Posted on 12/11/2013 5:58:08 AM PST by NYer
American Catholics may be celebrating Advent with extra gusto this month, welcoming the Christmas holiday under the leadership of an almost unanimously popular new pope – marking the church’s continued recovery from the depths of its pedophile scandals a decade ago.
Nine months after his elevation to the papacy, a remarkable 92 percent of Catholics in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll express a favorable opinion of Pope Francis, 16 percentage points more than said so about Pope Benedict XVI early this year.
See PDF with full results, tables and charts here.
Indeed among all Americans, including the nearly eight in 10 who aren’t Catholics, 69 percent see Francis favorably, 15 points more than said the same about Benedict at the end of his papacy. Still, there’s room for Francis to advance further: Pope John Paul II was seen favorably by more Americans overall, 86 percent, in a Gallup poll in December 1998.
Beyond Francis’ personal popularity, a new question in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds that 85 percent of Catholics approve of the direction in which he’s leading the church. Even ratings of the church overall have improved among Catholics, from 86 percent favorable in February 2013 to 95 percent now. Among all Americans, 62 percent view the church favorably, the same as last February.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Ssince I first started looking at encyclicals and stuff decades ago, I have noticed that people automatically infer "the state" where popes are saying "society." For instance, "The social order must respond..." "We have an obligation to..." " "Mankind must not turn its back ..." "People must take responsibility for..." "Humanity is called to care for..." "Nations which have enjoyed great prosperity should..." And so forth. None of these words means "the State." The social order, mankind, people, even nations, indicate civil society in all its dimensions, including myriad intermediary institutions:
In many "social justice" documents, particularly papal ones, you get a whole different sense if you consistently read the subject of the sentence, the subject of the "ought," as "society, not the state."
The mind is inspired by wide, exciting new vistas of subsidiarity. A word I'd like to hear on a 50/50 basis with its symmatrical book-end term,"solidarity." Especially from Pope Francis.
> The fact that he calls for nations to “do something” for the very poor,
Jesus did not call on nations or governments to “do something” for the poor.
He called on you and me.
In order for the government to “do something” for the poor, it must take away from somebody else by threat of force. Then the government takes its cut for “administrative expenses” and gives the remaining crumbs to the poor.
You don't object to that, do you?
Cool. And well-deserved. That said, I didn’t check the polls before I started RCIA. Or even before RCIA was a gleam in my eye.
Who knew catholics relied on polls for their faith? In reality, they don't.
Prayers continue for you on your journey. We may be approaching Christmas but Easter is not far behind. God bless you!
Yep . . . abortion and "gay marriage" are so mainstream now that opposition to them is almost against the law, and Obamacare is violating the religious freedom of Catholics throughout the country, with no relief to either situation in sight. But the Pope is popular, so things are great.[/sarcasm]
No offense intended. I feel sad for anybody who would, especially right now.
Thanks. I appreciate the support.
> What I said is that “doing something” for the poor may mean
> the government getting off our backs.
That’s what YOU said.
My leftist “Catholic” relatives think Pope Francis is telling the gummint to bear down on us and raise taxes so they can “redistribute” more of our hard earned money.
Not this, Catholic!
And the above statement about "living up to his namesake" is not true. St. Francis and his companions did their best to convert Muslims to Catholicism. Some of those Franciscans suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Muslims.
Pope Francis has made not attempt to do likewise. On the other hand, he does persecute today's Franciscans of the Immaculate solely because they had preferred to offer the same traditional Mass that St Francis and his companions had offered.
Maybe you should explain to them about "subsidiarity" --- and the difference between "society" and "the State". Looks like we-all have a big job to do.
Yes, exactly.
My Leftist “Catholic” (CINO) relatives also think that Pope Francis is calling for Christians to back off on abortion and gay-marriage.
Either he’s sending the wrong message, or his message is being distorted by the press.
There seems to be a miscommunication here.
On the other hand, my CINO relatives were wary of Pope Benedict and are glad that he’s gone. Apparently his message was much clearer.
Pope condemns abortion as product of ‘throwaway culture’
(CNS/Paul Haring)
By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In his strongest public words to date on the subject of abortion, Pope Francis affirmed the sacredness of unborn human life and linked its defense to the pursuit of social justice.
“In all its phases and at every age, human life is always sacred and always of quality. And not as a matter of faith, but of reason and science!” the pope said Sept. 20 to a gathering of Catholic gynecologists.
Pope Francis characterized abortion as a product of a “widespread mentality of profit, the ‘throwaway culture,’ which has today enslaved the hearts and minds of so many.”
That mentality, he said, “calls for the elimination of human beings, above all if they are physically or socially weaker. Our response to that mentality is a decisive and unhesitating ‘yes’ to life.”
The pope grouped together unborn children, the aged and the poor as among the most vulnerable people whom Christians are called especially to love.
“In the fragile human being each one of us is invited to recognize the face of the Lord, who in his human flesh experienced the indifference and solitude to which we often condemn the poorest, whether in developing countries or in wealthy societies,” he said.
“Every unborn child, though unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of the Lord, who even before his birth, and then as soon as he was born, experienced the rejection of the world,” he said. “And every old person, even if infirm and at the end of his days, carries with him the face of Christ. They must not be thrown away!”
Quoting “Caritas in Veritate” the social encyclical by Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis connected the protection of unborn life with the promotion of social justice.
“Openness to life is at the center of true development,” he said. “If personal and social sensitivity in welcoming a new life is lost, other forms of welcome useful to social life will dry up. Welcoming life tempers moral energies and makes people capable of helping each other.”
Pope Francis told the physicians that they faced a “paradoxical situation” in their professional lives, because even as medical science discovers new cures for disease, the “health care professions are sometimes induced not to respect life itself.”
The pope characterized this paradox as part of a more widespread “cultural disorientation” in which rising individualism parallels a growing disrespect for life.
“Even as persons are accorded new rights, at times only presumed rights, life as the primary value and primordial right of every man is not always protected,” he said.
The pope told the gynecologists that they had a responsibility to make known the “transcendent dimension, the imprint of God’s creative work, in human life from the first instant of conception. And this is a commitment of new evangelization that often requires going against the tide, paying a personal price. The Lord counts on you, too, to spread the Gospel of life.”
Pope Francis’ remarks came one day after the publication of an interview in which he warned that focusing on certain moral teachings, including abortion, could undermine the church’s efforts to preach the Gospel.
“We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods,” the pope said in the interview, noting that he had been “reprimanded” for failing to speak often about those topics. “It is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.
“The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent,” the pope added. “The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.
“Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things,” he said. “We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.”
Got to remember what St. Francis famous saying: “Be ready to preach the Gospel and when necessary, use words”. Translation: Preach the Gospel of Jesus by HOW you LIVE IT.
Like this preaching the Gospel of Jesus?
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