The Pope’s Caricaturing of Conservatives(The continued disintegration of a religion)

am spectator ^ | 10/28/15 | George Neumayr

[bestintxas]

he scandalous synod on the family skidded to a stop last weekend in Rome but not before Pope Francis got in a few more licks at conservatives, whom he caricatured in his final remarks as heartless.

The speech was notable for its nastiness, displaying the very lack of charity he routinely assigns to conservatives. The synod, he said, had exposed “closed hearts which frequently hide even behind the Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families.”

He continued: “It was about trying to open up broader horizons, rising above conspiracy theories and blinkered viewpoints, so as to defend and spread the freedom of the children of God, and to transmit the beauty of Christian Newness, at times encrusted in a language which is archaic or simply incomprehensible.”

Under the lightweight leftism of Pope Francis, the question “Is the Pope Catholic?” seems less and less rhetorical. Previous popes, reading the remarks above, would conclude that the speaker held to the theology of liberal Protestantism. They would find the false contrasts between divine law and mercy, upon which Francis habitually relies, pitiful in their shallowness, and they would find his constant resort to straw-man fallacies and motive-mongering against traditionalists to be an unsightly blot upon the papacy. With a pope like this one, orthodox Catholics don’t need enemies.

All the tortured throat-clearing from pundits about the “nuances” of Pope Francis is very unconvincing. He is not nuanced at all. He is an open left-wing Catholic, perfectly comfortable with the de facto heretics within his own order and inside his special cabinet of cardinals.

[bestintxas]

This is sad, as a out-of-control Pope is turning Catholicism into a social media event.

I grew up Catholic and was an altar boy at one of the first English Masses in our diocese after Pope John XXIII forced it. I thought he was radical but practical.

This guy seems just plain radical and humanistic.

[Verginius Rufus]

Pope John XXIII called Vatican II, which opened in 1962. He died in 1963. Vatican II brought about the replacement of the Latin liturgy with the vernacular liturgy, but I don’t know how much of a personal role Pope John played in that. It seems to me that the change was not implemented until a year or two after his death. At least that is my recollection.

[Jack Hammer]

Unfortunately, this Pope is a nut job.

Worse, he comes at a time when the church needs solid representation and a credible voice in a world gone completely gaga.

[bestintxas]

I recall being an altar boy in 1964 when I had to have a cue card to say in English what I had for years said is Latin from memory

[bestintxas]

“Worse, he comes at a time when the church needs solid representation and a credible voice in a world gone completely gaga.”

I believe he is a product of the Americas where he is the first representative, and is now the bastion of Catholicism in the World.

[PGalt]

Interesting. Thanks for posting.

[Will88]

This pope is a political hack from the Third World, just like Obama.

[steve86]

"(The continued disintegration of a religion)"

Ridiculous and inaccurate hyperbole. The faith, morals and beliefs of The Church have not changed and will not, much less "disintegrate".

[Romulus]

We are seeing the public self destruction of Jorge Bergoglio, which is appalling, embarrassing, and kind of sad. But the Catholic faith and the body of Christ continue to be just fine.

[Verginius Rufus]

I remember that the changeover took place while I was in high school but don't remember the exact year.

The only problems with the Latin were getting the endings right in the "Confiteor"--all those datives in the first half (split between first, second, and third declension nouns) followed by the string of accusatives in the second half, and not getting tongue-tied with all those sibilants in the "Suscipiat." I memorized the responses 5 years before I took Latin in high school, so I didn't know the rationale behind the different endings.