Posted on 12/17/2014 6:43:28 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o
About a year ago, I suggested to one of the top editors of a major American newspaper that his journal’s coverage of things papal left something to be desired, as it seemed based on the assumption that Pope Francis was some kind of radical wild-man, eager to toss into the garbage bin of history all those aspects of Catholic faith and practice that mainstream western culture finds distasteful. My friend replied, in so many words, look, you know how these media narratives are: they’re like bamboo. Once they get started, there’s no stopping them. They just keep growing.
Alas, he was right. And while there’s been a lot of talk about the “Francis Effect,” it’s worth pondering, on the Holy Father’s 78th birthday, the Francis Filtration.
The Francis Filtration began in earnest during the impromptu press conference in the papal plane while the pope was en route home from World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro. That was the presser that produced the single-most quoted line of the pontificate: “Who am I to judge?” But as Cardinal Francis George pointed out in a pre-retirement interview with John Allen, that sound-bite “has been very misused…because he was talking about someone who has already asked for mercy and been given absolution…That’s entirely different than talking [about] someone who demands acceptance rather than asking for forgiveness.” (For the record, the entire quote, which is almost never cited, was “Who am I to judge them if they’re seeking the Lord in good faith?”)
But as my journalist-friend suggested, the “bamboo” shoot of “Who am I to judge?” has continued to grow, until it’s now a virtual bamboo curtain. And what’s being filtered out? All the things the pope says that don’t fit the now-established “narrative” of “humane, progressive pope vs. meanie reactionary bishops and hidebound Catholic traditionalists.”
Things like what?
Well, things like the pope’s passionate defense of marriage as the stable union of a man and a woman, which he underscored in an address to the Schoenstatt movement right after Synod 2014, and in his keynote address to a November interreligious conference at the Vatican on the crisis of marriage in the 21st century.
And things like the pope’s defense of the Gospel of Life, a persistent theme in Francis’s November address to the European Parliament. The press reports I read focused on Francis’ concerns for immigrants and the unemployed. Fair enough; that was certainly in the text. But what about the Holy Father’s defense of those whom indifference condemns to loneliness or death, “as in the case of the terminally ill, the elderly who are abandoned or uncared for, and children who are killed in the womb?” What about his insistence that “Europe,” past, present, and future, makes no sense without Christianity? What about his condemnation of those who subject Christians “to barbaric acts of violence,” and his plea for support for those Christians who are “evicted from their homes, and native lands, sold as slaves, killed, beheaded, crucified or burned alive, under the shameful and complicit silence of so many?” You didn’t read much about that, did you?
Nor did you read (unless you read the pope’s text himself) that Francis, having made a plea for environmental stewardship, went on to “emphasize” (his word) that “along with an environmental ecology, there is also need of a human ecology which consists in respect for the person.”
Another aspect of Pope Francis’ preaching that’s been too often filtered out of the coverage of his pontificate involves (if you’ll pardon the term) demonology. No pope in decades has so regularly referred to Satan as Pope Francis. The Evil One is no abstraction to this pontiff, nor does he think of “satanic” as a rhetorical intensifier to underscore one’s disapproval of, say, Hitler. Satan and his minions are very real to Pope Francis; it would be interesting for an enterprising reporter to draw him out on the subject in one of those freewheeling papal press conferences.
The Francis Filter may be bamboo. But if it keeps growing, so will the distortions that bamboo curtain creates.
same-sex "marriage" (against!)
Satan (against! and with a strong emphasis on the reality of demonic entities, and the need to resist their evil)"
Golly, what a swell guy. Where did I leave my cookie jar...
You seem to how forgotten that Pope John Paul visited Cuba. The Vatican has been working on this for many years. Fidel, like Tito, will died hereafter.
Neither JPII nor BXVI (who also visited Cuba) did anything that gave the impression they regarded a Communist dictatorship as normal or laudable. BXVI even delayed the announcement of the beatification of Fr. Felix Varela (a Cuban born priest who is a candidate for sainthood) until he had left the island because he didn’t want to give the Castro regime something to crow about.
Pope Francis is undoubtedly a leftist (I saw a photo of him holding up a tee-shirt to himself that said “No al Fracking”) but what he is most of all is a complete loose cannon. He’s not mistranslated, because I read what he says both in Italian and in English, and the translations, allowing for the normal variation in selection of words, etc., are not inaccurate.
Are his words quoted selectively? Of course. But that’s because he says anything that comes into his mind, and I have read completely contradictory statements made by him...on the same day. He also goes and seeks out interviews, and is, according to a Spanish report I heard the other day, the most interviewed public figure in the world right now. So a lot of the blame for the “misunderstandings” lies directly with him, and he seems to regard it as almost amusing.
I’ve always liked George Weigel. He’s one of our not-upset-all-the-time commentators.
I agree with him of course. I do most of my Pope reading on sites that are orthodox and I wait for the translation before freaking out.
What struck me about this article and also intrigued me is the Satan being real to this Pope. I know what he means. What he does not mean is that JPII and Benedict XVI didn't believe in Satan, that's absurd.
Rather I think I see a way to relate to this Pope for me. All this political crap, about what he said and didn't say threw me off my game. I am now wanting to know more about the spirituality of Pope Francis.
We have been taking much about Our Lady of Guadalupe, and I must say I miss the old parish where they invited a local Hispanic praise "band" to come and celebrate that with us. It was awesome. My Spanish is remedial at best, but the songs and the spirit, were so wonderful.
Any way thanks to George and Mrs. Don-o.
That sounds like definitely questionable papal diplomacy.
You do know that Pope Francis is not an American citizen, correct? You do know that the Pope worries about all of his flock, most especially those who do not live in freedom? Popes think more like priests then presidents. Even I think our foreign polcy towards Cuba is more than a bit out dated.
It has a strong whiff of satire, somehow.
But that's the world we live in. One feels like an idiot, standing there reiterating the obvious. Water: still wet.
I find out that away from this forum, people do eat, drink and sleep politics. I wish they did, but they simply do not. So we go on to assume that Pope Francis is (fill in the blank), because he does this or that. He may or may not think politically. To me he seems to think more pastoral then politically and he is clearly not as deep as Benedict and not as skillful a statesman as John Paul. I don't think it's right to ascribe motives, such as he's a leftist. Certainly a Pope would not be in favor of a Godless society, which the left promulgates.
Also we see the Pope through American eyes and politics. There are other people whom he serves not just Americans. So it is wise to keep that in mind. He may not care one wit about what the Castro's want or need, but he does care very much about the people of Cuba.
One of the many problems with this Pope is that he’s Argentinian, and they are hyper-political. He is certainly among them. But his involvement seems to be all on the side of the left. He’s apparently very addicted to Obama and has had many meetings with Obama’s representatives. The Pope is, in my mind, a popularity obsessed naïf who is being used.
He may be personally pious, and occasionally he says some very good personal things - only to contradict them in the next breath. He’s definitely a leftist, but the other thing I think he is, basically, is an elderly Latin American Vatican II adherent. Vatican II was the world’s best example of shallow thinking in action. And throughout Latin America, the elderly clergy who, with their Vatican II belief that the Church was nothing but a leftist social services organization, have nearly destroyed the Church in their homeland, are exulting and saying that Francis is finally going to carry out Vatican II, get rid of their enemies (such as the new traditional religious orders and missionary clergy who have actually rebuilt some dioceses and parishes) and put the geezers back in power.
The 4 people in the Pope’s inner circle are composed of elderly cardinals, too old even to vote anymore, who destroyed the Church in their respective countries (Belgium, England, Germany) and one who is not retired (Maradiaga) who did his best to destroy the Americas.
I know a lot about Latin America and Spanish speaking countries, and I was pretty stunned when he was elected, except that he is a very political person and worked hard at this.
BTW, other Latin Americans barely regard Argentinians as Latin American, since most powerful Argentinians boast that they have “no Spanish blood.” Most of the biggies are either of Italian descent, such as the Pope, or of German descent, such as Kirchner. Their Spanish is also completely non-standard, both in spoken pronunciation and its lexicon, and this is one of the things that makes the situation even more difficult.
And the people of Cuba do not need the Castro dictatorship continued. The Pope has given the Castro brothers - who were loosening their grip because of age - the air they need to breathe and pick an heir. Raul, former head of their version of the SS, was loosening up under the pressure.
The real pressure on the Cuban people comes from the Castros. and the Pope and Obama have just reinforced it. Our embargo is not that important - Cuba can trade with any other country in the universe, but Castro has reduced the formerly third most advanced country in the hemisphere (after the US and Canada) to Third World status by destroying their economy so that they have no cash.
They produce nothing and have no ability to trade with anybody, which is why they have had to be supported by places ranging from the USSR to Venezuela, but now VZ is collapsing so the Castros obviously had to reach out to Obama for help.
I was in Miami at a shipping company that ships to Cuba and many Cuban AMericans were down there to send Christmas present to relatives in Cuba. They had bags with blocks of the brik packed espresso that Latin Americans loved (they could only send two pounds to each person) - and Cuba used to produce coffee. I’m sure Fidel and Raul have an espresso maker in every room, and plenty of coffee to supply them.
BTW, I’m not attacking you. I’m just really upset about this. I agree that the Pope knows nothing about politics, in which case...he should stop involving himself in politics.
Thank You for the information. I was also shocked when he was elected Pope because of his being a Jesuit and from Argentina. God has a plan, I just I wish I knew what it is.
He could not do that if He were not in company with them.
Me too! I’m just hanging in there, and remembering that the Church is NOT the Pope...Peter is supposed to be the guardian of the Faith, not the creator of a whole new one anytime he feels like it, and the Pope defines the Faith only when he speaks from the traditional deposit of Faith, not when he decides he just wants to say something to an interviewer.
That said, I don’t think redefinition is Pope Francis’ aim. I just think he’s a well-meaning but somewhat vain and self-righteous leftist who is being used. But there have been worse Popes and the Church has survived, because Christ has guaranteed it.
This is the 500th anniversary of the birth of St. Teresa of Avila. I was reading about all the things she had to go through with various (what would have been lax, i.e. liberal) heirarchs in her day, and she not only accomplished her work but even did so without falling into bitterness or anger. So it’s all happened before, which is the good thing about being part of a 2000 year old church.
I need to read more about the Saints and spend less time arguing on FR. St. Theresa of Avila would be a good place to start I think.
St. Peter is one of my favorites. He's a hard head. Something I can totally relate to. :)
Apropos of nothing I just found a Abbey that will make you a coffin and bless it for you. How cool would that be? I might have to check that out.
While I have you here, I just found out today that certain Non-Catholics think that when they die they are dead until Jesus comes again. I am shocked I tell you. I had no idea. No wonder they don't get the Saints.
That is an excellent post and review of the situation.
Thank you!
I’ve never understood the Protestant dislike of Purgatory, which is a very logical solution to what happens to you right after death but before the Second Coming, because instead they come up with weird answers. That’s obviously one of the reasons Protestants have a lot of trouble with Saints, because they don’t seem to realize that God is eternal and therefore we who are in Christ are in a sense beyond time and are also connected over the ages.
I personally like the idea of praying for the souls in Purgatory, because it reminds me that the Church is the timeless Body of Christ and we are connected to everyone who has gone before...and as for the Saints, they are our older brothers and sisters in Christ, who have gone ahead of us and can reach back to help us.
Once again, Jesus told the prostitute to sin no more; He didn’t negotiate deals between her and her “johns”.
No, I haven’t forgotten that. Nor have I forgotten that Benedict has met with Castro.
What I do know, is that neither of those popes made secret deals with a communist dictator and a socialist president.
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