[ebb tide]

Pope Francis is obviously and sadly wedded to a conception of papal authority that has little to do with the First Vatican Council’s articulation of the papacy’s inherently conservative nature, by which it receives and transmits, in its integrity, the apostolic faith as it passes through the ages—growing in expression, yes, but not morphing into something different or opposed to itself.

[DuncanWaring]

“Pope Francis is not making a doctrinal statement about the illegitimacy always and everywhere of the death penalty but merely a prudential judgment about the inopportuneness of its use at this time in history.”

Has he said anything about the inopportuneness of the use of abortion at this time in history?

[Obadiah]

Honestly, I simply do not understand how the Catholic church has not run this heretic out on a rail. I mean this guy is so over the top bad, and yet no one seems to be able to say or do anything about it.

[sitetest]

Simplicio is trying to have it both ways. A logician he is not.

[so_real]

The Catholic Church's greatest political fear is a third reformation. And yet, with connivances like this, they act contrary to that fear. Perhaps it is time to #WalkAway.

[ebb tide]

That is, to state that the death penalty is inadmissible for theoretical reasons, as we have seen is the Pope’s position, is contrary to established dogma, and therefore formally heretical.

[I want the USA back]

The pope is first and foremost a liberal. His current job is to be a clown with a pointy hat and red shoes in Rome. He is certainly not fit to be the successor of Peter, and must resign.

He has not condemned abortion or the gay cardinal orgy in the Vatican.

[alternatives?]

“this time in history”

Isn’t the probability of a wrongful execution smaller now than ever before? If so why now?

[arthurus]

Am I going to get a copy of the new page and instructions how to replace the now deficient page in my Catechism? There is some precedent for that in the appropriate sources.

[Hieronymus]

It seems to me that the best explanation is that someone in the Vatican is trying to take some heat off of the liberals in the U.S. hierarchy by diverting some of the energy that could be put into treeing the hierarchy over the McCarrick scandal, which looks to have the potential to finally blow open a coven of corruption.

Of the two dozen or so nations that actually executed people in 2017, with more than 2500 judicial executions, only three of them, Belarus (2), the South Sudan (4), and the U.S. (23), even have Christian majorities. South Sudan has the highest Catholic percentage (37%) as well as the highest per-capita execution rate (they have a population of 12 million, Belarus a population of 9).

They also have a per-capita income of under $760 dollars.

It would be interesting to make an argument from the perspective of South Sudan, but somehow I don’t think that this thing is being addressed here, or at China, where the majority of the executions occur, or at the Islamic nations that account for nearly all of the executions outside of China.

I think U.S. Catholics are being trolled.

[ealgeone]

Good grief dude.....give it a rest already with this topic.

[Slyfox]

I have been reading a lot of Benedict and JPII. I look in the direction of Frankie and boy is he ever a light weight liberal.

[armydoc]

Who doesn’t doubt that CCC 2357 is next up for revision “in light of the Gospel”? No way that offensive phrases like “grave depravity” and “intrinsically disordered” will be allowed to stand by Pope Maverick McHeresy

[elbook]

I’ve had a creep odd thought from this :

What If Jesus had only got “Life Imprisonment” ?

Not actually directly relevant to the posting, but ...

[Old Yeller]

If the pope is the “Vicar of Christ” on earth, he must know what he is doing.