What if God doesn’t lead me to care who the Pope is?
I converted during Pope John Paul II’s reign, and felt quite simpatico with both him and Benedict XVI at the helm of the Barque of Peter. I’m having a bit more trouble relating to the new incumbent, about whom I have mixed feelings, but whom I’m trying to give the benefit of the doubt. I like some of the stuff he does and says, but I don’t like some of the loose talk, which can and obviously has been spun by liberals that want to change Church teaching. I am worried about his praise of Cardinal Kasper and about the upcoming Synod on the Family. I just hope Francis is orthodox at heart and will not allow change in Church teaching. (If you can’t rely on the Successor of Peter to defend the deposit of faith, including moral teachings, who can you trust?) On the other hand, if he really is orthodox in the end, he might perhaps be a genius if he truly is engaging in a cunning plan that gets liberals and skeptics and mushy middlers to actually engage with Christ and the Church in good faith. On most days I think he is orthodox at heart, but on dark days I sometimes wonder. Anyways, it’s in God’s hands, and Christ did promise to Peter that the Gates of Hell would not prevail against the Church, so all one can do is pray and ride the storm.
Vanity?
This post is all about Charles O’Connell , not the pope.
What is a “Pope”?
Good question.
Your personal likes and dislikes are NOT the measure of God.
Popes do not issue marching orders daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly. No person who is well-instructed in the Catholic Faith, and is sincerely practicing it, needs to follow the Pope’s doings and sayings. A Catholic is at liberty to like or dislike any Pope. If he dislikes a Pope, he should try to remain unaware of the day-to-day news about the Pope. The notion that all Catholics must “heed the call” of the Pope to conversion, or spiritual renewal or growth, etc., and must therefore read all of the Pope’s interviews and daily homilies, is silly. The call to all those good things is in Scripture and the constant teaching of the Church.
Maybe it is test from God to measure if you understand his teachings or are just lemmings following human religious doctrine.
Nowhere in Scripture does God ever mention the office of “pope”.
In the spirit of,
‘Why should we only listen and respond to messages, and messengers, that we like? What use is it, how can Christ’s message transform us, if we only hear what confirms us in what we’re already doing?’, I submit..
Those 15 promises mary gave for praying the rosary has enough mary -centered, non Torah messages, to make me believe she is pointing to a substitute false Messiah.
Can one ascend to pope level and not be very supportive of these mary visions and her promises?
And before one perceives me as protestant church goer- if this mary of the catholic church points to ‘jesus’, what does that say to those protestants who also proclaim that name, jesus?
Maybe that’s why only three Jesus entries are being changed(or have been changed) to ‘Joshua’ in some new testament translations (Luke 3:29, Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8).
If the translators changed them all to the proper English transliteration (and not just those 3 related to that Old Testament guy with the same name of the Messiah) , it may screw with traditions of the churches- not the least, screwing with the only ‘name’ under heaven ,by which we must all be saved...
I don’t know if popes, priests, pastors, preachers would want to follow down that rabbit hole too far.. It may mess up their entire church belief and worship systems...
who’s chaining you to the pew?
What if cows could fly, would they be easier to milk?
Tagline.
What if God wants nothing to do with a pope — a guy in a made-up position who usurps authority over Him? Just askin’.