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Pope Francis Is Beloved. His Papacy Might Be a Disaster.
New York Times ^ | March 18, 2018 | Ross Douthat

Posted on 03/19/2018 7:16:08 PM PDT by ebb tide

The conversation has become predictable. A friendly acquaintance — a neighbor, a fellow parent, our real estate agent — asks about my work. I say I’ve been writing a book about the pope, and the acquaintance smiles and nods and says “Isn’t he so wonderful?” or, “That must be an inspiring thing,” or, “I have a friend who would love to read it.” And then eventually I find myself saying, uncomfortably, “Well, they should know that it’s not entirely favorable.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Moral Issues; Theology
KEYWORDS: 68revolution; catholicchurch; culturalrevolution; francischurch; heresy; homosexualagenda; marxist; sexualrevolution; sin; smashmonogamy; smashthepatriarchy
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1 posted on 03/19/2018 7:16:08 PM PDT by ebb tide
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To: ebb tide

My bet is Berboglio’s name is on that Vatican call-boy’s list.


2 posted on 03/19/2018 7:18:06 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (<img src="http://i.imgur.com/WukZwJP.gif" width=800>https://i.imgur.com/zXSEP5Z.gif)
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To: ebb tide

A NYT urinalist dissing the Pope is nothing new. But then a blind squirrel . . .


3 posted on 03/19/2018 7:20:54 PM PDT by freedomlover
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To: ebb tide

The ones who say, “Ain’t he neat?” are doing so because they welcome his corrupting the church.


4 posted on 03/19/2018 7:21:10 PM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: All

Beloved Pope Francis inspires me to read Psalms 109:8.


5 posted on 03/19/2018 7:22:42 PM PDT by BipolarBob (If you're not hungry for God, you're probably full of yourself.)
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To: ebb tide

Beloved?

By who?


6 posted on 03/19/2018 7:27:05 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here of Citizen Parents__Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: Lurkinanloomin

Beloved?

By who?

<><>

You beat me to it.


7 posted on 03/19/2018 7:33:54 PM PDT by laplata (Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: Lurkinanloomin
Beloved?

By who?

By non-Catholics, by active homos, by adulterers, by abortionists, by communists, by illegals, by treehuggers, by the MSM, by democrats, etc.

8 posted on 03/19/2018 7:38:27 PM PDT by ebb tide
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To: All

Beloved?

Well, maybe by marxists, globalists, atheists.

By devout, Bible believing Christians or by nationalists (whatever nation they live in) capitalists or sane people in general... no, not so much


9 posted on 03/19/2018 7:59:59 PM PDT by LegendHasIt
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To: ebb tide
Fortunately, God pointed to his favorite on that 2017 trip to the Vatican... Save the chosen one. Frankie? not so much.


10 posted on 03/19/2018 8:25:32 PM PDT by poconopundit (MAGA... Get the Spirit. Grow your community. Focus on your Life's Work. Empower the Young.)
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To: ebb tide

Beloved by whom? By what, is more to the matter.


11 posted on 03/19/2018 9:08:45 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: freedomlover

Douthat is actually a fine writer and a decent guy. I’ll vouch for him. He’s done something none of us has ever done: brought some reality about Pope Francis into the New York Times.

I’m getting his book.


12 posted on 03/19/2018 10:26:22 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (L'Chaim.)
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To: ebb tide

Francis is a poor communicator with no moral center.


13 posted on 03/19/2018 10:46:06 PM PDT by Architect of Avalon
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: LegendHasIt; redleghunter; Springfield Reformer; kinsman redeemer; BlueDragon; metmom; boatbums; ...
The papal plan for a truce is either ingenious or deceptive, depending on your point of view. Instead of formally changing the church’s teaching on divorce and remarriage, same-sex marriage, euthanasia — changes that are officially impossible, beyond the powers of his office — the Vatican under Francis is making a twofold move. First, a distinction is being drawn between doctrine and pastoral practice that claims that merely pastoral change can leave doctrinal truth untouched. So a remarried Catholic might take communion without having his first union declared null, a Catholic planning assisted suicide might still receive last rites beforehand, and perhaps eventually a gay Catholic can have her same-sex union blessed — and yet supposedly none of this changes the church’s teaching that marriage is indissoluble and suicide a mortal sin and same-sex wedlock an impossibility, so long as it’s always treated as an exception rather than a rule.

At the same time, Francis has allowed a tacit decentralization of doctrinal authority, in which different countries and dioceses can take different approaches to controversial questions. So in Germany, where the church is rich and sterile and half-secularized, the Francis era has offered a permission slip to proceed with various liberalizing moves, from communion for the remarried to intercommunion with Protestants — while across the Oder in Poland the bishops are proceeding as if John Paul II still sits upon the papal throne and his teaching is still fully in effect. The church’s approach to assisted suicide is traditional if you listen to the bishops of Western Canada, flexible and accommodating if you heed the bishops in Canada’s Maritime Provinces. In the United States, Francis’ appointees in Chicago and San Diego are taking the lead in promoting a “new paradigm” on sex and marriage, while more conservative archbishops from Philadelphia to Portland, Ore., are sticking with the old one. And so on.

These geographical divisions predate Francis, but unlike his predecessors he has blessed them, encouraged them and enabled would-be liberalizers to develop their ambitions further. ..

in the last year he has added a second one, seeking a truce not with a culture but with a regime: the Communist government in China. Francis wants a compromise with Beijing that would reconcile China’s underground Catholic Church, loyal to Rome, with the Communist-dominated “patriotic” Catholic Church....

The risks of the Chinese gamble are already apparent in the weirdly sycophantic language that Francis’ allies have used toward the Communist regime, and their eagerness to reassure Beijing that unlike, say, American evangelicals, Rome would never take the threatening step of mixing religion and politics...

Francis’ inner circle is convinced that such a revolution is what the Holy Spirit wants...

Ross Douthat, Pope Francis Is Beloved. His Papacy Might Be a Disaster , NYT, MARCH 16, 2018.

While for me as former devout RC, now evangelical who substantiates the church of Rome to be the most manifest example of deformation of the NT church , for devout RCs who insists in remains, the question is how to reconcile their selective dissent from both Francis and modern RC teaching with past papal teaching which basically requires broad assent to all public papal teaching. Of course, they should go all the way and become born again, and seek to conform to the most ancient church teachings.

15 posted on 03/20/2018 4:06:19 AM PDT by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: ebb tide
Pope Francis Is Beloved. His Papacy Might Be a Disaster.

MIGHT be?

ET; you and your fellow protesters are fully convinced your glorious leader is right up there with Luther in his ruination of your beloved denomination.

16 posted on 03/20/2018 4:15:19 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: ebb tide
By non-Catholics, by active homos, by adulterers, by abortionists, by communists, by illegals, by treehuggers, by the MSM, by democrats, etc.

Too bad you Catholics REFUSE to kiss his ring.

When is the next election coming?

17 posted on 03/20/2018 4:17:01 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: poconopundit
The caption fell off:

"Have you considered my man Trump?"

--gray haired dude in the painting

18 posted on 03/20/2018 4:18:59 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Architect of Avalon
Francis is a poor communicator with no moral center.

This sounds SO judgmental.

Who elected this alleged turkey?

19 posted on 03/20/2018 4:20:13 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: BipolarBob

Catholics are sarcasm challenged.

It’s interesting, though. My sister lives in Western NY and she tells me that the Catholics there just love him to pieces. They think he’s great.

We non-Catholics have been warning them for years about him and all we got we attacked. We were called all kinds of names and told that he was misunderstood, mistranslated, misinterpreted, didn’t articulate what he meant well.

It took them YEARS to finally recognize and admit the problems, but we never got the acknowledgement that we were right.

I guess it doesn’t occur to some that a more objective perspective is a more accurate one.


20 posted on 03/20/2018 4:21:30 AM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith..)
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