Father Thomas Reese is often stuck in the 1970’s too as it concerns a desire to go backwards to that period of time in the Church in order to move forward again, erasing the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict.
But this commentary is simply a bombshell commentary. Press the title for the full article. But apart from what Fr. Reese, SJ says, what he doesn’t say is at the core of the problem with this papacy, off-the-cuff remarks and a compulsion to talk too much, give too many interviews and to say whatever is on his mind and the incoherence of what is said and what he says he often contradicts somewhere else:
Pope Francis was not fully briefed prior to Canadian visit
Pope was left looking like a student who had not done his homework
Opinion
Vatican
Money byte:
The pope's responses on the plane back to Rome are beyond embarrassing; they are scandalous. The pope needs better staffing or people will begin to think that perhaps he is no longer up to the job.
5 comments:
My reaction was not so much that he wasn’t briefed but that the public discussion wasn’t better screened. The Pope was obviously subjected to an agenda intended to humiliate the Church and produce some sort of financial and political bounty. Essentially using the misery of deceased children as political theatre. This is more than one ball being dropped and makes me wonder about the set up and who knew about it. And where are the Canadian bishops? Don’t they know what’s going on?
There is no question that mistreatment of anyone by the Church is bad. But we are being fed second helpings of whitewash concerning the state and nature of native cultures portrayed as peaceful and benevolent societies. They were not. They were human beings the same as Europeans who had to struggle with their own nature as they attempted to spread Christianity. If that campaign was often a cynical use of Christ’s message and charter then it was no different than this opportunism parading as justice. We know that the message of Christ is Truth and our actions can be judged and corrected by comparing what we do to it. That is justification for spreading Christianity to other peoples because they otherwise do not have access to it. Forced conversion is impossible so blunts secular imperialism out of the blocks.
Our Pope, like his immediate predecessor, has been failed or betrayed by his staff and fellow bishops.
"people will begin to think that perhaps he is no longer up to the job."
let alone those of us who think he never was!!!
RCG, WOW! You hit the nail on the head. I was on sabbatical in Rome from late August through November of 2013, the first few months of Pope Francis’ papacy. I was at the North American College in Rome’s sabbatical program. The concern there among those in the know at the time was that Pope Francis was being advised by progressive ideologues trying to get even for the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict, but Benedict in particular. They felt then, and now others know it too, that the pope was being poorly advised and following what these progressive ideologues were dishing out to him. But I don’t think the blame can be scapegoated to others, this pope has to take responsibility for it too and the animus he has towards traditional Catholicism and all that the last two pope tried to do, not without missteps of course, but those last two popes were putting the Church back on track and this pope has derailed it again.
The demographic sinkhole continues to widen. I travel the US and from casual observation the Church is doing ok in the south. But in the northeast conditions are terrible, which may be the reason bishops there have ignored TC. In the midwest things are a bit better but not great. My old parish which has a grade school and is in a thriving community, the Church is maybe half full at best where 25 years ago it was standing room only. In the west, things are generally like the northeast. But drive away the only growing segment of the Church by any means necessary.
Fr. McDonald, but doesn’t a man of his age already have his own mind and some understanding of Christianity and the world? It is shocking that he could be led around so easily with no reference on so many subjects. Of course the vanity of the position tempts a man to hold forth on many topics. But for crying out loud, the folly and missteps of past popes should encourage restraint.
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