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Shocked Liberals Discover Pope Is Actually...Catholic!
Here’s a newsflash for liberals who first swooned over Pope Francis’s U.S. visit, only to be stunned and dismayed by reports that he had met with Kim Davis at the Vatican Embassy before departing Washington on Thursday. Francis’s statements and gestures of inclusiveness for immigrants and the homeless, his exhortations to save the environment and address income inequality, his kisses and blessings to disabled children, and his meeting with Davis are all consistent with his role as head of the Catholic Church.
In other words, to use an old cliché, the Pope is still Catholic.
Too many American progressives have pinned unrealistic hopes on Francis being a breath of fresh air, a new kind of Pope, a man of the people, a liberal, a magician who could not only singlehandedly reform a byzantine institution but miraculously quell the American culture wars with his winsome ways.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard progressives, even ardent secularists, sigh with admiration, “I love that guy.” Which is fine. There are things to love about him. But he is a religious leader of a religious institution whose framework for seeing the world defies contemporary American political categories. He’s not a liberal. He’s not a conservative. He’s a Catholic.
The catechism of the Catholic Church declares “homosexual acts” to be “intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to natural law,” even as it also states that “men and women with deep-seated homosexual tendencies” should be “accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.” Francis’s actions have been consistent with this teaching, on the one hand opposing any change in Catholic doctrine on homosexuality, but on the other according gay people—for instance, Mo Rocca—some basic respect.
Many of Francis’s pronouncements are opaque, but it is hard not to see what he meant when, in his speech to Congress last week, he worried that “fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family.” Sure, there are other issues that concern Catholics about “the very basis of marriage,” like pre- and extra-marital sex and divorce, but same-sex marriage is unquestionably part of that equation, too.
Francis also made pointed comments about religious freedom, the heart of the claim that Davis should be permitted to deny same-sex couples marriage licenses. He paid an unexpected visit to the Little Sisters of the Poor, the order of nuns that has engaged in protracted litigation with the Obama administration over whether signing a form exempting the group from providing contraception coverage violates their religious liberty. Francis also praised the American bishops, who have planted their feet firmly in the culture wars with campaigns to oppose LGBT and reproductive rights in the guise of religious freedom, for “remind[ing] us all. . . to be vigilant. . . to preserve and defend [religious liberty] from everything that would threaten and compromise it.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/liberals-shocked-saddened-that-pope-francis-meets-with-kim-davis
WHAT? Catholic doctrine and teachings are homophobic, misogynistic, and bigoted? REALLY? Wow, that's news!
Does that make all Catholics homophobic, misogynistic bigots? Hardly. But it should make one question why those Catholics who claim to be liberals continue to give time, money, and support to this homophobic, misogynistic, and bigoted organization. Maybe they themselves could answer that question for us. Just don't hold your breath.
23 replies
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Your bias is showing, and it's not pretty.
You have a nice day. I'm done with you.
Go on, feed your last-word compulsion. You know you have to. It will eat you up all day long if you don't.
Go on, show everyone reading your amount of self-control.
I know you won't. Hence your attempt at escape with dignity. "I'm done with you."
You have a nice day, too.
BTW, the vote on the alert you made on my response to you in the other thread was 6-1 to keep it at 2:43 a.m.
Cognitive Dissonance, I guess. How else to explain it?
It makes them angry!
