Posted on 01/28/2020 9:44:11 AM PST by ebb tide
PERUGIA, Italy (ChurchMilitant.com) Italy's chief archbishop lashed out at critics of Pope Francis on the feast of Saint Francis de Sales, asking them to make "other choices" and become Protestants if they are unhappy with the policies of the present pontiff.
"Our Protestant brethren have neither the pope nor the bishop — everyone makes his own choices. I told someone they could make the choice of becoming Protestant if you don't like the Catholic Church, if this boat is too narrow," Cdl. Gualtiero Bassetti, president of the Episcopal Conference of Italy told journalists in Perugia on Saturday, at a press conference marking the feast of the patron saint of journalism.
Cdl. Gualtiero Bassetti
"Are you not comfortable with the current pontiff? If someone does not like this pope, say it, because he is free to choose other ways," Bassetti told the Italian Catholic Press Union, lashing out at journalists unfavorable to the current papal regime.
The cardinal then apologized for his outburst but insisted that "everyone's goal must be to seek answers for the good of the Church and humanity."
"Criticism is fine, but this destructive criticism is not," the prelate added, observing that "there are too many people speaking against the pope."
Journalist and deacon Nick Donnelly told Church Militant that for a prince of the Church to tell "Catholic journalists critical of Francis to consider leaving the Church" was "a new low for the Bergoglian pontificate."
"That a cardinal archbishop would go so far as to publicly encourage schism shows how angered the Bergoglians are by an independent Catholic media and social media challenging their heresy and immorality," said Donnelly, adding:
It is disingenuous for Bassetti to reduce the crisis besetting the Church to being a question of "liking" or "disliking" Pope Francis. This isn't about a personality clash but about Catholic journalists who love the Church — sometimes at great personal cost — holding to account powerful prelates who are destroying the Church's communion by promoting false teaching.
At the Perugian press conference, Bassetti reiterated Pope Francis' message for the 54th World Communications Day on the theme: "So that you can tell and fix in memory" (Exodus 10:2), remarking that the priest and the journalist are united by their ability to "distinguish between what is good and less good, between what is right and what is poisonous."
"The journalist," said the cardinal, "becomes the voice if he can discern the cry of the least, of the poor and of those who have no voice" and so the journalist must be the herald of good tidings for the future. "For it is important that the journalist be rich in values that guide his choices and his life."
"Healthy" information represents "a great service to the person and the community" and the media's role of "communication is a vital service, even more so because people are not realizing it," the prelate asserted.
I told someone they could make the choice of becoming Protestant if you don't like the Catholic Church.Tweet
Conservative media reacted sharply to the cardinal's threat, Secolo d'Italia viewing it as "something that looks like an excommunication" of the pope's critics.
The Italian newspaper called it "an attack of unprecedented violence, if we consider the role that Bassetti plays within the Church" — as president of the Italian bishops' conference.
"Bassetti is also archbishop of Perugia. And he launches this freighted warning before journalists in the Umbrian capital ... on the occasion of the celebrations of the feast of the patron saint of journalists?" the newspaper queried.
Meanwhile, marking the feast of St. Francis de Sales, Pope Francis lashed out at "deepfake" news, calling for "courage to reject false and evil stories."
"In an age when falsification is increasingly sophisticated, reaching exponential levels (as in deepfake), we need wisdom to be able to welcome and create beautiful, true and good stories," the Holy Father said.
This isn't about a personality clash but about Catholic journalists who love the Church — sometimes at great personal cost.Tweet
"Not all stories are good stories," Francis noted, appealing for a deeper appreciation of the Bible as the "Story of stories" and "the great love story between God and humanity."
The pontiff elaborated:
We may not even realize how greedy we have become for chatter and gossip, or how much violence and falsehood we are consuming. Often on communication platforms, instead of constructive stories which serve to strengthen social ties and the cultural fabric, we find destructive and provocative stories that wear down and break the fragile threads binding us together as a society. By patching together bits of unverified information, repeating banal and deceptively persuasive arguments, sending strident and hateful messages, we do not help to weave human history, but instead strip others of their dignity.
Los Angeles Auxiliary Bp. Robert Barron also added his voice to the debate, calling for bishops to "consider exercising their authority in the digital sphere" to combat "a disconcerting number of such people on social media who are trading in hateful, divisive speech, often deeply at odds with the theology of the Church."
Barron suggested that bishops may have "to introduce something like a mandatum for those who claim to teach the Catholic faith online, whereby a bishop affirms that the person is teaching within the full communion of the Church."
Bassetti has been criticized for his anti-Salvini position and for openly supporting the "sardines" (movimento delle sardine) also known as "Sardines against Salvini" — a leftwing political movement that gets its name from protestors tightly packed into public spaces.
"We must not be controllers of their dreams and if they are good dreams, we will say we will be with you," Bassetti told the sardines.
I don't know but I bet Luther and the other Reformers would be amazed at the level of "protesting" among Roman Catholics against their pope.
IF this were back in the day a number of RC posters on FR would be in serious trouble.
However, the Orthodox have this historic national-church problem which seems to render them especially vulnerable to being Licensed Liturgists for whatever regime is in power ("What is your position on church-state relations, Your Grace?" "Prone."); and they seem to have surrendered on big sexual issues a long, long time ago --- divorce and remarriage, contraception --- and are consequently in a weakened position to face the Orthodox and Gay movement, whose philosophical and sociological force is rooted in divorce/remarriage and contraception.
I feel no satisfaction in pointing out these weaknesses. We are all in dangerous times.
Perfect response.
These guys infiltrate our Church, try to change what has been taught for thousands of years, and then tell us to leave if we don’t like it.
I don’t think so.
Why become Protestant when The Mass of Paul VI alone has done such a fine job of this task in the past 50+ years ?!?!
Excellent comment!
There’s some truth in that. I also bet Luther and the other Reformers would be amazed and gratified at the level of “protestantizing” by the pope, against Roman Catholics.
Those who protest the Protestants are historically, Catholics, other Protestants, and Moslems, who hate everyone that is not Moslem.
And I never thought I’d hear a cardinal encouraging the growth of Protestantism.
Is there a Holy Catholic Church yet?
It is this strange story that explains why Christianity has done something different than just survive. It has itself returned to life many times after having been apparently defeated. It has, as Chesterton says, “died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.”
And were could I go to be just Catholic?
We still have the Mass and the Sacraments.
God will prevail as He always does. Faithful Catholics will endure till the end.
We remember that Jesus established His Church for sinners and we pray for all members of the Body of Christ.
Taken as a whole, it shows why his rather extreme expression of "I am the church, I am the tradition!" amounted neither to Church doctrine nor to Church discipline, but rather was a private cry of exasperation against people who in effect were poised to give the authority of the Church over to the State.
Which is just what --- horrifyingly --- the Peronist Pope has done in China, in arguably the worst (some would say, criminal) move of his pontificate.
Well said, ADSUM. I agree 100%
Bingo!
The abuse concerning the sale of indulgences was by Johann Tetzel, not the pope. In any case, if Luther had just opposed abuse, he would probably be hailed as a saint today, just as many saints who did so. No, his main objections were with long established Church teachings, and not just abuse by the pope.
And how would it be different than giving his authority over to the lay Catholic? Because if he abdicates due to the lay Catholic protests, he is doing just that.
“The abuse concerning the sale of indulgences was by Johann Tetzel, not the pope. “
That’s like saying you didn’t buy an HP computer, you bought from an HP salesman.
well, yeah
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.