Posted on 12/26/2016 5:34:50 AM PST by HomerBohn
A feature article in the Wall Street Journal points out what has been increasingly obvious for two years: That Pope Francis is not just the leader of the Catholic Church, but also the “improbable standard-bearer for many progressives around the world.”
From the paper:
With conservative and nationalist forces on the rise in many places and with figures such as U.S. President Barack Obama and French President François Hollande on their way out, many on the left—from socialists in Latin America to environmentalists in Europe—are looking to the 80-year-old pontiff for leadership.
“Pope Francis really inspires a lot of people to want to fight. I’m pretty sure if he weren’t the face of the Catholic Church, he’d be out in the street with us,” said Bleu Rainer, an activist in the “Fight for $15” minimum-wage movement in Tampa, Fla., who traveled to Rome last month for an international meeting of grass-roots activists addressed by the pope. “He reinforces our issues and makes them moral issues.”
Francis has made no secret of his liberal leanings. His controversial tenure as pontiff has been colored with comments that endorse open borders, embrace homosexuality, and warn about the dangers of climate change. These remarks have made him a darling of the American media while rankling conservative Catholics who think the Pope should stick to the Church’s teachings and leave politics to the secular world.
Part of this narrative is exaggeration: Francis isn’t quite as much of a radical leftist as conservatives sometimes fear, nor is he the second-coming of Karl Marx as some radical leftists want to believe. He has not changed official church policy on gay marriage, abortion, or any other significant cultural issue. He preaches a Christ-like message of universal compassion that should not be confused with the statist aims of the Democratic Party.
That said, the image of Pope Francis as a force for the leftist cause is not altogether imaginary, either. When he’s out there campaigning against fossil fuels, condemning free market capitalism, and blasting countries that don’t let every refugee on the planet through their borders, he’s stepping beyond his religious messaging.
In the U.S., a slight majority of Catholic voters broke for Donald Trump. By taking veiled shots at The Wall and suggesting that Trump “is not a Christian,” Francis is unnecessarily dividing believers.
“The global left clearly see an opportunity to appropriate the prestige of the papacy for their causes,” Acton Institute’s Samuel Gregg told the Wall Street Journal. “That introduces polarization in the church about issues that Catholics are free to disagree about.”
We won’t presume to tell Pope Francis what is proper for a man in his position to say. But we do hope that he’ll think about what kind of people he’s emboldening – intentionally or not – with some of his rhetoric. The history of socialism and communism is one of oppression, war, and genocide.
Let’s learn from that history.
He is fundamentally transforming the Church.
Jesuit scum
Everything any liberal touches is poisoned. Ask any ex-Episcopal church member. The same is coming for the RCC...why can’t people learn from former examples?
“Part of this narrative is exaggeration: Francis isn’t quite as much of a radical leftist as conservatives sometimes fear....”
More lies from the WSJ. Let’s see that brings their total to 28,450,578,300,021.
Hitler makes a remark comparing himmler to Saint Ignatius and you think it carries any weight at all? You have managed to combine the logical fallacies of Argumentum Ad Verecundium and
Argumentum ad Populum into one sentence while disregarding the context Hitler was using (He saw the Jesuits as an enemy to his philosophy. Militarily he could say that Rommel is our Patton and it would be using the same context).
I will grant you that the Jesuits as an order seem to have lost their way- the current joke is “There are still Holy, Faithful, devout Jesuits- I know of two.”
But one shouldn’t make the mistake of comparing the Jesuit order of today with that of the past. Jesuits have always placed an emphasis on developing the intellect. This made them very susceptible to the heresy of modernism, as the proponents of modernism targeted seminaries and academic institutions. I think that when they gained control of the leadership positions in the order itself- the more traditional candidates stayed away from the order.
There really are exceptions however. Just yesterday we had a jesuit deacon assist in a solemn high mass. Something a modernist would avoid like the plague.
Pray for him, that his eyes may be opened. Pray for all Muslims for the same reason. Pray for yourself, for me and for all mankind, for the same reason.
Big on the refugees who would slit his throat in a minute, open the gates to the vatican and let them live with him
My local atheist progressive Dem, who is a prolific letters to the editor writer often praises Francis. That tells me all I need to know.
Even if Himmler took his inspiration from the Jesuits (I certainly am no expert on Himmler), my point is that they might have used similar organization/discipline for widely different ends. I do know of some of the methods of the old school Jesuits- while they are certainly outside of what an average modern secular person would find acceptable (please note I am not saying you belong to that group), there is nothing inherently evil in the methods they used (excepting of course the occasional crazy Jesuit or the various conspiracy theories).
I don’t want to get into a “no true Scotsman” debate but if you can give me a specific example of what part of the discipline concerns you I’d be happy to look at it.
“No true Scotsman” relates to an argument where one side will not agree to define what a group consists of (eg Angus was a liar, and Scotsman don’t lie, therefore Angus isn’t a scotsman) , I just meant I didn’t want to discuss something some crazy Jesuit did on his own and wasn’t really a jesuitical practice.
Having said all that, as the Jesuits stand today, I would not be unhappy if they were suppressed (again).
All political views come from religious views. The problem with the pope is that he thinks like an atheist/liberal.
Hmm? Never heard the “Scotsman’’ thing. As to the Jesuits I feel as you do. Happy New Year.
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