[RitaOK]

Sometimes I think am subject to American thinking, more than Catholic thinking, in terms of the Holy Spirit, the magisterium and Sacred Scripture.

The Holy Father’s public forums, interviews, etc., do challenge my American-think tendency for sure, but he is on record despising liberation theology.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Here's a choice assessment of Pope Francis from the actual Catholic Left (and ex-Catholic but still-Left), Andrew O'Hehir and Matthew Fox --- courtesy of Salon:

http://www.salon.com/2013/03/16/is_pope_francis_a_fraud/

"As Fox and many other Catholic and ex-Catholic dissidents see it, Vatican II marked the moment when the church had the chance to reinvent itself as a flexible moral and spiritual force in a rapidly changing world. Indeed, it briefly seemed to do just that – and it’s important to understand that Bergoglio, like Joseph Ratzinger and Karol Wojtyla before him, was part of the right-wing counterrevolution within the church that aggressively rolled back those changes, crushed dissident thought and reasserted the absolute power of the pope and his hierarchy.

"Pope Francis is a longtime ally of Communion and Liberation, a fiercely conservative Catholic organization that insists on “total fidelity and communion” with the church leadership and is devoted, among other things, to battling European socialism and Latin American liberation theology. In Italian politics, CL has been closely tied to the party of Silvio Berlusconi, and its founder was an intimate friend of Cardinal Ratzinger before he became Benedict XVI."

I love to hear sweet, reassuring words like that.. :o)

[Mrs. Don-o]

Very true: I would argue we should be Catholics who happen to be American, rather than Americans who happen to be Catholic.

[don-o]

Sometimes I think am subject to American thinking, more than Catholic thinking,

It is as important to know why I believe as to know what I believe. This involves the virtue of humility, realizing that I just might be wrong.

John 18:36
"Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

These are hard words. His Apostles could not understand them. Peter proved that when he fought in the garden when they came to arrest Him.

1 Corinthians 3:19

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

It is easy for me to see the foolishness of others. It is hard for me to see my own.