The following comes from a May 11 Huffington Post article by Dennis Earl:
It’s been quite the honeymoon. Not too long after Pope Francis succeeded Benedict XVI in March 2013 to become the new head of the Vatican, reporters, pundits and even comedians began to sing his praises. Why, exactly?
Because he said things like, “I’m a sinner” and “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”
But, as the old saying goes, talk is cheap. Pope Francis can present himself as a more compassionate pontiff all he wants. With over 40 years experience working within the stubbornly Conservative Catholic Church, the 78-year-old is no liberal. The reality is he is quite content maintaining the status quo.
As recently as this past January, the pope told an audience in Manila, “The family is threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage. These realities are increasingly under attack from powerful forces which threaten to disfigure God’s plan for creation… Every threat to the family is a threat to society itself.”
That same month according to Reuters, during an impromptu speech on a plane in front of journalists, “He told of an education minister he once knew who was offered loans to build schools for the poor, but on condition their libraries stocked a book on gender theory, the questioning of traditional male and female roles.”
According to Reuters, without a hint of irony, he said, “This is ideological colonization. They colonize people with ideas that try to change mentalities or structures…” How progressive.
Like his discredited views on homosexuality and gender roles, The Pope’s views on women and reproductive rights are also out of step with modern times.
Besides being firmly anti-contraception, he is adamantly anti-abortion to the point of cruelty. Despite publicly asserting that the Vatican “obsesses” too much about this legal medical procedure, he continues to speak out against it. Consider this comment he made in 2013:
“Each child who is unborn, but is unjustly condemned to be aborted, bears the face of Jesus Christ, bears the face of the Lord, who, even before he was born, and then as soon as he was born, experienced the rejection of the world.”
Actually, each child has the face of their biological parents but I digress.
Francis has also said that “the right to life is the first among human rights. To abort a child is to kill someone who cannot defend himself.”
In 2013, during a long interview with America Magazine, the pontiff was asked about the role of women in the church. This is how he started:
I am wary of a solution that can be reduced to a kind of ‘female machismo,’ because a woman has a different make-up than a man. But what I hear about the role of women is often inspired by an ideology of machismo.
Two months before he gave this interview, the media darling revealed just how inclusive he truly is:
As far as the ordination of women, the Church has already spoken out and the answer is no. John Paul II made the Church’s stance definitive. The door is closed.
Despite recently speaking out against the low wages women receive compared to men, as you can plainly see he is far from a feminist.
So stop calling him “progressive” already.
This is hardly an unbiased assessment of the pope – “Like his discredited views on homosexuality and gender roles, The Pope’s views on women and reproductive rights are also out of step with modern times.”
Why bother putting this trashy hit piece on the site at all ?
Ted:
Because the fact that the Left is suddenly writing such “hit pieces” is a sign that reality is sinking in: Pope Francis will not abort Humanae Vitae, approve gay couplings as marriage, approve divorce or any other of the modern Left’s favorite hedonist vices. He’s the Pope. Enough said.
Pope Francis has called mothers “rabbits” and has supported same-sex civil unions. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The reason for putting it on the site is simple. To show this site’s mostly conservative readers what the other side is saying. We need to know.
Because it’s good news that they are finally paying attention to what he actually said, rather than what they think he said.
“Consider this comment he made in 2013…”
Well, duh…some people must not have been paying attention!
“Modern times” call the unabridged right to kill that unborn for any reason whatever while in the womb, and even after exiting the womb sometimes. I thank God every day that Francis and the Church are out of step with that.
Pope Francis is very confusing at times. Saying things in the public and then changing them the nest.
Most of Pope Francis’s public statements even though not official Church teaching are on the Vatican web site for reference.
The best assessment of the ” FRANCIS EFFECT” is by Father Linus Clovis,
https://www.gloria.tv/media/CG5Dyd1WWLg
Fr. Clovis is the director of the Secretariat for Family and Life in St Lucia and the Spiritual Director of Family Life International. He acquired his PhD in Mathematics in London thereafter entering the Angelicum seminary in Rome where he was ordained by St. Pope John Paul II.
Fr. Clovis is a Canon Lawyer and an author.
An excellent warning and call to prayer and protest.
The world is like the wind; it changes. It is fickle and will do whatever is popular. Christ warned us to be careful, because the world will hate you because you follow Christ. In the beginning of his pontificate, the world was really overjoyed with Pope Francis. But the honeymoon is over, because the world cannot control Pope Francis as much as it wants to. He is still very popular, much more so than Pope Benedict XVI, but the pope is not a rock star; he is the vicar of Christ.
Excellent comments Father Karl. I thank you for them. Im humbled by them. I have nothing else to say.
I agree with Ted. This article is poorly written, and seems to utterly lack any unified logical flow. Moreover, the article makes statements with little more than speculation for evidence [eg comments about gender wage inequality]
However, I remind others that the Vatican is often glacially slow changing things. After all, it took them four hundred years to agree Galileo was correct.
Correct about what?
Well, Francis accepts some of the Church’s basic doctrines; imagine. Yet, he is a poor Pope, to date. In fact, the office seems beyond him.
The Holy Ghost, of course, is the driver, but with the Church in mortal institutional decline, with people running for the exits, one needs to look at who Francis has brought in as his shock troops: Cardinals Daneels, Wuerl, Maradiaga, Kasper, Marx, Dolan, Abp. Forte, Cupich, you get the idea. These are not strong Catholic men, or even Catholic at all.
What is going on? We cannot know God’s mind, but it is clear that Francis may be “orthodox” on some things, but he is nonetheless destructive to the Faith. Pray for him, and make suggestions for future Church direction. And, expect miracles: one has to think of Paul VI, the destroyer of Catholic Tradition, still issued “Humanae Vitae”, showing who is really in charge.
Perhaps the “God of surprises,.” as Francis likes to say, has one or two up His sleeve about the present Pope. That is really the only hope that we have.
Was this Huffington Post piece supposed to be a news article? If so, Dennis Earl is a nut job.
The Huffington Post is the most anti-Catholic publication that is quoted daily there is. They deserve no recognition whatsoever.
We can read what they say (so that we know what is being said by some) but we do not have to “recognize” them as having any authority whatsoever. So yes, I’m glad to have silly articles like this pointed out.
It’s also good to keep tabs on some purportedly “Catholic” news sites. Best to know what “they” are saying. Not good to have one’s head in the sand. (In fact I think “they” of those “news” websites should get out more and see what the sheep (as they fondly think of us) are ruminating upon.)
I was worried for a while, but the more I learn about him, the more I like him.
Orthodox Catholics really should eschew getting all triumphant over the Left’s disillusionment with Pope Francis. In a recent interview, in response to a question about what will happen to “lost souls,” Francis rejected the existence of Hell. He said, “there is no punishment, but the annihilation of that soul. All the others will participate in the beatitude of living in the presence of the Father. The souls that are annihilated will not take part in that banquet; with the death of the body their journey is finished.”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/about-that-pope-francis-interview-where-he-denied-the-existence-of-hell
Our Lord Jesus Christ describes hell as a reality and spoke on hell three times as much as He ever did on heaven, thereby signifying the importance of believing in such a place. But Pope Francis knows better!
See here for all the biblical references to hell: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2014/05/08/what-did-jesus-say-or-teach-about-hell/
Oh! How disappointing. The Alter Christus who is the Head of the CAtholic Church is not measuring up to what WE want him to be.
Too bad. So sad,
But how often are we not just like that wnen our desired behavior does not sync with what The Church teaches?
Rodney, Galileo said the Earth revolved around the Sun. Most ‘experts’ of the time, including the Catholic Church, said the Sun revolved around the Earth. It was only recently that the Vatican officially recognized Galileo had been correct all along.