How Pope Francis Undermined the Goodwill of His Trip and Proved to Be a Coward
Posted:
Updated:
The pope played us for fools, trying to have it both ways. As I noted last week, he's an artful politician, telling different audiences what they want to hear on homosexuality. He did that in Argentina as a cardinal -- railing against gay marriage when the Vatican expected him to do so -- and he's done that since becoming pope, striking a softer tone on the issue after Benedict's harsh denunciations were a p.r. disaster for the Catholic Church in the West. But this news about Kim Davis portrays him as a more sinister kind of politician. That's the kind that secretly supports hate, ushering the bigots in the back door -- knowing they're an embarrassment -- while speaking publicly about about how none of us can judge one another.
I would have more respect for the pope if he had publicly embraced Kim Davis and made an argument for her, as he did in his visit with the Little Sisters of the Poor, who are battling against filling out a form to exempt themselves from Obamacare's contraception requirement, claiming that even filling out the form violates their religious liberty -- even though I vehemently disagree with the pope on that issue. I'd have more respect if he boldly, explicitly made a public statement (not the vague, general statement he made on his plane on the way home only in response to a reporter's question about Davis), as he did in trying to stop the execution of a Georgia inmate who was put to death this morning. But by meeting with Davis secretly, and then at first having the Vatican neither confirm nor deny the encounter -- and now having the Vatican say it "won't deny" the meeting while it still won't offer any other details -- the pope comes off as a coward.
He shows himself to be antithetical to much of what he preaches and teaches. He talks about dialogue and having the courage of one's convictions and the courage to speak out. But he swept this Davis meeting under the rug, seemingly ashamed and certainly not wanting to broach the subject. Even Davis's supporters should find that insulting to them.
We all knew Francis was playing a p.r. game, and we were fine with that. He was focusing on climate change, immigration and other issues passionate to him -- and certainly I, and I hope everyone, still welcome whatever influence he can have on those issues. And it appeared he viewed the LGBT rights debate as a distraction from a focus on those causes. He even told U.S. bishops in a meeting during his trip that they should stop complaining about it and turn their attention to other issues. The sense was that he was probably not passionate about gay rights, but not passionate about attacking them either.
But by telling Davis that she should "stay strong" -- if her attorney's account of the encounter is to be believed -- the pope is only encouraging the bigots, even if he's doing so quietly. We don't know all the details yet regarding how Davis came to meet Francis -- if, for example, it was one of the more vocally anti-gay U.S. Catholic Church leaders who brought her along, or if the Vatican invited her.
But the optics of it are bad no matter what. Rather than moving us forward on LGBT rights ever so slightly, as many viewed the pope as doing, he now, with this meeting, emboldens the haters in the church who will be pushing to make sure church doctrine continues to call homosexuality "intrinsically disordered." And it sends a message to all those people who've experienced anti-gay discrimination -- like the Catholic school teachers fired from their jobs in the U.S. simply because of who they are -- that this pope is not going to end that discrimination any time soon. Rather than stopping that discrimination, he welcomed, with open arms in the Vatican's own embassy, the bigots who promote that discrimination but who've turned themselves into the victims.
18 comments:
Pope Francis has said over and over again that marriage is between one man and one woman . . . this is a marriage issue. It's so sad Mr. Signorile is attacking the Holy Father for agreeing with the Church's teaching on marriage.
It was late last night when I learned of the story at hand. The "Traditionalist" blogs I visited were besides themselves. They have adhered to the narrative that Pope Francis is a radical modernist.
They bashed Pope Francis last week for not, in their minds, having promoted marriage during his visit to the United States. They pretended that Pope Francis supported homosexual "marriage."
But when news broke of the Holy Father's meeting with Kim Davis, they were trapped by their own false narrative. They were loath to acknowledge the tremendous significance of the secret meeting in question. Therefore, in pathetic fashion, they bashed Pope Francis for not having made public his meeting with Kim Davis.
They failed to understand that had he done so, Pope Francis would have destroyed his Apostolic Visit to the United States. Every second of news media coverage would have focused upon Pope Francis...Kim Davis.
What Pope Francis has done is sheer greatness.
He delivered his important and wide-ranging message to America. He did not permit liberals within and without the Church to sabotaged his visit by having reduced it to the Kim Davis Show.
The manner in which Rome has handled the situation with Kim Davis, the Church's rejection of homosexual "marriage" has become even more evident and powerful.
Traditionalists were wrong about Pope Francis and his supposed "soft" approach to homosexual marriage.
Father McDonald-permitting, I would like to discuss via my next post the liberal reaction to the amazing story at hand.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
No one gets fired from their jobs "simply for who they are" but for what they DO.
Merely being attracted to anything is of no consequence. But what one freely chooses to do with one's body so aroused is entirely actionable.
As for "hate", the only 'side' making this about murderous physical violence, murderous wrath-filled thoughts, and murderous will-the-evil-on-another is the gay rights side.
Those who decry sodomy as immoral and ideations for something immoral are not hateful in pointing out that some act is immoral and the desire to commit an immoral act is itself a disordered desire. But those who insist that disagreement must be spiteful are the ones bursting at the seams with wrath barely held in check.
Coming soon: All of these Christians who believe that homosexuality is a sin must be given about 10 years re-education in a Labor Camp.
Late last night and this morning, I read some of the "mainsteam" news media coverage of the Pope Francis/Kim Davis secret meeting.
Last night and today on the CBS News Web site, hundreds of comments were left on the site in regard to the story at hand. Even into this morning, one post after another rejected the story's authenticity.
The hundreds of Culture of Death liberals who posted to CBS News were unable to accept that His Holiness Pope Francis was not one of them. They could not bring themselves to accept that Pope Francis oppose sodomite "marriage."
Hundreds of posts accused Kim Davis and her lawyer, as well as the pro-life community who supported Kim Davis, of having lied. Over and over, the folks who posted CBS News' comment boxes insisted that Kim Davis was a liar.
They declared with total certainty that the story was false. Now, their false narrative in question has been destroyed. All that they can do is to display their true feelings. All along, they have hated Pope Francis.
But Pope Francis is merely the figurehead of their outrage.
Behind it all, the Culture of Death, pro-homosexual "marriage" crowd hate Jesus Christ and His One True Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
If they could, the homosexual "marriage" crowd would do to us as was done to Kim Davis. They would jail each of us if they could. They hate anybody who upholds God's teachings that pertain to marriage.
Deo gratias for His Holiness Pope Francis.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Ben Shapiro is Senior Editor-At Large of Breitbart News. I just read the following story of his posted the other day:
"Seven Ways Pope Francis Slapped Conservatives In The United States."
Mister Shapiro claimed the following about Pope Francis in regard to His Holiness' Apostolic Visit to the United States:
"Ignoring Same-Sex Marriage. The Pope encouraged marriage in his speech before Congress, and talked vaguely of the value of family. He complained of threats to the family. But he said nothing about what those threats were – with the very Supreme Court that declared itself above God in terms of defining marriage sitting in front of him.
"The Pope’s visit could have been an incredible opportunity to fight against Godless immorality in the United States.
"Instead, the Pope largely used the opportunity to push leftism slathered over with paper-thin theology.
"That’s a tragic loss for both the world and for the religious community fighting for survival against the onslaught of an increasingly aggressive secular left – a secular left that cheered the Pope but will be happy to either coopt or crush his church at the first available opportunity."
1. His Holiness Pope Francis did not ignore "same-sex marriage."
2. Pope Francis has again confounded his critics, such as Ben Shapiro.
3. The remainder of Ben Shapiro's article in question is preposterous.
4. I have just read additional stories and comments that Ben Shapiro has made over time in regard to Pope Francis. Mister Shapiro's declarations in regard to Pope Francis have exhibited incompetence.
Pope Francis has again confounded his critics.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
The pope is equal opportunity on sin---sex outside of marriage is a sin, whether committed by heterosexuals or homosexuals. And nowhere in the Bible or early church teachings is marriage anything but a man and a woman. Period.
Yes, Mark Thomas is right in pointing out the main gripe some Catholics have with Pope Francis not using his trip to the US to highlight important issues:
"Instead, the Pope largely used the opportunity to push leftism slathered over with paper-thin theology.
"That’s a tragic loss for both the world and for the religious community fighting for survival against the onslaught of an increasingly aggressive secular left – a secular left that cheered the Pope but will be happy to either coopt or crush his church at the first available opportunity."
Here was the chance for Pope Francis to speak out as courageously as St John Paul II The Great when he said in St Louis, Missouri January 27, 1999:
"The new evangelization must also bring out the truth that ``the Gospel of God's love for man, the Gospel of the dignity of the person and the Gospel of life are a single and indivisible Gospel'' (Evangelium Vitae, 2). As believers, how can we fail to see that abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide are a terrible rejection of Gods gift of life and love? And as believers, how can we fail to feel the duty to surround the sick and those in distress with the warmth of our affection and the support that will help them always to embrace life?
The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life: who will proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of life in every situation. A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform (cf. Evangelium Vitae, 27). I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary."
Of course, following in such footsteps as St John Paul II The Great and Benedict XVI is a great ask.
Jan
The pope has pretty good taste in movies. Apparently his three favorite films are to be shown at a theater in Philadelphia. His favorites are La Strada, Rome Open City, and Babette's Feast.
It is interesting to me that the last in this list was also Pope Benedict's reported favorite film, if I recall correctly.
Mark Thomas,
Thank you for your excellent commentary and analysis of the situation, proving once more how false and betraying of our Lord the Radical Misrepresenting Traditionalist narrative is. You should seriously consider your own blog to share your thoughts and add your voice to those of us defending Holy Mother Church. I fully support all you have written in this post.
Fr aJM thank you for giving Mark a place to share his thoughts, despite ridicule and condescension on the Internet of him from some voices. We all need to work together to fight this scourge.
Pax.
This is nothing but the Pope's chickens coming home to roost because of his ambiguous statements and behavior. I expect more of the same.
Through the months and years there have been lots of comments here about sexual activity. Sodomy seems especially popular. Some of y'all have a bit of an obsession, I think....(I'm not gonna count up and report the instances. You do it if you need to know.)
So, Gob, you view marriage as primarily about sex, then?
The Pope cannot change doctrine.
Huffpo and others (left/right, liberal/conservative) need to direct their ha.., er, disappointment to the originator of the doctrine -- Jesus Christ, Truth Himself.
Many people over the many centuries have some sort of issue with The Truth. They can't stand it. It doesn't "fit". It's "out of touch". They are at such odds with The Truth that they will embrace much easier-to-digest, fast-food Lies.
It is so sad to see all of this misinformation and deception.
The Truth is right before us. All that matters or will ever matter is right before us. Where else is there to go?
There's even more misinformation in the air now that English-language news outlets have picked up on Pope Francis's comments on Mayor Marino.
The media are deliberately distorting the Pope's words on the plane back from the US, since there's no way that "Si professa cattolico" means "he pretends to be Catholic":
http://news.yahoo.com/pope-shows-no-mercy-blasts-rome-mayor-pretend-201914363.html
p.s. I'm glad to see Mark Thomas's comments here too.
Gob,
If the Sodomists will stop pushing their agenda and leave our children and nation alone, I think the rest of us will happily never mention the subject again.
This is not a surprise. I suspect it was planned, waiting for the total weight of Pope Francis' remarks to be digested and "cherry picked" in retaliation. It is in no way reasonable that his meeting and remarks with that woman "only give help to bigots" any more than his "who am I to judge?" remark was intended to give the green light to sodomy. Popes are different from most leaders in that their remarks must be weighed with a much larger body of remarks and thoughts to be understood correctly. This is what sets them apart from the tiresome balance of world and national leaders. Sometimes they take advantage of intentional Italian ambiguity to avoid confrontation and exercise a form of medieval diplomacy. But other times they give us bits of interesting information that give us occasion for further thought that inculcates us with an eternal truth from a from a current perspective. I have wondered if this was the modus of this Pope and I am becoming more convinced of that possibility. I am also still very concerned that what he is doing takes a very long time to accomplish and can be confusing until it is completed.
Methinks these people don't understand what 'Mercy for everyone' entails.
Post a Comment