Yeah, I was a screw-up on terror but I wasn't a freakin' terrorist!
Posted on 01/31/2015 7:47:24 PM PST by ebb tide
This article is my take on the impact of the latest scandal caused by the latest papal press conference at the back of an airplane: the one during the flight from Manila to Rome, reported around the world under the eminently predictable headline: “Pope Francis: Catholics Don’t Have to Breed Like Rabbits.” Objectors need not pester me or this newspaper with complaints about “bad translation” or the “whole context” of the Pope’s remarks, nor with such quibbles as “the Pope said be like rabbits, not breed like rabbits.” I have watched the entire interview in Italian and compared it with the transcript provided by America magazine and can confirm that the Pope said what he is reported to have said and that its “context” does not diminish but rather only exacerbates the scandal he has caused—yet again—by speaking off-the-cuff.
That is, the scandal caused by Francis telling us what he really thinks, which is supposed to be the great benefit of his insistence on “speaking from the heart” rather than relying on prepared texts like his overly inhibited predecessor.
First of all, “Rabbitgate,” as the Catholic bloggers are calling it , is yet another example of a spectacle without precedent in the entire history of the papacy: a Pope who publicly and incessantly denounces his own subjects on account of their attachment to the doctrines and disciplines of the faith. Never before has the Church had to endure a Pope who condemns members of his own flock because “they observe certain rules or remain intransigently faithful to a particular Catholic style from the past .” Never before has a Pope exhibited nothing but indulgence for dissenters from Church teaching on faith and morals at the same time he declares contemptuously—in an apostolic exhortation , no less—that “a supposed soundness of doctrine or discipline leads instead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism…”
But whereas Francis has hitherto confined his astonishing denunciations of orthodoxy and orthopraxis to ill-defined groups of the faithful, during the in-flight press conference on the way back from Manila he did something else the Church has never seen before: he denounced a lone woman he had met in a parish somewhere because she trusted in God to see her through an eighth pregnancy that would require a Caesarian section. Indulging for the umpteenth time an apparently insatiable desire to speak to the press, Francis added these infamous words to string of infamous pronouncements the likes of which no Pope before him has ever uttered:
This does not mean that the Christian must make children in series. I rebuked a woman some months ago in a parish who was pregnant eight times, with seven C-sections (cesareans). “But do you want to leave seven orphans? This is to tempt God! He [Paul VI] speaks of responsible parenthood.
Incredibly enough, the very Vicar of Christ provided the world media with enough identifiers to make it obvious to everyone who knows this woman that the Pope had personally “rebuked” her for being an irresponsible mother who has sinned by tempting God when in fact she is practicing heroic virtue by accepting all of the children God has given her, with the assistance of a procedure modern medicine routinely provides to mothers all over the world facing difficult pregnancies. (We all know and admire Catholic mothers who have given birth to healthy babies via repeated C-sections.)
Antonio Socci drove home the devastating point about this increasingly bizarre pontificate: “if she [the woman] had said she used the Pill or had divorced, he [Francis] would have said ‘Who am I to judge?’” Once again the Pope whose media-driven theme is “mercy and compassion” has displayed an utter lack of mercy and compassion for Catholics striving heroically to live their faith in conformity with the Church’s demanding yet liberating teaching.
But on this occasion our strange Pope went too far even for many of his staunch defenders. Not yet done with the poor woman, Francis went out of his way to denounce her a second time toward the end of the press conference. It came in response to a reporter’s loaded question about whether poverty in the Philippines is related to the fact that the average Filipino woman has three or more children:
That example I mentioned shortly before about that woman who was expecting her eighth (child) and already had seven who were born with caesareans. That is an irresponsibility [said with emphasis]. “No but I trust in God! [mocking the woman’s presumed conviction].” But God gives you methods to be responsible. Some think that, excuse me if I use that word, that in order to be good Catholics we have to be like rabbits. No. Responsible parenthood! This is clear and that is why in the church there are marriage groups, there are experts in this matter, there are pastors, one can seek and I know so many, many ways out that are licit and that have helped this. You did well to ask me this.
These words are a font of revelation about the mentality behind them. What sort of Pope would publicly denounce as an irresponsible tempter of God a faithful Catholic woman who trusts in His providence—a trust so obviously rewarded with many children safely delivered? What sort of Pope would use this woman as an example of Catholics who think they must “be like rabbits,” thus lending credence to the world’s vicious caricature of Catholic mothers? (The neo-Catholic bloggers on “Team Bergoglio” desperately wrenched the rabbit remark from its context of the woman Francis cited as an example of rabbit-like breeding, arguing that the Pope was merely generalizing about Catholic teaching).
Further, what sort of Pope would refer to “many, many ways out” of pregnancy, as if parenthood were something for which Catholics require an exit strategy? And what, by the way, does Francis mean by “many, many ways out” in the first place, seeing that abstinence, either permanent or periodic, is the only licit way to avoid conception, and this only for grave reasons?
But the revelations do not end here. Francis continued with these remarks about Filipinos living in poverty:
Another curious thing in relation to this is that for the most poor people [i.e., the poorest—le gente più povere], a child is a treasure. It is true that you have to be prudent here too, but for them a child is a treasure. Some would say “God knows how to help me” and perhaps some of them are not prudent, this is true. Responsible paternity. But let us also look at the generosity of that father and mother who see a treasure in every child.
Why does Francis think it “curious” that for the poorest people a child is a treasure? Why does he say that “even here”—with very poor people—“you have to be prudent,” as if to suggest that the very poor are entitled to be somewhat less “responsible” in begetting children because “for them a child is a treasure” and they have no other treasure? A child is a treasure for everyone, rich or poor, not just “for them [the poorest].” And if every child is a treasure for everyone God deigns to give a child, by what right did Francis twice condemn a woman—evidently not a very poor woman—who has brought eight children into the world with the help of a standard medical procedure?
All in all, the man the press has idolized as a humble and tender pastor of souls by way of invidious comparison with his predecessor has here revealed a rather serious mean streak and not a little condescension toward the poor. And even when the inevitable “clarification” came two days later, with the Pope this time reading a prepared statement at his Wednesday audience address praising large families and affirming that every child is a gift from God, there was not the even the hint of an apology to the woman he had calumniated before the entire world precisely because she had courageously accepted eight gifts from God.
“Rabbitgate” may be as much a turning point in the Bergoglian pontificate as Watergate was for Richard Nixon—a fitting development for a papacy that is being conducted as if it were a presidency . The blogosphere is bristling with the protests of Catholic mothers who have had multiple C-sections and by Catholic parents of eight or more children who are now noticing what this newspaper has been reporting for months: that there is something gravely amiss with this papacy, something the Church has never experienced before.
As a contributor to the resolutely middle-of-the road Aleteia.org has observed : “if Facebook is any indication, many large Catholic families are a lot less enamored of Pope Francis after ‘rabbits.’” While the same people have generally accepted without protest this Pope’s scandalous words and deeds, leaving mostly traditionalists to raise objections, this time Francis has struck rather too close to home for the “conservative” Catholic rank and file and new eyes are being opened. As the same writer observes: “If Francis after rabbits is diminished for you, so be it. Jesus Christ still reigns.” A hearty amen to that.
The widening perception that Francis is out of control may be a crucial factor in solidifying the hierarchical and lay opposition that will be necessary to prevent the train wreck he clearly has in mind for Synod 2015 if the boasting of his handpicked leader of the Council of Eight is any indication. As Cardinal Maradiaga has just declared with all the recklessness that has earned him the title “Mad Dog” Maradiaga:
The Council propelled institutional renovations, following the logic of the Spirit. These reforms encompass all levels of the ecclesial organization… But the institutional and functional changes—alone in themselves— proved insufficient, superficial…. The Pope wants to take this Church renovation to the point where it becomes irreversible.
As Francis continues to tell us what he really thinks, thus alienating an ever-growing number of the faithful who are awakening to the reality that this papacy is dangerously dysfunctional, we can only pray that what we are seeing is the Holy Ghost writing straight with crooked lines. It may well be that what we must call the threat posed by Bergoglianism will be averted by the blunders of Pope Bergoglio himself.
§
Francis Watch
Pope Publicly Condemns Catholic Mother of Eight as “Irresponsible,” Grants Private Audience to a Same-Sex “Transgender” Couple
Bergoglianism now veers into madness. The same Pope who saw fit to use a press conference to condemn as a reckless tempter of God a Catholic mother of eight has just received in a private audience at his residence a woman attempting to become a man through a sex-change operation and her purported “fiancée.” (One account refers to a “wife,” but the “marriage” apparently is awaiting completion of “Diego’s” “gender-reassignment” procedures.)
The audience with Francis, which took place on January 24 at 5 p.m., came after Francis had twice personally telephoned the woman, who now calls herself Diego, after she had written to Francis to complain that her parish priest had condemned her purported “sex-change” and that she felt “emarginated in the Church.” The first call was made on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and the second in the days before Christmas, when Francis personally invited “Diego” and her so-called fiancée to visit him at the Vatican.
So we have a Pope who grants a personal audience to a “transsexual couple” while refusing to meet with the founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, whose flourishing Catholic order he destroyed, or the lone traditional bishop in Paraguay he summarily removed from a diocese with many vocations because of opposition from a progressive-dominated episcopate, which is driving Catholics from the Church by the millions.
Ping
Gen 1:28
“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth”
But the anti-rabbit Papa Tango is worried about “Mother Earth”:
“God always forgives, but the earth does not...Take care of the earth so it does not respond with destruction.”
The Holy Spirit is screaming at you.
Revelation 18:4 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,
“Come out of her, my people,
so that you do not take part in her sins,
and so that you do not share in her plagues;
“The Pope wants to take this Church renovation to the point where it becomes irreversible.”
Fundamental transformation....of the Catholic church.
This pope is the obama of the catholic church.
““Rabbitgate” may be as much a turning point in the Bergoglian pontificate as Watergate was for Richard Nixon”
Not a chance - Unlike Nixon he’s got the media on his side... even more than Obama. He will double down at the earliest opportunity which will come with his pronouncements on global warming, if not sooner.
Genesis 1
English Standard Version (ESV)
26 Then God said, “Let us make man[h] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Disgusting. His perverse opinions and priorities raise legitimate questions.
"Pope Homo? Francis Approved Homoerotic Synod Text, Says Cardinal"
Agree.
Yes. The Holy Spirit says: “Come out of her, and join the 40,000 Protestant churches I have founded.”
This misses the point, of course. The point is an attitude adjustment which may or may not entail worshiping the Lord together with a different denomination. Believe it or not, Luther did not want a “second denomination.” He wanted to get rid of the idea of denominations.
Yacks about a text that it presents no link to.
For all the concerns over Pope Francis, sometimes the rebukes are even more man centered than he is.
Considering that Jesus said he was founding a Church, which would never teach error, and which would exist until the end of the world, it seems highly probable that somewhere in the world right now there is the Church Jesus founded. Since that Church would enjoy the infallibility Jesus promised, it follows that no church that does not claim that infallibility could be the one Jesus founded.
The classic evangelical answer is that it is the collective body of all believers. This cuts across all denominations (well, it would skip those without believers).
I don’t know about an infallibility claim — the historical church has made a lot of mistakes — but a promise that the gates of hades won’t prevail against it is realistic because it is rooted in permanent salvations. Evangelicals do assert that the closer to the Holy Spirit you get, the more reliable your doctrine will be. If you fail to avail yourself of that and thereby sin, it isn’t God’s fault but yours.
Namely — I think that being folded into the starting assumptions is that we have to have some denomination that is the Utterly Correct Church.
But if we dismiss that assumption, we still do not come up with illogic. We have a church that frequently stumbles but never completely falls, and which still has a positive promise to look to, that of the fruits of the degree of individual dedication to the Lord it shows.
Anyhow, I believe by virtue of the Lord I have met and who sticks along with me no matter how bad I muff it. This is something that goes to a mystic, supernatural level and it is tangible every day. The church is part of His promise and I am part of it by virtue of the salvation He has bestowed. How well I live as a Christian depends on what I do with Jesus in my life. How well the worship organizations I worship with do managing as churches, depends on what they do with Jesus in their lives. The more faithful to the Lord, the better the results.
Though you may not (yet) agree, I think you can probably see why evangelicals view the concept of a One Correct Roman Catholic Church as a phenomenon of religion among men.
“Cardinal Baldisseri confirms Pope Francis directed inclusion of heterodox statements in Synod final “Relatio””
“...For the first time in history, an official Church document – of the most dubious authority, it is true, but the vast majority are ignorant of that fact – says that the Church should examine opening up Communion to adulterers and that those drawn to acts of sodomy have special “gifts.” ...”
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