Pope calls for fresh Church approach to children of gay parents (Uh, no he didn't) (Catholic Caucus)

AFP ^ | 1/4/2014

[markomalley]

Pope Francis has called for a rethink in the way the Catholic Church deals with the children of gay couples and divorced parents, warning against "administering a vaccine against faith".

"On an educational level, gay unions raise challenges for us today which for us are sometimes difficult to understand," Francis said in a speech to the Catholic Union of Superiors General in November, extracts of which were published on Italian media websites on Saturday.

"The number of children in schools whose parents have separated is very high," he said, adding that family make-ups were also changing.

[markomalley]

Naturally, I expect these alleged words to be widely denounced by all orthodox Catholics and by conservative pundits.

Minor little problem: the AFP radically misquoted him when they attributed "On an educational level, gay unions raise challenges for us today which for us are sometimes difficult to understand".

What he said was (according to the article that AFP referenced -- see page 14 of this PDF):

The pillars of education according to the Pope are: “convey understanding, convey ways of doing things, convey values. Faith is conveyed through these. The educator should be up to being a person who educates, he or she should consider how to proclaim Jesus Christ to a generation that is changing.” He insisted, therefore: “Education today is a key, key, key mission!” And he recalled some of his experiences in Buenos Aires regarding the preparation necessary to welcome children in an educational context, little boys and girls, young adults who live in complex situations, especially family ones: “I remember the case of a very sad little girl who finally confided to her teacher the reason for her state of mind: ‘my mother’s fiancé doesn’t like me.’ The percentage of children studying in schools who have separated parents is very high. The situation in which we live now provides us with new challenges which sometimes are difficult for us to understand. How can we proclaim Christ to these boys and girls? How can we proclaim Christ to a generation that is changing? We must be careful not to administer a vaccine against faith to them.

(BTW, here is a screenshot for the Italian original):

(And the Spanish version)

And by the way, the context of what he said (you can see this from the PDF article I linked above) was The Frontiers of Mission: Marginalization, Culture and Education

The point he was getting at was that life these days is incredibly more complex and that the religious (a/k/a sisters, brothers, friars, etc.) need to send the best and most gifted people into those complex situations, rather than sending the most enthusiastic without regard to their abilities...as they will find challenging situations (the above is my paraphrase only).

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This is what is so frustrating to me. Yes, he steps in it occasionally (granted). But when he doesn't "step in it", the media will take him out of context. And if they can't take him out of context, they'll just make crap up out of whole cloth (like the AFP did here).

For the agenda of trying to create a pope in their (the media's) own image.

[MeshugeMikey]

the urinalist-community doesnt think the pope will read their tripe and that we’re simply too busy to be bothered with......the details?

[steve86]

What a disaster. The Catholic world would be better served if the pope left this kind of discussion to professionals such as local Catholic Family and Child Services counselors (Principle of Subsidiarity).

[faithhopecharity]

it is really amazing how much mis-quoting or mis=attribution is going on about the new Pope...

I would have thought that (aside from honest misunderstandings or mistakes), the mass media would not dare try to misrepresent a person with such an ability to get his messages out to the world through church channels WITHOUT the mass media

[Volunteer]

Thank you for posting the translation here. I agree with you that the misquoting of the Holy Father is done by a media attempting to push their own agenda.

[lee martell]

I am certainly no theologian, or an expert resource on Biblical interpretation, but I have noticed that much of what this Pope says for public consumption is sufficiently ambiguous to be accepted by many different perspectives of thought and morality. Some of this must be deliberate, a form of diplomacy. He decides to use this technique of communication now, and will continue to do so, especially for his first few years. Once in a while, the secondary pattern is seen, where the Pope will say something totally in line with what you’d expect from the head of The Catholic Church.

[markomalley]

The Catholic world would be better served if the pope left this kind of discussion to professionals such as local Catholic Family and Child Services counselors (Principle of Subsidiarity).

He was speaking / conversing with a group of superiors of institutes of Pontifical Right.

How did his speaking with them and answering their questions violate subsidiarity?

On a side note, do you remember what happened when Illinois mandated that all adoptions be open to sodomite couples? They dissolved Catholic Charities of Illinois (note that this did not include Chicago), remember. Most, if not all of the "Catholic Family and Child Services" counselors went with the new private non-Church affiliated charities that were formed when the dioceses of Illinois (excluding Chicago) dissolved their diocesan Catholic Charities.

So I don't know that I would go with your recommendation, anyway, about having social workers talk about it...they're as likely as not to be utterly heterodox.

[OldNavyVet]

I have noticed that much of what this Pope says for public consumption is sufficiently ambiguous to be accepted by many different perspectives of thought and morality.

"ambiguous" is defined as having two or more possible meanings or ... not clear, indefinite, uncertain, vague...

My thinking has it that this Pope isn't of the old-school "Bell, Book and Candle" or "Burn them at the stake" types; and it speaks well for him.

[NetAddicted]

That’s abysmal! Good Lord, I didn’t realize the media was changing what people actually said.

[Tax-chick]

As so often happens, I wonder how this could be controversial. On one hand, it’s essential to teach unchanging moral truths. On the other hand, it’s essential to be kind to children, who are not responsible for adults’ moral errors. Doing both requires great delicacy.

[Salvation]

Did you read ALL of markomalley’s post?

[Salvation]

Did you read ALL of the original post?

[sydney smith]

Your translation of the italian is incorrect. The little girl was not referring to her mother’s fiancé but was referring to her fiancée. Another woman. La fidanzata in italian refers to a woman.

[Tax-chick]

The Spanish version has “novia,” which is girlfriend or fiancée or bride.

[sydney smith]

Point being, the pope was NOT misquoted. He is seeming more and more progressive each day. Many will keep making excuses for him, ie; he didn’t really say that, or, he didn’t mean that, etc. Uh, yeah. He did say/mean that. Popes and priests are just as media savvy and worldly as anyone else.

[Tax-chick]

I don’t see the problem with what he said, in Italian, Spanish, or English. Anyone who has ever taught in a school or Sunday School will tell you that there’s often a major conflict between what we’re teaching the children and how the children’s parents are living.

It doesn’t matter to the child whether she’s disliked by the mother’s boyfriend or the mother’s girlfriend. The child has a problem because the adults are sinning, and helping the child in this situation isn’t going to be as simple as saying, “Well, homosexuality is wrong.”

[sydney smith]

As long as you don’t forget to add “and btw, homosexuality is wrong”.

[Tax-chick]

It depends on the age of the child. It might be sufficient to make it clear to the child that it’s wrong for her mother to be in a relationship with someone who feels no affection for the child.

[pax_et_bonum]

That’s abysmal! Good Lord, I didn’t realize the media was changing what people actually said.

***

It’s what they’re best at.

[markomalley]

Your translation of the italian is incorrect.

It wasn't my translation. It was La Civilità Cattolica's translation.

But, yes, you are correct.

It does not change anything I said, though.