Why Pope Francis Makes Me Uncomfortable

Gary Zimak - Pope Francis

\"Gary

Pope Francis makes me uncomfortable.

There…I said it! Somehow I think that I\’m not the only one who feels this way. Every time the Holy Father speaks or gives an interview, I get a little more uncomfortable. And, if I could be totally honest, I don\’t like the feeling. In order to clarify my position, let me explain a few things. I love Jesus, I love my Blessed Mother and I love everything about the Catholic Church. Being a member of the Church founded by Jesus is a great blessing and privilege. So what is it about Pope Francis that makes me uncomfortable?

For one thing, he\’s constantly reminding me that I need to care about the poor. That\’s a \”no brainer\”. Of course I care about the poor, unless I\’m focused on my own financial struggles. When that happens, I have no problem throwing away the mail from the missions asking me to help feed the starving. And I pray for the poor, unless I have too many of my own intentions and somehow forget about them. Oh well, what are you gonna do? Nobody\’s perfect. I just wish that he wouldn\’t speak about the poor so much because it makes me feel guilty. Then there\’s the fact that he\’s constantly reaching out to \”those people\” who I\’d like to forget. You know, the ones who don\’t understand what it really means to be Catholic. Can\’t we just leave them alone. We all know that they\’re never going to \”get it\”. It\’s a lot more peaceful when we just reach out to our fellow believers. If someone doesn\’t appreciate what it means to be Catholic, why should I waste time coming up with creative ways to meet them where they are? That\’s why it annoys me when the Holy Father keeps doing things like that. Shouldn\’t he just be excommunicating those Catholics who make a mockery of the Faith? It worked for the Pharisees, didn\’t it? Instead, Pope Francis is making me feel that I should learn to bite my lip and devise creative ways to bring Jesus (and the fullness of truth in His Catholic Church) to everyone. I don\’t know about you, but it seems like a lot of work to me. Plus, it forces me to leave my \”comfort zone\”, which is something that I don\’t enjoy.

Come to think of it, there\’s someone else who makes me uncomfortable.

He often tells stories that make me squirm and feel unsettled. He reminds me that I\’m not as good as I think I am and that I have an obligation to reach out to those I find annoying and arrogant. When I would rather tell them to \”get lost\”, I\’m reminded of the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7) and how that one lost sheep (out of one hundred) really does make a difference. When I try to rationalize that \”some people just don\’t want to listen\”, I think about the woman who rejoiced in finding a single lost coin (Luke 15:8-10). Unlike me, she wasn\’t tempted to say, \”What\’s the big deal? I have nine other coins!\”. And then there\’s that parable about the son who squandered his inheritance and came back to his father, repenting of his sins (Luke 15:11-32). I often identify with the elder brother who was angry that the father welcomed the prodigal son with open arms. After all, don\’t I have a right to be angry? I love my Catholic Faith and I love Jesus, but some of \”those people who don\’t get it\” are making a mockery of Jesus and His Church. Hey, I go to Mass and receive the Sacraments. If they don\’t want to play by the rules they shouldn\’t be Catholic. Why should I care about them?

You know why I should care?

Because Jesus cares about them and until every lost soul is reunited with Him, His Sacred Heart aches. So instead of arguing about the definition of the word \”proselytize\” and compiling a list of \”modernist\” popes, I\’m so uncomfortable that I feel compelled to come up with ways to reach out to those who may not \”get it\”. Not only was I one of those people who don\’t get it, but in many ways I still am. How many times have I read Jesus\’ command to love my enemies, but have chosen to ignore them? Heck, I don\’t even succeed at loving those who annoy me, let alone my enemies! Wouldn\’t I rather listen to the Holy Father\’s comments and feel good about what a great job I\’m doing living my Catholic Faith? You better believe I would, but if I\’m not living up to Jesus\’ expectations, I\’d rather find out about it now before it\’s too late to correct my behavior!

Yes, Pope Francis makes me uncomfortable and so does Jesus. They make me realize just how complacent I\’ve become and how little I care about those in need. You know what? I\’m thankful that their words make me squirm, because that motivates me to get off my lazy rear end and start doing what I\’m called to do as a Catholic – to show Christ\’s love to everyone. That involves going out of my way to love them as Jesus would love them. It may involve sharing my possessions or it may involve sharing my time or knowledge of the Faith. And it may even involve coming up with ways to present the fullness of Catholic truth in a non-threatening way, so that others may come to know and love Jesus as much as I do.

Sometimes, being uncomfortable is a blessing, and I thank God that Pope Francis makes me uncomfortable.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest

44 thoughts on “Why Pope Francis Makes Me Uncomfortable”

  1. Pingback: Here's a good piece on the Right Wing War on Pope Francis - Stumbling Toward Heaven

  2. Pingback: Pope Francis’ 10 years on the… – Catholic Mass Online Search

  3. I have read “Revelations” and am currently studying the Prophecies. My understanding is that if you are truly representing the body of Christ, then one of such “high stature” has a responsibility to follow the word of Christ, and the Laws of the Ten Commandments. I don’t trust that Pope Francis is of the body of Christ, and I know that the Bible says to compare everything, and everyone to the scriptures. He does not match up with the teachings of all Ten Commandments. Keep your eyes open. Watch and listen.

  4. Well Cardinal Burke is on a mission to Excommunicate all that will dare to speak against his policies..Notice I said his perceived Policies…Jesus spoke in simple words so all could understand in their own languages. The Mass and it’s exact wording’s is not exact because it was created by Man. Pope Francis is correct get rid of Latin keep all words in the meaning of Parishioners country. So all can question and grow to understand..Probem is Roman Catholics are trained not to Question and IE they dont grow…

    1. Wow, Buddy, in 55 years as a Catholic no one ever told me that Jesus deliberately spoke “so all could understand in their own languages.” What’s that all about? Was Jesus speaking in tongues?

      Maybe you are confused with Pentecost, those were the Apostles speaking, not really by their own volition, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, according to you, I suppose the Holy Spirit can have anyone understand any language, except Latin.

      The Pope, yet another revelation from you, is “getting rid” of Latin? So for centuries, and centuries, all those dumb, stupid people could not understand the Mass? You aren’t familiar with the new liturgical idea that using the language of “one country” is actually nationalistic and xenophobic? In other words, the Church has ONE universal language, Latin. The Mass is said in Latin every single day. I wonder how those poor morons attending can figure out the Mass?

      Since the switch to the vernacular, instead of unity we have your typical Suburban parish thus: 8 am Filipino Mass, 10 am Novus Ordo (English), noon Spanish Mass with Mariachi band, 3 pm Teen Rock Mass, 5 pm quiet Mass (for the old people who can’t take any of the above any more), and such.

      These groups also tend to keep away from each other, socialize together and have separate parish functions. Yep, thank goodness teh Pope is “getting rid” of Latin.

      Of course, I know you are not making these sweeping judgments unless YOU have attended a Traditional Latin Mass!?!?

  5. I have been remiss in my duties as a Christian. Guilty as charged. To all who say that Pope Francis is ambiguous, just read the Gospel and see how Jesus taught in parables so that those with hardness in their hearts wont get it but those who are open to the truth will. The Pope is just echoing the Lord.

  6. Pope Francis says to the homosexual, “who am I to judge” Jesus says to the woman caught in sexual sin, Go, and sin no more. Jesus’ message was a message of repentance, “Go, and sin no more,” This Pope also believes Jews are fine without conversion. Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one can come to the Father, except through me. Jesus founded the Catholic Church, thus Traditional Catholic teaching, Outside of the Church, there is no salvation. He is what he looks and sounds like, a modernist heretic. You are in mortal sin for defending him. Not one Jew at present can be eternally saved without a personal conversion to the faith of Christ.

  7. Pingback: At Pope Francis’ Weekly Audience, The Faithful Are Remind That “Christ Jesus Himself Is The Corner Stone” | Peace and Freedom

  8. Although I think Maggie Sullivan is misunderstanding Pope Francis’ words, I can relate to her discomfort. Frankly, I don’t know if it’s a matter of translation, or of malicious twisting by the press, but messages from Pope Francis are often ambiguous sounding. I think the Pope is “too chatty”. That is always dangerous. I much prefer Pope Benedict’s prudence. Catholics and all men and women of good will do need to hear the voice of him who sits in the throne of Peter, but it is a good thing to be ever aware that enemies of the Truth are constantly on the alert to pounce on and trample It. In our era of instant “communication”, the need for prudence grows exponentially to the growth of technology. As for the tongue-in-cheek blog on the discomfort that Pope Francis provokes, I don’t know if I agree. Pope Francis is not saying anything new about the “poor”, or about anything I am supposed to know and believe as a Christian. The discomfort that I am hearing about (such as Maggie Sullivan’s) and that I sometimes feel has nothing to do with Catholic teaching/Christian truths and everything to do with Pope Francis’ chattiness and frequent ambiguity of meaning. Even his “humility” stances sound ambiguous. In choosing a simpler living space, is there an implication that his predecesors were not simple/humble enough? I have no doubt that he does not believe that nor meant to suggest it, but such is the trouble with chattiness. If this pope believes it is necessary to communicate with all and assunder very frequently, perhaps it would be a good idea for him to dedicate equal time to “clarifying” what he meant to say every time his chattiness provokes discomfort. He can do that by “tweeting” the faithful, perhaps…

    1. Pope Benedict was so wonderful in his precision in Light of the World. And the press still boiled a 200-page book down to one word: condoms. The fact that Benedict was talking about how conversion happens step by step by step was lost on most people.

      In choosing a simpler living space, is there an implication that his predecesors were not simple/humble enough?

      No. But that’s what a lot of the chattering classes would like you to think. Moreover, Pope Francis also reaffirmed what Benedict was saying when mentioning “the peripheries of human existence”– namely that poverty is spiritual, not just material. This is nothing short of what the Church has always taught about the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. And I’m sure most people missed that, too. Whatever satisfaction or moral superiority they might feel in pitting Benedict against Francis, and squawking about the Church’s “gold,” they wouldn’t like what Francis has said, both as Pope and as Cardinal Bergoglio, about people who turn the poor into an ideological talking point, and about rampant consumerism, either. The Pope has constantly said that those who cannot appreciate beauty are like Judas; they don’t know how to love. As Cardinal Bergoglio he said that most people spend their money on cosmetics and pets; the poor are an afterthought.

      Moreover, I am not going to take seriously lectures on the Church and the poor from someone who hasn’t sufficient self-reflection about how much “stuff” they self-centeredly consume. I am also not going to take seriously lectures on love, sex, and marriage from a culture that’s an abject failure at all of the above.

      Francis is simply not the liturgist that Benedict was, and whoever occupies the chair of Peter, regardless of talents and weakness in whatever areas, the Lord will use. We can’t control what people think and how they think about the Church. But we can provide answers when people ask questions– I have, for example, agnostic friends who respect Pope Benedict and the Church’s liturgy (and the Eucharist), simply because (or so they say, anyway) I did my best to explain things in a way that was helpful.

    2. That is precisely why he might want to speak less…. Knowing that the Press is inimical to the Truth should serve to reign in the tongue! As for making such a fuss about humble poverty and solidarity with the poor by taking the subway in Argentina, by choosing a different habitation within the Vatican, etc., I still believe that without a proper clarification, it is reasonable to assume a criticism of those who did not do as he does. If the poverty Pope Francis is referring to is spiritual, then, why not use the regular papal apartments? Spiritual poverty can be lived out in the midst of great luxury! Many of our saintly popes have done that trhoughout the centuries. I respectfully disagree with you, not in terms of whether Pope Francis is a modernist, or heretical, or a Vatican II liberal,, because I fail to see any evidence of that. But, I don’t think the discomfort some faithful Catholics feel is simply a result of malicious press reporting. There have been and are and will be great Jesuits, but it is no less true that Jesuits can be…strange…and I think some of pope’s communication problems flow from his “jesuitism”. We’ll see how things unfold….After all, Pope Francis just arrived, and he arrived following the resignation of another pope, a jaw-dropping event, to put it mildly! I think most Catholics are still reeling and trying to digest what has happened. In any event, thanks be to God that the Consoler is here to stay and lead the faithful no matter what!

    3. “I much prefer Pope Benedict’s prudence.”

      Really! His words have given rise to riots and demostrations around the world…. The fact that they were carefully prepared texts rather than off the cuff remarks made them even worse.

      “In choosing a simpler living space, is there an implication that his predecesors were not simple/humble enough?”

      Unequivocally, yes! Following his resignation, Pope Benedict announced he was leaving as a simple pilgrim to start his final journey on earth – and then he took a helicopter to fly 15 miles away to Castel Gandolfo!! To wait it out there until his new apartments were renovated….As a Catholic, it made me cringe.
      So no, I dont think Pope Francis needs to clarify his remarks. He spoke very simply, as Jesus did many years ago. You dont need to be a theologian to understand what this Pope says!

  9. http://prolifecorner.com/rockford-pro-life-votes-to-donate-millions-of-dollars-to-catholic-relief-services/

    With respect, I think you are wrong and the words of Pope Francis back this up.
    The Pope said about homosexuals that “who am I to judge” then the Pope calls the cardinals in the Vatican a “leprosy” on the Church. That is not love that is telling homosexuals to go and sin some more and the Cardinals that they are less than human.
    We have to tell the truth and the truth is Pope Francis is the earthly head of the Church. We owe him our obedience but obedience does not mean silence when he is harming lives and souls.
    Francis said, and this is a direct quote: “Sin, even for those who have no faith, is when one goes against their conscience,” he added. “To listen and to obey to (one’s conscience) means to decide oneself in relation to what’s perceived as good and evil. And this decision is fundamental to determining the good or evil of our actions.”
    According to this statement every abortionist and every child molester in the world can decide for themselves what is good and evil.

    1. The Pope also gave context to his remarks on homosexuals by citing what the Catechism teaches. He also said those things within the context of homosexuals who had turned from sin and embraced Christ– indeed, who is Pope Francis or any of us to judge where that soul ends up? Pope Francis talked about their salvation, reminding them that it’s theirs if they want it. The Catechism is clear enough regarding homosexual acts (by the way, what is often missing from our discussions on homosexuality is that the Church’s prohibition on homosexual acts applies also to heterosexuals– it’s not as though the Church’s “no” is sexual acts between two people of the same sex for the same-sex attracted and fornication, contraception, and adultery for heterosexuals). He’s not shilly-shallying on Church teaching here; he simply knows that they’re not an end in themselves.

      I think he may also be switching gears not in doctrine but approach because he knows that the larger culture’s assumptions already ill-dispose people to hearing Christ’s message, and he knows that there are already a dozen and one cultural, spiritual, philosophical, and semantic filters that that culture has put in place, so he’s going to hit all of that fragmentation full on with the Word Made Flesh. The point here is that he knows that an encounter with Christ attracts people, and the orthodoxy will come the more they want to get to know Him. It won’t come all at once, but it will come. And not everyone is at the same place on the road to conversion. Understanding unfolds through that encounter, as we ourselves know. We don’t first decide to make the Sign of the Cross because we understand all there is to know about it before we decide to commit. We don’t research another person to death before we decide to love them or even just to say “hi.” We first learned to say the “Hail Mary” and the “Our Father” when we were kids, and we continue to unpack those theologically fully loaded prayers throughout our lives.

      I didn’t understand all of the “hard teachings” when first coming back to the Church, either. But when I did come back, I was first apprehensive and then absolutely floored and wowed by how beautiful it all was. But that didn’t happen only because I read a whole lot, but because I was receiving the Sacraments again and praying while I studied. In other words, I was engaging God as I studied, and I let Him engage– and question– me. I also prayed persistently for answers, learning that “Lord, I don’t get it; please help!” was a perfectly good prayer. Moreover, it took me a very long struggle to be grateful for what I was not only embracing, but was embracing me. Because I was really angry: angry at the larger culture and angry at ill-catechized Catholics leaning “liberal” and “conservative” for misrepresenting (though not on purpose) what the Church teaches, either through excessive complacency or through excessive rigidity.

      If someone who is gay or is fornicating comes to us for help, are we going to show them that whether or not they’re Catholic, authentic Catholic orthodoxy is their first line of defense and the Catholic Church will go to bat for them (and that she extends a standing invitation to them find out when they’re ready), or are we going to legalistically prate on about how we love them but not their sins? Are we going to tell them that the Church offers them a viable alternative and that she stands with them in a culture that mercilessly taunts people that they are “unloved” if they aren’t in a romantic relationship?

      To realize that there’s a time and a place for everything and to know when it is or is not that time is not to say that these things don’t matter. It’s only to have faith and hope that the “hard stuff” will come in time, knowing that “meeting people where they are” is highly contingent on knowing where you want to point them. It’s to gently but firmly keep pointing to the beautiful person God wants them to be; to coax that person out– both to give them a clear choice and also a fighting chance instead of pushing them off the nearest cliff. I think what Pope Francis is getting at is knowing where to back off without backing down, and without dumbing anything down.

      “To listen and to obey to (one’s conscience) means to decide oneself in
      relation to what’s perceived as good and evil. And this decision is
      fundamental to determining the good or evil of our actions.”

      And Francis has also supported Benedict XVI’s condemnation of the “dictatorship of relativism”; this much should be clear from a cursory reading of “Lumen Fidei.” What are we laypeople, especially those of us who are well catechized, doing to keep asking the question in charity and in truth– “yes, but what is anyone’s conscience formed BY?” …or is this going to be yet another instance of “let Father do it”? Why has any Pope preaching “dictatorship of relativism” over and over and over (which even Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict didn’t do– clear enough to anyone who’s read enough Ratzinger) become a kind of security blanket instead of a gift that we’re meant to unwrap and to share?

    2. You may say you can do nothing to stop 40,000 people a day from dying of hunger. Yet we bring 50,000 people a day into our world to begin a new life.

      And this you call love. This you call God’s plan. It is a plan totally lacking in logic or reason, to say nothing of compassion.

      Do not those children dying of starvation have “rights” too?

    3. Jay, maybe we should just sterilize all the adults and kill all the babies and then poverty would be eradicated? And yet, curing poverty by ending procreation or eliminating the poor isn’t actually a solution. What are the causes of poverty? Corrupt governments, war, sin. Not babies. Take a look if you truly care:

      http://www.overpopulationisamyth.com/content/episode-4-poverty-where-we-all-started

      And listen to what one African woman thinks of your plans to “help” her people:

      http://littlecatholicbubble.blogspot.com/2012/08/an-african-womans-open-letter-to.html

      As you can see, her people love babies and children and life to the depths of their souls. Would that we westerners could love humanity and God as much as they do. We could learn a lot from them.

    4. Love is unconditional.

      If an equation comes into play, it is conditional love. That’s for pagans.

    5. Jay, God bless you, we need your passion working to help the hungry around the world.
      Your right, instead of looking at any child in the womb or any hungry child as a burden we need to love and help them doing all we can to give life to all in need.

    6. Even if it means giving help to my neighbor on a personal level, if it means I will go hungry so my neighbor’s child can live?

      Or do you mean the mathematics of nations, where the United Nations declares that country A ought to allocate to country B, and if not, well it is best that infants in country B die?

      This teaching of yours, it is new and different, and something I have never heard from the United Nations!

  10. If its wrong to obsess about abortion, is it wrong to obsess about the poor?
    My point being, if we take Francis’s words literally, this article misses the point.
    We are to care about abortion as the unborn are the poorest of the poor. But not because thy are the poorest of the poor, but because we love Christ.

  11. Pingback: My Immaculate Heart will Triumph Victory at Lepanto - BigPulpit.com

  12. Thank you, Gary, for this well-timed article. Pope Francis does make me uncomfortable, just as Jesus did for his followers yesterday, does today, and will do tomorrow. Our Holy Father, called to be pope by the working of the Holy Spirit, is challenging Catholics and all Christians to examine how they are living out the faith in a world that so badly needs to experience authentic love and mercy. As Matthew Kelly of Dynamic Catholic says, holiness is attractive. If we are not attracting others to the Church, perhaps we can learn new and better ways to nurture holiness in ourselves and, ultimately, in others.

    1. Pope Francis makes me uncomfortable too, but more because I’m afraid of what he might say, and how it will be interrupted.

  13. He makes me uncomfortable because when he mocked pro-lifers by saying they should stop being obssesed with abortion his words will give political cover to pro-abortion catholics for decades to come to excuse voting to kill babies.
    Murdered babies make me uncomfortable.
    By the way i have been going to Sunday Mass for 35 years and I will be donationg one million dollars to charity for every homily i have heard about contraception and homosexaulity………………sadly it won’t cost me a cent.

    1. Maggie, Sounds like you have some personal issues you need to work out. FYI, Pope Benedict said a similar statement: “I remember, when I used go to Germany in the 1980s and ’90s, that I was asked to give interviews and I always knew the questions in advance. THEY CONCERNED THE ORDINATION OF WOMEN, CONTRACEPTION, ABORTION, AND OTHER SUCH CONSTANTLY RECURRING PROBLEMS. IF WE LET OURSELVES BE DRAWN INTO THESE DISCUSSIONS, THE CHURCH IS IDENTIFIED WITH CERTAIN COMMANDMENTS OR PROHIBITIONS; WE GIVE THE IMPRESSION THAT WE ARE MORALISTS WITH A FEW SOMEWHAT ANTIQUATED CONVICTIONS, AND NOT EVEN A HINT OF THE TRUE GREATNESS OF THE FAITH APPEARS. I therefore consider it essential always to highlight the greatness of our faith – a commitment from which we must not allow such situations to divert us.”

    2. Hi guest, (who ever you are) the fact remains the same the statment by the Pope is great, perfect cover for Catholic politicians who want to vote to kill babies – and they will use his quote to vote to kill babies.

      And you gotta love his comments about consecience;
      “Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight the evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.”

      Jeffrey Dahmer and Heinrich Himmler following their ideas of good and evil will make the world a better place.
      You can make all the excuses for Francis you want and tell us what he “really means” but I take him at his word and in a world of moral confusion his words are music to the ears of those who want the moral teachings of the church to have no effect on souls.

    3. Maggie, Abortion is never right. And I don’t think any person on earth thinks that the Catholic Church thinks that it is. But it isn’t enough to be anti-abortion, we have to be pro-life, and not just pro-life for the unborn but pro-life for everyone! That means loving that mom with the noisy kid in church, telling the teenager how glad we are to see them at mass, it means loving our lives enough to have people ask what our secret is. Hating abortion isn’t enough. WE ALL HAVE TO LOVE LIFE THROUGH JESUS! Sometimes our Pope confuses me too, but I know that he is right when he says the world needs the radical love of Jesus.

      So I personally resolve to more joyful, to love my kids more, to love my husband more, and to look around me harder. Maybe God can use me in my brokenness to help someone else.

    4. Abortion is the murder of an innocent child. The Pope has said we should not be to concernd with this….and liberal Catholics will use this support and vote for more murdered babies.
      Your children and husband have been given the gift of life thank God…….I just wish Francis took responsibility for his attack on pro-ifers who are just trying to save babies.

    5. Maggie, you need to go back an re-read the pope’s words. He did not say that we should not be concerned about abortion. He said we need balance. That means that we need to spend as much time and energy talking about the love and mercy of Jesus Christ as we do about the evils of abortion. Not either-or. Both-and.

    6. David, my friend, may i suggest that read his words as well. They are music to the ears of abotion supporting people everywhere.
      NARAL sent francis a thank you and obama said he is “hugly impressed” by the Popes’s slap down of pro-lifers.
      We need balance…..David can you explain to me how we can balance the nearly 55 million babies that have been murdered in america alone?

    7. I didn’t know about the NARAL thank you note. I did hear about Obama’s praise of Pope Francis, and it made me cringe inside. I feel the Church has been scandalized by pro-choice , pro-gay politicians for decades; people like Pelosi whose message is not just one of love of mercy — but she seems to actually applaud and celebrate these behaviors. It was St. Paul who says in Corinthians (I think), “Who am I to judge those OUTSIDE the Church?” and then goes on to smack down some of his fellow church brethren at Corinthians. So what we see here is St. Francis reaching out to NON-Christians in the way that Christ would, and then we see Cardinal Burke very publicly exclude Pelosi (the Catholic) from communion.

    8. Maggie, you are on the right track, the Pope is sowing moral confusion, making happy the Church’s enemies and grieving the spirits of the Faithful. Also the Pope is grieving Mother Mary, and the Holy Spirit. He is a modernist, his Papacy will have to be endured. Just remember, if we stick with the Traditional Faith we will not go wrong, we are like Protestants now, The Enemy occupies the Papacy, it has happened before, we must still to the Old Paths which our forefathers walked by and did not fail.

    9. Yours is misinterpretation or a very narrow interpretation of what Pope Francis is saying. There’s nothing in his exhortation says he is pro-abortion. What he’s saying is it cannot be the only issue for Catholics to be thinking about. There’s a host of other important issues that Catholics should focus on, i.e. Poverty, injustice, hunger, etc. that are the other leading evils in the world for a long time now.

    10. Well, Nancy Pelosi was publicly barred from communion by Cardinal Burke, the top legal eagle at the Vatican. I understand your frustration. It’s kinda like, “What’s he gonna say next?” I hope he writes an encyclical soon to clear up some of the confusion.

    11. He (co)wrote a wonderful encyclical, which people (and the press) tend to ignore. Lumen Fidei mentions “truth” and “true” over 100 times, and that does not count the words “real” and “reality”. That encyclical is very clear, and it’s excellent. No confusion in it at all.

    12. Pope Francis has now allowed me to ditch the Catholic Church and do whatever I want as long as what I do aligns with secular liberal dogma.

    1. It may say that in Epeshians but it sure does not say that in Ephesians, Ernest! 🙂

  14. Great article Gary! When I first read the title, I thought…”Hmm…..a negative commentary on the Pope?” haha! I really like the comparison between the Holy Father and Christ (because, that’s as it should be), but it’s true that they both do pull us out of comfort zones. It also reminds me of something someone once said – “If it’s easy for you to be a Christian, you probably aren’t doing it right!”

  15. Every word Pope Francis utters has a Catholic meaning. However some words are possible to be twisted by media and enemies.Without going into detailed meaning of the word “proseletize”,I would like to say that Christ and the Church want the faithful to spread the word of God. Tbe purpose of it is to gain the hearts of more people to the ways taught by Christ. Though our idea is not gain any pride in numbers,it is the natural outcome. We need not be apologetic about it.

  16. Great article. Good reminder to stop and think, why is this circumstance making me uncomfortable? Instead of ignoring that feeling we should do something about it.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.