A Traditionalist Defends Pope Francis

Catholic in Brooklyn ^ | October 6, 2013

[NYer]

Lengthy but fascinating .. tossing a bone out there for the FR Catholics, on which to gnaw. Ping!

[mlizzy]

...he says 15 mysteries of the Rosary every day and spends an hour every day in Eucharistic Adoration.

I never grow tired of hearing this. Prayers for Pope Francis!

[Alex Murphy]

Jesus Christ said the identifying sign of his followers would be that they would love one another. "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35) If that is the case, then I would suggest the many of those who run Catholic blogs and websites do some real soul searching because you are not displaying a whole lot of loving at the present moment, especially when it comes to our Holy Father, Pope Francis. The Catholic blogosphere has lit up with rants and raves against Pope Francis in light of his two recent interviews. There have been those who have written favorably of the Holy Father, but I would estimate that they are outnumbered by about 50 to 1. Many have gone right up to the edge of accusing Pope Francis of being a heretic.

Several Catholic FReepers have done likewise!

[Cicero]

I suppose it’s a very minor point, but that quote seems to suggest that Pope Francis is sticking with the 15 traditional mysteries of the Rosary, and not saying the additional five suggested by JP II in 2002.

[sitetest]

tl;dr.

[matginzac]

You know, all I as a traditional Catholic can think is, it’s kind of bad if you have to spend time trying to explain what it is the Pope stands for....

[ebb tide]

The author defeats his whole article with this statement:

I'm afraid this statement shows Fide's confused state of mind.

[piusv]

So, I've only gotten this far:

He has condemned such things as abortion and same sex marriage many times

Really? no he has not. In fact, he states that we shouldn't condemn these things many times.

[ClaytonP]

Francis is a public heretic. In other times he would have been excommunicated for what he said when he was a bishop and cardinal and would have never gotten near the papacy.

The endless rationalizations that people like this author show demonstrate that the teaching of the Catholic church are not eternal and people like him are willing to change whatever they believe on the basis of the current occupant of the Vatican.

[piusv]

By the way, I do know of at least one other priest who said God is not Catholic: Father Benedict Groeschel.

Now *that* convinced me. How about a Pre-Vatican II example?

[informavoracious]

I had gotten the impression he was not in favor of traditional devotions. A traditional group sent Pope Francis a "spiritual bouquet" and his response was:

I share with you two concerns. One is the Pelagian current that there is in the Church at this moment. There are some restorationist groups. I know some, it fell upon me to receive them in Buenos Aires. And one feels as if one goes back 60 years! Before the Council... One feels in 1940... An anecdote, just to illustrate this, it is not to laugh at it, I took it with respect, but it concerns me; when I was elected, I received a letter from one of these groups, and they said: "Your Holiness, we offer you this spiritual treasure: 3,525 rosaries." Why don't they say, 'we pray for you, we ask...', but this thing of counting... And these groups return to practices and to disciplines that I lived through - not you, because you are not old - to disciplines, to things that in that moment took place, but not now, they do not exist today...

So I guess it is good that he at least prays the Rosary, and better if the 15-decade version, but to snub the sincere prayers of Catholics and shame those who offered them up was unkind and in conflict with his purported love of people.

[piusv]

He has harsher words for traditionalists than he has for abortion and gay marriage.

[NYer]

You know, all I as a traditional Catholic can think is, it’s kind of bad if you have to spend time trying to explain what it is the Pope stands for....

We live in a society where information is communicated electronically in an instant. Few bother to read articles in their entirety, like freeper piusv who admits So, I've only gotten this far. Hence, comments are cherry picked for "sound bites" in order to lure viewers to the evening news, or to support one's position on threads such as this. Words, taken out of context, especially with regard to Catholic teaching, are fodder for the media to sensationalize into emerging societal trends. Go ahead and attempt to describe a doctrine of Catholic faith in a clear fashion without others glomming onto a particular word or phrase.

Your comment exemplifies the reason this article was written.

[NYer]

The endless rationalizations that people like this author show demonstrate that the teaching of the Catholic church are not eternal and people like him are willing to change whatever they believe on the basis of the current occupant of the Vatican.

What Catholic teachings has Pope Francis changed?

[ClaytonP]

What Catholic teachings has Pope Francis changed?

This is a fact-based video that sums its up pretty well.

Antipope Francis' Bombshell Interview

[piusv]

Um, excuse me but when I wrote “I’ve only gotten this far” it meant I had only gotten that far and already had an issue with what he wrote. Don’t accuse me of cherry picking anything.

But I know my comments are not well-received by most of the Catholics on this forum.

[miserare]

All I know is I don’t have to believe or obey anything Pope Francis says, unless he is speaking Ex Cathedra.

[informavoracious]

Well, baby murderers and homosexuals are marginalized in our society, unlike Traditionalists...oh, wait...

[HerrBlucher]

Exactly.