Princeton University law professor Robert P. George
Posted on 11/20/2014 2:42:16 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o
ROME — So far, Pope Francis’ most significant internal opposition has come from conservative Catholics alarmed over what they see as playing fast-and-loose with Catholic doctrine. This week, however, an all-star lineup of conservatives gathered in Rome has come to the pope’s defense.
“I am a conservative politically,” said Princeton University law professor Robert P. George, considered one of America’s most prominent Catholic commentators. “But I’m a Pope Francis Catholic, which is simply to say that I’m a Catholic.”
Harvard law professor and former US Ambassador to the Holy See Mary Ann Glendon echoed the point.
Saying she dislikes ideological labels, Glendon nonetheless acknowledged that she fits the spectrum of “conservative,” yet said she’s never doubted for a minute Pope Francis and where he’s leading the Church.
“He’s said from the beginning, ‘I’m a son of the Church’. I believe he’s a very honest man who speaks from the heart,” Glendon said. “And his heart is in the right place. What you see is what you get.”
Glendon was named to a supervisory board for the Vatican bank by Pope Francis.
George and Glendon were in Rome this week for an interreligious colloquium called “Humanus,” reflecting on the idea of “complementarity” between men and women from the perspective of 14 different religions.
Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, usually recognized as a strong conservative leader who also attended the Rome conference, told Crux that the problem isn’t the pope, but those interpreting him.
“It’s misinterpretation, but there’s also baiting by people on the other side,” he said.
According to Chaput, who will host the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia next September with Pope Francis in attendance, one side of the ideological spectrum is accusing the other of not loving the pope enough.
“They want to make it a problem,” he said.
Chaput said the only political perspective that ought to matter is “the ideology Pope Francis has spoken about, the ideology of the Gospel.”
As for the pontiff’s visit to the United States next year, Chaput said it will be an extraordinary moment of grace.
“We [in the States] always say that we desire to live in the shadow or shade of St. Peter, and the pope is the successor of Peter,” he said. “When he comes, he brings that grace with him.”
The key idea of the three-day colloquium at the Vatican’s Synod Hall was “complementarity,” meaning the distinct roles that men and women have, which complement one another in the family, married life, and the Church.
The term comes up frequently in Catholic circles as part of the intellectual basis for opposing same-sex marriage, on the grounds that the natural differences between men and women reflect the divine plan for marriage as a union between the two sexes.
As a result, the colloquium has been labeled a conservative meeting.
When asked about that label, Glendon called it ridiculous. “This has been a meeting about how marriages and child-raising families are indeed the remedy for the spiritual and moral and material devastation that has afflicted the poor, women, and children,” she said.
Picking up on the pontiffs’ address to the conference on Monday, George said that family isn’t a conservative or liberal problem.
“It’s a force in itself, and it’s something we should come together for,” he said.
For the Princeton scholar, marriage shouldn’t be oriented simply for the satisfaction of the adults, but for the welfare of the children.
“They are the ones who are suffering from the fragmentation of families,” he said.
Paraphrasing Francis, George referred to the crisis of the family and its relationship with the culture of disposability, one of the pontiffs’ recurrent expressions. He believes marriages are being tossed aside as though they were old clothes or tissues.
“The pope is a profound witness of treating marriage as disposable,” George said. “Why? Not because he has an abstract belief in marriage, but because he has a concrete experience as a pastor of what happens to men, women, and especially children, but really the whole of society when marriage is treated as disposable.”
George also underlined the interreligious aspect of the conference, with people of faith coming together “across the historic line of religious divisions to bear witness to the common belief that marriage is the union of man and woman open to life.”
It was a running joke during the gathering that the non-Catholic speakers were the most powerful ones, with speeches from former chief rabbi of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, Lord Jonathan Sacks, and the Rev. Richard Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback Church.
Both received standing ovations.
Anthony Fisher, the newly appointed bishop of Sydney, Australia, who attended the gathering and described it as the best Vatican-organized conference he has attended in the past 15 years, saw truth in the joke.
“The Jews and the Evangelicals were the best, they spoke very inspiringly, but that’s good for us, it’s like an injection of hope,” he said.
“I’d really like for those Jews and Evangelicals to be at the next synod [on the family, scheduled for October 2015],” Fisher said.
Shadow of St. Peter =/= Cloud of Pope Francis.
Pope Translator:
So why did Pope Francis remove the conservative Cardinal Burke from his position?
George Weigel has also been very level-headed.
In before the pope is mistranslated again PING
Often at odds with the Obama administration over religious liberty, abortion, and gay marriage, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has come out on the president’s side this month, pleased with his decision to act unilaterally on immigration, a move they’ve been encouraging for some time.
-- from the thread Catholic Bishops Encourage Obama’s Executive Action....on social issues, especially homosexuality, Catholics are far more likely to be liberal than other Christians, and even Americans in general....the Pew Center finds that an overwhelming number of US Catholics aged 18 to 29 accept homosexuality (85 percent) and support same-sex marriage (75 percent). More worryingly for conservative Catholics, when the question is asked of weekly massgoers, who are by definition more likely to be involved in the faith and in their parish, the number of overall pro-SSM Catholics is an astonishing 45 percent. Only 44 percent of weekly massgoers support the Church’s teaching, which is to oppose same-sex marriage. The last 11 percent presumably don’t know how they feel. Given the strong cultural currents moving toward full acceptance of gay marriage, there is no reason to believe that when they do make their minds up, that all, or even most, of those undecided Catholics will break for the Church’s position. In fact, given that Pew’s analysis doesn’t break out the weekly massgoers by age group, it is likely that the opposition to SSM is heavily weighted toward the seniors, a group that is literally dying out....
....In general, the higher a share of a country’s residents are Catholic, the higher percentage of residents express tolerance toward divorce and towards gays. The effect isn’t huge, but it’s consistent.
-- from the thread Catholics, the Real Liberals
Even St. Catherine of Siena, whose most famous calling in her short but dramatic life was to be a persistent corrector of bad, weak or stupid popes, addressed them as Vicars of Christ.
Incidentally, I think that this "Humanum" conference (mis-named "Humanus" by the above author) is huge --- and something you'll not see in the secular press (link)
Do you consider George, Glendon, Card and Chaput to be ‘conservative’, as in advocating adherence to Church doctrine?
Yes.
Has St. Catherine of Siena informed you as to whether that appellation is still applicable in the case of the current (and possibly last) pope?
Ambrosial: exceptionally pleasing to taste or smell; especially delicious or fragrant. (???)
Do you consider George, Glendon, Card and Chaput to be ‘conservative’, in the Free Republic / political sense of the term, i.e. do they advocate for a constitutionally limited government, against amnesty for illegals, against government-run healthcare, for the rollback of Federal welfare programs, for strengthening US borders, for maintaining a strong civil and personal defense, and promoting personal responsibility and self-government?
We could start a pool and see how many posts it is before that happens for each thread about the popes latest gaffe of the day.
The not equal sign is & # 8800 with no spaces between.
Alex, we’re talking about the Church here. I have no idea what their opinions on other things are, and for the purposes of this post, I don’t care.
That said, much of this is damning with faint praise. Pope Francis was out doing his ecology routine with the EU today, and I suspect that even they thought he was a fly trapped in 1970s amber. Maybe early 80s, at best.
I have not read the George, Glendon, Card and Chaput, so I do not know. However, is it safe to say that the Church often opposes the positions you cite, such as the treatment of invaders. Mrs. Don-O has reminded me that these Church positions are often contrary to its Canons: its doctrine. The protection of life and marriage by a religion, however, would suffice for me.
livius, we're posting to each other on Free Republic here. I'd like to believe that you have an idea what "conservative" means, in the context of this website, and more importantly that you have ideas on advancing political conservatism in this country.
and for the purposes of this post, I don’t care.
In regards to not having an idea what their opinions on "other things" are, some of us already know about their politically liberal stances, and we oppose them. I guess that makes us anti-Catholics, right?
No, it doesn’t make you anti-Catholic. But there is a difference between the political definition of conservative - which actually seems to have less and less meaning - and the religious definition, which relates to the truths of the faith.
That said, I’m not defending any statement by Pope Francis.
Considering that you're registered on, and posting on a political website, you might want to use the in-context, prevailing definitions that this site uses. Imagine the reaction I'd get if I started posting on Catholic Answers, and insisted on using the term "apostolic" to describe the political belief espoused by Lex, Rex.
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