I'm a Catholic, and most of my education has been in Catholic schools so it's easy for me to spot those pretending to have a knowledge of Catholic teachings.
The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church. The position of the Catholic Church isn't to condemn single mothers, but to pray for them. In other words, Catholics should stop attacking a woman who decided to not abort her child (as abortion is a grave sin in the eyes of the Catholic Church), but rather honor her decision to carry the child to term and, while not a perfect solution, to keep him.
From the Catholic Encyclopedia:
The Church strives continually to impress her children with a sense of the awfulness of sin that they may fear it and avoid it. We are fallen creatures, and our spiritual life on earth is a warfare. Sin is our enemy, and while of our own strength we cannot avoid sin, with God's grace we can. If we but place no obstacle to the workings of grace we can avoid all deliberate sin. If we have the misfortune to sin, and seek God's grace and pardon with a contrite and humble heart, He will not repel us. Sin has its remedy in grace, which is given us by God, through the merits of His only-begotten Son, Who has redeemed us, restoring by His passion and death the order violated by the sin of our first parents, and making us once again children of God and heirs of heaven.
Therefore, "just as in Christ God forgave us" (Ephesians 4:32), the basis of forgiveness is God's forgiveness though Christ - we are to forgive transgressions.
--Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." -Matthew 18:21-22.
The answer given by Jesus to Peter, "seventy times seven" means "always." Jesus has taught us about admonition and forgiveness of sins, as he taught us in this parable of the merciless servant: "Then the master called the servant in. You wicked servant, he said, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?" -Matthew 18:32-33
Rational, moral disagreeing is a healthy part of political discourse. But the naked, harsh criticism of a young private citizen isn't productive. If Jesus taught us to forgive, and the Catholic Church prays for single mothers, it's hard to find any justification of chronic attacks on this girl.
Bristol isn't a Catholic, in any event, and she doesn't need to ask the Catholic Church for forgiveness. Only God knows what's in Bristol's heart, and continuously attacking her in instances like this is more in accordance with draconian and harsh applications of the teachings of the Koran than with the teachings of the Christian Bible and the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Bravo! Well said.
Forgiveness is the Church’s business, so let’s stipulate that God forgives Bristol and that she has merely cleverly concealed her horror of fornication for higher purposes we cannot deign to know. God having forgiven her of course we all forgive as well.
Forgiving her [and Levi, I suppose, then], though, doesn’t let them off the hook for restitution for any damage their sins have caused.
So I’ll ask the same unanswered questions again:
Have Bristol and Levi’s actions harmed society in any way?
If so, what restitution does justice require she make for that damage beyond the obligations incumbent on anyone undertaking parenthood?
And please, for the record, recapitulate specifically my naked, harsh criticism of any private citizen—even positing that Bristol Palin remains a private citizen after accepting national interviews and hundreds of thousands of dollars for photos of her family.
Not liking my overall position does not entitle you to claim I’ve said things I haven’t.