Posted on 04/12/2016 9:24:56 AM PDT by BlatherNaut
"In Bitter, Bizarre First Post "Love" Homily, Pope Lashes Out at Critics, Calls Judas "This Poor Repentant Man," Blames Jewish Priests for Judas' Death (They Were Bad Confessors and had No Mercy)The Pope appears to be growing increasingly unhinged."
Is the aggressive crazy talk a response to perceived opposition or a post Amoris victory lap?
Vatican Radio reports on today's homily at Santa Marta. The first part deals not with Judas but with those who clutch to "the letter" of the law. It is impossible to believe that Francis is not referring to opponents of the "pastoral solutions" proposed in Amoris Laetitia: Pope Francis on Monday spoke of the importance of taking stock of what is in people’s hearts and lives instead of only taking the law into account. ...the Pope spoke of the Doctors of the Law whom – he said - passed judgment with their hearts closed to God and to prophecy; all that mattered to them – he explained – was to uphold the Law. Pope Francis was reflecting on the Reading from the Acts of the Apostles in which the Doctors of the Law accuse Stephen of speaking “blasphemous words against Moses and God” because they “could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.” They even instigated false witnesses to uphold their claims, he said. “Their hearts, closed to God’s truth, clutch only at the truth of the Law, taking it by ‘the letter’, and do not find outlets other than in lies, false witness and death” he said. Then Francis presented a novel theory on Judas. As far as I know, no one ever in the history of the world has ever directly blamed the Jewish chief priests for Judas' suicide: Pope Francis said: "It hurts when I read that small passage from the Gospel of Matthew, when Judas, who has repented, goes to the priests and says: ‘I have sinned' and wants to give ... and gives them the coins. ‘Who cares! - they say to him: it’s none of our business!’ They closed their hearts before this poor, repentant man, who did not know what to do. And he went and hanged himself. And what did they do when Judas hanged himself? They spoke amongst themselves and said: 'Is he a poor man? No! These coins are the price of blood, they must not enter the temple... and they referred to this rule and to that… The doctors of the letter. " The life of a person did not matter to them, the Pope observed, they did not care about Judas’ repentance. The Gospel, he continued, says that Judas came back repentant. But all that mattered to them “were the laws, so many words and things they had built”. Francis appears to be arguing that Judas' return to the priests was tantamount to trying to make a confession to them. But the priests were bad confessors and rejected him. No doubt they lacked mercy.
This is of course demented.
It is tedious to observe that: The Jewish priests (being Jewish priests) had no power to forgive sins in that sense. Neither Judas nor the priests believed they had such a power. In any case, while looking down at Judas for being sort of a rat, the priests obviously wouldn't think that acting against Jesus was a sin per se. Most Biblical commentators attach significance to the particular Greek word used for "repentance" in this passage as opposed other passages. The common understanding is that his repentance was more akin to "I'm sorry I find myself in this position now" rather than "I'm truly sorry that I betrayed my Master and friend." This is reinforced by the fact that Judas did not try to save Jesus or go back to the other apostles in order to reconcile with them, etc. Rather, he killed himself. Perhaps Francis believes in what some have called the "blood libel."
But concerning Judas not Jesus.
Interestingly, he concluded the homily by repeating a sort of anti-Catholic blood libel--that the Church has a long history of burning dissidents and so on: "History tells us of many people who were judged and killed, although they were innocent: judged according to the Word of God, against the Word of God. Let’s think of witch hunts or of St. Joan of Arc, and of many others who were burnt to death, condemned because according to the judges they were not in line with the Word of God” he said. The above isn't Catholic. It's anti-Catholic.
Enough.
Who will stand up to it?
Maybe Pope Francis should start the process of declaring Judas a saint to show how merciful the Roman Catholic Church has become.
Jesus knew what Judas was going to do. Jesus had the power to stop him. He also knew what would happen if Judas betrayed him. He had the power to stop that too.
Having said that there is truth to some of what the Pope is saying. Of course 90% of what Satan says is true as well. Its the 10% thats important.
The Pope seems to be questioning Gods law. Thats confusing and tragic.
Indeed.
Uh, OK.
Has anyone checked his meds lately? I am not joking. He is showing signs of an imbalance.
You have to admit, he’s knocked the homosexual-priest scandal off the front page.
I was with the writer, until the very end. It appears that the writer is saying that the pope’s condemning of innocent people being burned at the stake is wrong.
ah yes the communist in the vatican....lecturing the rest of us yet again
I agree that here’s something wrong with the man, possibly dementia. What he says makes no sense, and he is also known to fly into rages.
That said, I think his intention all along was to destroy the Chuch of Christ and build one in his own image. Even when he was a little more sane, he seemed to regard himself as a prophet who was bringing a new message to the world. But now that some blood vessel in his brain has let go or the plaque build up has gotten to him, he’s simply spinning in outer space.
I think the Cardinals need to address this on the basis of his incapacity.
The Pope seems to strongly imply that the Jewish priests were legitimate. We know from the gospels that Jesus continually railed against those who outwardly appeared pious and yet inwardly were unrepentant, did not recognize the true Messiah in front of them, and were filled with pride and hearts of stone.
Is the Pope actually suggesting these “priests” were legit and could have moved Judas to repentance?
Wow, if that’s what he’s saying then it shows a stark and frightening misunderstanding of the Scriptures.
John 6:70-71 shows that Jesus had told his apostles that one of them was a devil, that passage indicating that Jesus was talking about Judas who would later betray Jesus.
Note that Matthew 26:24 shows that Jesus had indicated that it would have been better if Judas had not been born.
Oh for crying out loud. There have not been very many preachers in this country preaching about the letter of the law in about 55 years. Now this pope only has time to talk about all this??? Christians are merciful people. However, when dealing with people, the time comes when your faith can become weakened and decisions have to be made. The person who wants to remain in love with their sin more than they do God must go their own way. We cannot stop them and we have our faith to defend before we are drug into the fire. Judas could not repent because of HIS OWN heart. The Revelation speaks of those unable and unwilling to repent despite increasing and vivid revelation from God. Besides that, if following the letter of the law is a sin, then should not the pope be merciful and forgiving for that too!!!!!
It’s altogether typical for marxists to be virulently anti-Semitic, but one would think that Frank might expose his disease in a slightly more creative allegation.
Is this Pope Catholic?
This Pope needs to STFU and get his own house in order. He can start with the gay mafia running the Archdiocese of New York!
My step grandma died of Dementia. In the early phases, she would have off the wall statements like “Grandpa is cheating on me with the ice cream lady!”
Well, he was eating ice cream every day when he drove back from the farm, but he didn’t care who was selling it to him.
When she realized what was happening, she apologized to all of us. I hope the Pope isn’t heading that way, but he is acting like she did.
T.S. Eliot wrote “Murder in the Cathedral”. It is the story of the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Becket, by knights of England’s King Henry II in 1170.
As applied to Pope Francis’ circumstances, this is the question posed by King Henry II: “Will someone not rid us of this meddlesome priest?”
Supposedly he had a small stroke right after his election.
Amen! The guys a feakin’ loon.
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.