Catholic: Universal.
Pope: the Universal Father.
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| A Pope who loved Americans |
One would think that the Pope would not resort to generalizations about one national people or another. One would think so...and yet earlier today he went out of his way to criticize the people of the United States.
Edward Pentin has the story:
A throwaway remark by Pope Francis aboard the papal plane this morning raised a few eyebrows among those traveling with him — and sent his press handlers scrambling.
After takeoff on his way to the Mozambique capital of Maputo, the Pope customarily greeted journalists on the papal plane. Among those he met was Nicolas Seneze, Rome correspondent for the French Catholic daily newspaper La Croix, which just published Seneze’s book, How America Wants to Change the Pope.
The book threads together different aspects of this pontificate — in particular the McCarrick abuse scandal and the Archbishop Carlo Viganò testimony — to conclude that influential figures in the U.S. Church are out to, if not replace Pope Francis, then to actively challenge him.
The book quotes professor Massimo Faggioli of Villanova as saying wealthy conservative Catholics have stepped into the vacuum of authority left by the sex abuse scandal to become the de facto leaders of the Catholic Church in the U.S.On the plane, Seneze presented his book to the Pope, who recognized the cover, as he had read a review of it.
The Italian daily newspaper Il Messaggero on Aug. 20 published a story headlined, “A plot from the USA to make the Pope resign.” A cover of Seneze’s book accompanied the article.
“He reads Il Messaggero every day so when he saw the cover of the copy I was holding, he instantly recognized it,” Seneze told the Register aboard the papal plane today, adding that the book was published in French today.
“When I explained the picture to the Pope, he said: ‘Per me è un onore che mi attaccano gli americani (For me it’s an honor that Americans attack me).’”
This national generalization is quite astonishing! Of course, it is to be expected from an ultra-leftist Latin-American, and a Peronist, but not from a Pope.
In reply, Americans can only say, "It's an honor to be criticized by the likes of you."