Tag Archive for Pope Francis

Devil May Care? I Think He Does!

May 27, 2015 Moral Action, Obedience No comments

From Jimmy Akin’s latest blog post regarding Pope Francis.  As Jimmy points out, the Zenit news agency’s report that the Holy Father said “Jesus” doesn’t care what kind of Christian one is, was mixed up.  Zenit has corrected the error as of today.  Francis was actually referring to the Devil, who doesn’t care about denomination because he (the Devil, not Francis) seeks to lead astray any Christian. Thanks to Jimmy for this information– the last thing Francis needs these days is a quote taken out of context, mistranslated from Spanish, or otherwise mangled from its true intent. But… wait a

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Overcoming Unbelief

May 10, 2015 Intellectual Formation No comments

I ran across an interesting article this week, entitled “Why Atheists Change Their Minds: 8 Common Factors.” Based on our past discussions and personal experiences, we might have come up with several of these factors. More compelling are the quotes from well-spoken and intelligent atheists who have converted, and why. My personal favorite: C.S. Lewis on reading Chesteron and others and their impact on his faith: “A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.” My only quibble with this post is the reference to Lee Strobel’s The Case For Christ. While

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Looks Like Someone Forgot Repentance…

March 15, 2015 Moral Action 2 comments

On Friday, TIME magazine continued its love affair with our Holy Father with a brief web post entitled “Pope Francis Has Taught the Catholic Church to Thrive Again.” The writer attributes this assertion to three characteristics of Pope Francis’s leadership: he leads with mercy, authentic joy, and humility. As a result, the writer asserts, “Pope Francis has made it cool to be Christian again. His pontificate is allowing the world to rediscover the great contribution of faith to culture and civic society.” This seems to be a popular perspective these days. It also ignores that Jesus led with repentance and told us multiple

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The Enemy of My Enemy

February 21, 2015 Moral Action, Obedience 2 comments

I have certainly not been at all shy about expressing my misgivings over Pope Francis’ pastoral strategy, especially as it is coupled with an apparent shoot-from-the-hip disposition.  However, in no way am I in doubt as to his validity as the Successor of Peter and I certainly do recognize the need to be obedient, even when dissenting on areas where it is permissible to do so.  Furthermore, I would like nothing more than for his pontificate to be a true success that brings about holiness in our world and strengthens the deposit of faith. I must say that I do

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Part of ‘the Problem’:
Five Practical Questions

February 8, 2015 Obedience No comments

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. — 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Not long ago a sudden transition occurred in these pages which, thus far, has gone unremarked. On August 3, Spaniard wrote a brief post asking the question, “Is the Pope Catholic?” — and answering more or less in the

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When Iron Eyes Are Smiling

January 26, 2015 Intellectual Formation, Obedience 2 comments

People of a certain age will remember the iconic 1971 anti-littering commercial featuring Iron Eyes Cody, the Native American who sheds a tear as a passing car throws garbage at his feet.  What most people don’t know is that Iron Eyes was actually 100%, good old-fashioned ethnic Italian.  Born Espera Oscar de Corti in Louisiana to Sicilian immigrant parents, he changed his name and embarked on a long film career playing Native Americans.  He is best remembered, however, for his brief role as the emotional environmentalist. I thought of old Iron Eyes now that our ethnic-Italian Holy Father is by many accounts

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Saint Francis the Imprudent?

January 23, 2015 Moral Action, Obedience 6 comments

The public game of deciphering our Holy Father’s words on various matters, especially when spoken off the cuff, with reporters on an airplane (perhaps the air is a bit too thin??), continues. It’s been widely reported–I first heard it on BBC radio a few mornings ago–that Francis said Catholics didn’t need to “breed like rabbits,” which prompted the left-leaning Brits to wonder hopefully whether he was tilling the soil of Catholic social teaching for a softer stance on contraception.  After having read one full account of his remarks on the plane from Philippines I conclude that no, he isn’t.  Artificial

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Turns Out A Bear Sh**’s In the Woods After All

August 3, 2014 Moral Action, Obedience 3 comments

When I was growing up a frequent and sarcastic answer in the affirmative was based on the titular declaration above– or the even more clever, “is the pope Catholic?”  The latter is a question I’ve heard uttered from both hopeful progressives and wary conservatives about Pope Francis.  Turns out the answer is “yes,” and some folks don’t like it one bit. In a particularly virulent article re-posted on Salon.com back in June, the author stated, among many other nasty complaints, The new… is the same as the old sexist, nun-hating, poverty-perpetuating, pedophile-protecting homophobe, but gosh how the media loves him Subtle.  I decline to link the

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Rolling Stone Crude and Superficial? Who Knew?

January 30, 2014 Featured, Intellectual Formation One comment

From the Catholic World Report: “Vatican spokesman responds to Rolling Stone article’s ‘surprising crudeness’” — I can’t quite bring myself to read the entire Rolling Stone piece yet, but from this, it sounds like the pope emeritus might have caught the brunt of it. He deserves better, but I had another thought: When Pope Francis was named TIME’s Person of the Year, supposedly someone at the Vatican said they weren’t sure how much of an honor it was, considering some of the others who had been recognized that way. Have they ever seen the cover of Rolling Stone? Crude and

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Are Sound-Bites Enough For Superficial Catholics?

January 20, 2014 Featured, Obedience No comments

I can’t quite remember how I ran across the article  “What do liberal Catholics want?” last week, but I’ve been stewing on it ever since. The gist is this: The columnist has been saying that while Pope Francis has said some things that could be interpreted as a softening of the Catholic Church’s stand on certain teachings, actual changes to church doctrine are likely to fall short of the desires of more liberal Catholics. Then a self-proclaimed progressive Catholic called in to a radio show he was on to say, basically, that the pope’s words are all she needs, because

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