Posted on 09/25/2015 9:10:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I expect this will occur the day the pope throws open the gates of Vatican City to all who wish to live there.
Invoking Martin Luther King Jr. and his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Francis made an impassioned plea for the refugees fleeing Syria, saying the crisis is “of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War.”
Noting his own status as “the son of immigrants,” the pope pivoted to a more sensitive subject: The flow of illegal immigrants across the United States’s southern border.
He urged compassion for immigrants, warning not to repeat “the sins and the errors of the past” by turning them away.
“On this continent, too, thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities. Is this not what we want for our own children? We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation,” Francis said, according to his prepared remarks.
“Let us remember the golden rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’ ” he added.
“This rule points us in a clear direction. Let us treat others with the same passion and compassion with which we want to be treated. Let us seek for others the same possibilities which we seek for ourselves. Let us help others to grow, as we would like to be helped ourselves.”
Several Democrats applauded as Francis declared, “We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners.”
Most Republicans did not join in the applause, with GOP presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a son of Cuban immigrants, among the exceptions.
The old Cheech and Chong joke about the papal stance on sex — “He no playa the game, he no makea the rules” — applies here. Vatican City is a self-governing enclave of Italy, and yet, you need a pass to get into the area and a permit to live there.
Perhaps the pope could allow 100,000 Syrians to set up camp in St. Peter’s Square? Nothing like showing “compassion” for the immigrants. Of course, the idea is ridiculous but so is telling us to open our border to allow millions to come in. Will the Vatican send cash to help us take care of them?
The pope doesn’t get it. The world is full of countries that murder their own people, oppress their personal and political aspirations, or are at war with one or several of their neighbors. There are also dozens of civil wars. Nations like the U.S. and those in western Europe are the exception to the rule. Most of the rest of the planet is a dark, miserable, dangerous place for humans to live.
The west has spent a thousand years carefully, even painfully, building up institutions, traditions, and habits of thought that have allowed us to construct societies that, for most, answer the basic human yearning for freedom and security. The addition of millions of people unfamiliar with these institutions and traditions — and unwilling to learn them — would fundamentally alter and undermine the societies in which they settled.
To those who built those societies and those trying to maintain them, this would be radically unfair and, dare I say, immoral. The pope is cashing checks with his heart that the rest of us can’t afford. I would suggest he change his definition of “compassion” when it comes to the mass migration of people.
My sister in law used to be the Parish Coordinator for one of the largest Catholic churches in town...and Catholic. I asked her once about why Catholics loved illegals so much. She said.....because they are the ones filling the pews now and most of the nuns and Priests come from other countries. Very few are U.S. citizens now.
RE: his obvious condemnation of gay lifestyles, etc when he spoke about the importance of the family unit and the attacks on it?
Here is the part of Pope Francis’ speech that one could say, vaguely refer to same-sex marriage :
_____________________________
Yet I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without. Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life.
_____________________________
Where’s the condemnation?
The above statement is so general that Gay Couples can always take this as being allowed to marry and adopt children and hence, contributing to the “richness and the beauty of family life.”
Or that Francis is so afraid to be specific that he is being a wimp here.
So an obvious question would be why the congregation is losing locals. Could it be that it is beginning to pander so much to factions that it is losing touch with more general theological matters?
This Pope is a disgrace to American Catholics ....
This Pope is a disgrace to all Catholics ...
First off, as I catholic I have been taught he is infallible on only matters of FAITH. Everything else, he knows as much or as little about anything as I do. So, when he says something on a faith matter, I follow it. When he speaks about globull warming or climate change, or our border policy or social justice I decide not to listen. I do note though, no one comments about his stands on abortion, womyn priests, or fags, I wonder why??
One other thing, I guess donations are down so now he is pushing our government to take money from those who earned it and dispense it to those who did not. Old testament teachings precede his church office, he should acquaint himself with some of them, like if you don’t work, you don’t eat.
Um, No
Hey Pope, how about you lecturing all the South American countries like the one you came from. Tell them to stop their policies to drive all the citizens out. Tell to stop their deplorable living conditions, their drug cartels.
Pope go home and STFU.
Too polite to offend Congress with that “bad word”
The USA should adopt the Vatican’s imigration policy. What could he say about us completely sealing off all borders like they do, huh?
Faith has a lot of ramifications. One of them surely (to assume a Roman Catholic context) is whether you will give credence to cock and bull accounts of nature that don’t have support either in the bible, or in good science, or even in traditional theology.
So an obvious question would be why the congregation is losing locals
People just don’t go to church like they used to. Religion is a lot less important to families now. Religion used to be where most family socialization came from. Not true anymore. South Americans and Mexicans still do a lot of their socialization through the church.
Has nothing to do with theology.
So it was just a habit, a custom, that was being jettisoned? Something that decorated lives but never filled or informed them?
That’s not a good thing to hear about any worship congregation. It’s not fulfilling its avowed purpose if that is so.
Maybe he better concentrate on what he was elected to do rather than to preach to us about open borders. He is not doing his own job and he needs to mind his own business.
More blatantly he’s taken advisors that he knows are not even believers. I wouldn’t expect a Catholic Pope to go ask Baptists for help but certainly there must be some good scientists somewhere in that vast segment of Christendom known as Roman Catholicism?
He’s gotten so close with the wolves that it is no wonder that his words are starting to read like “AROOOOOO!”
This pope is a disgrace
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.