at your motives and inner thoughts.
Sorry, but that’s as useful to Catholicism, or even authentic Christianity, in the modern world as an accordion is for deer hunting. The fact that the majority of Catholics no longer believe entire reams of Catholic teaching doesn’t seem to bother him. In fact, what appears to bother him is that there are Catholics who care that the majority of Catholics no longer believe in Catholic teaching. And Catholics who jettison Church morals for some abortion, sex, drugs and hedonism? Again, it doesn’t seem to bother him. If confronted, that’s when we learn how little he wants to judge anyone.
Sometimes it’s like Ohio State’s football team letting Michigan’s coach coach us in the big game. I don’t think Pope Francis cares if I, or anyone really, is necessarily Catholic. If we are and agree with his politics as first priority, that’s fine. Maybe even the best. But he’s made it clear by his rhetoric and his priorities that he’d rather you reject God altogether and never grace the doors of a Church as long as you agree with him on his political stances. Hate to say it so bluntly, but I have as difficult a time seeing Pope Francis as a religious leader as I do seeing late night activists as comedians.
Go here to comment. The Pope is attempting to turn the Faith into a political faction. CS Lewis warned us about that:
Any small coterie, bound together by some interest which other men dislike or ignore, tends to develop inside itself a hothouse mutual admiration, and towards the outer world, a great deal of pride and hatred which is entertained without shame because the “Cause” is its sponsor and it is thought to be impersonal. Even when the little group exists originally for the Enemy’s own purposes, this remains true. We want the Church to be small not only that fewer men may know the Enemy but also that those who do may acquire the uneasy intensity and the defensive self-rightousness of a secret society or a clique. The Church herself is, of course, heavily defended and we have never yet quite succeeded in giving her all the characteristics of a faction; but subordinate factions within her have often produced admirable results, from the parties of Paul and of Apollos at Corinth down to the High and Low parties in the Church of England.
CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Catholicism can withstand the Gates of Hell. PopeWatch doubts if what the Pope is setting up in place of Catholicism will withstand a decade.
Bleak times, for Catholics indeed, especially for cradle Catholics raised by strict nuns (God bless them) who drove the true faith into our young heads. Despair? Not on your life. This one just turns to the plight of the Apostles when their Lord was hung on the cross–how their faith must have been tested…until that stone was rolled back. He’s still here in all His glory.
Addendum; I count not on the pope to strengthen my faith as much as I count on my faith to help strengthen the pope. The rest is up to God.
Pope Francis in his role as a messenger of the devil, a messenger of falsehood, is, at the same time, doing the work of God in His ongoing test of us. How we respond is a measure of our allegiance to God’s truth. Let us pray for the grace of God’s insight and also pray for Pope Francis and all members of the Catholic Church who listen to him.
A testing ground. A time to work out our heart muscle. To shed vice, love virtue and embrace neighbor as Our Lord would.
One of these tests is our current Pope.
Isn’t that
……excuse me. I didn’t realize that I had left that on the page.
Fr. Weinandy had it nailed a couple of years ago: we have the spectacle of the Roman pontiff as the head of a schismatic church which denies Catholic authority–and one that acts as the ever-affirming life coach to Western decadence. It’s the best diagnosis I have read of what is going on.
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/10/08/pope-francis-and-schism/
One longs for the old days when one knew that the Pope was Catholic, actually had a priestly vocation, and was of a saintly disposition- a la Benedict XVI.
There has long been a wing of the Church (united by their leftwing politics) that always broke down matters like this:
When discussing a heretic on the left: Oh, their hearts are in the right place. They really would like to be good Catholics, but they’ve been misinformed. Even if they explicitly reject teachings of the Church they probably have been misled about what those teachings mean. And almost certainly they were misled because of those traditionalists!
When criticizing traditionalists: Anything that they do wrong is intentional and malicious. In fact even if they agree 100% with Church teaching but have the wrong focus or motivation, they are still doing it in an attempt to overthrow the Church, making them worse than the most flagrant heretic.
Thus you get absurdities like “new pro-life Catholics” applauding a celebrity who has said that abortions should be commonplace since they are no big deal, based on some flimsy premise like the celebrity caring about the environment, and then attacking a traditionalist Catholic for explicitly agreeing with the Pope that the Death Penalty is licit but probably should be used as sparingly as possible, if at all (with the argument being that while the words of the traditionalist may be in agreement with the Pope, the motivations of the traditionalist are actually a gleeful joy in the thought of killing people.)
Griffey has the passion and lack of perspective of a convert. If I get any honor in Heaven, it’s because God permitted me to assist in two conversions, and I have my eye on a third. May God bless converts in their passion, may God help them to grow in their perspective, and may he teach the rest of us patience in dealing with their declarations until then!
Pinky, out of curiosity, which part of my assessment of Pope Francis’s priorities have I misunderstood?
Griffey has the passion and lack of perspective of a convert.
You’re forgetting other people here read his posts. Don’t go full clown.
Griffey has the passion and lack of perspective of a convert.
Cradle Catholic here, and I completely agree with him.
I think you’re right that his passion is politics. And he does seem thin-skinned. I guess it’s the intensity of the anger that seems off. The vast majority of priests, bishops, et cetera, haven’t displayed the heroic virtue that would prompt canonization talk. It’d be nice to think that they’re all incredibly devout, even the ones who do more administrative work or seem more engaged with the world, but I wouldn’t know if that’s the case. There are going to be some unnoticed John Vianneys, but also some unnoticed Marcial Maciels.
Converts are often disappointed by the lack of passion they see among lifelong believers. There’s very little they can do about it, though, and over the years one may also discover that many others are quietly devout.
I’m a cradle Catholic. Converts are intentional disciples. They had to make a conscious choice to become Catholic. St. Paul is a great example of the power of conversion. It is important to distinguish between being quietly devout and going through the motions out of force of habit. To know who is lukewarm.
Pinky, I took a cartoon from a magazine with me and put it on the wall behind my desk in every church I served. It showed a pastor on his knees praying. Then his secretary opens the door, looks back over her shoulder, and says, “No, he’s not busy.”
Protestants, especially the old Evangelicals, could certainly adopt a ‘don’t just sit there, do something’ mentality. Dare I say, spirituality. And one that could see other approaches as somehow deficient in one’s Christian pilgrimage. It was something we tried to bring attention to in the olden days.
But my problem here isn’t a passion of the leadership or devotion of the laity issue. It’s that I just don’t believe Pope Francis would be more upset with a person rejecting the Gospel than he would a person disagreeing with his politics. To me, that is a massive problem for anything but a political campaign.
Converts are often disappointed by the lack of passion they see among lifelong believers.
Thanks for the issue of your imagination.
I’ve never pondered the quantum of passion around me, just been dismayed by the slatternliness. It has it’s analogue in daily life.
Convert Bashing Anyone? After being a member of a conservative Protestant church for 30 years try to see what happens when you leave them for the “Catholics “. They may tolerate you. After all you were born that way and can’t help it. The converts are evil traitors. Most do not convert lightly.
After my conversion, which was unexpectedly given to me by grace, not through any intellectual inquiry, I volunteered to assist with the RCIA program at my parish. One evening during a discussion, n older gentleman who was a sponsor muttered loudly enough for all to hear, “Why do we have a CONVERT teaching this class?” This was the first I had heard of such a sentiment, which I’ve since learned is not uncommon, but at the time it shocked me. After a moment’s recovery, I said “Well, Mr. _____, all of the Apostles were converts, too.” And then we moved on with the discussion.
:snorts:
Had the older fellow bleepin’ slept through the last… like, forever?
Teachers tend to be those who have systematically studied a thing.
That does tend to include a higher rate of converts, if not reverts.
If you don’t have enough studied-and-loved-it folks to do the teaching, you get left with those who do the teaching out of duty.
Which is how you end up with a supply of reverts who systematically studied the faith, since they weren’t taught it…..
One of the best Catholics I know is my Bride, a convert. As for myself, I have always stated that in a sane time in the life of the Church my role within the Church would be to serve as a bad example.
Foxfier and Don: Two thumbs up!
👍👍
Not convert-bashing. They’re great. They have the passion of a young lover. But yeah, they’re going to lack the perspective of the long-married. The biggest “problem” with converts is that we’re about 6.5 billion short.
So, we can expect an excoriation and excommunication of one Jesuit-educated Anthony Fauci when?