Liberal Love and Tolerance Come to the Vatican

[Geee]

American Thinker

Well, the ailing Pope Francis has struck again. This time, the 86-year-old pontiff decided to remove the man he described as “his enemy,” the conservative gadfly Cardinal Raymond Burke. To this end, he canceled the Cardinal’s Vatican stipend (said to be around 5,000 euros per month) and, worse, forced him to give up his 4,400-square-foot Vatican apartment.

Although this is technically within the Pope’s prerogative as an absolute monarch, this action is almost without precedent within living memory—that is, that a Pope removes the financial support of a cardinal merely for his criticism of the Pope. During the papacies of both St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict, there were critics aplenty within the Vatican and even among the ranks of the cardinals, but none was “punished” in so flamboyant and humiliating a fashion as Cardinal Burke.

In other words, liberal love and tolerance have come to the Vatican. The point, as always, is both to squelch dissent and threaten potential opponents: toe the party line and repeat “the narrative,” or you could be next.

This is merely the final triumph of the “National Catholic Reporter” wing of the Catholic Church that has been in ascendence since the election of Pope Francis in 2013. Such “progressive” Catholics push for everything Catholics have been told for generations is contrary to God’s will—the ordination of women priests, acceptance of gay marriage and remarriage of divorced Catholics, artificial birth control and, at least among the more honest, the Church changing its teaching that abortion is the killing of an innocent human life.

[Valin]

2 hours ago, Geee said:

American Thinker

Well, the ailing Pope Francis has struck again. This time, the 86-year-old pontiff decided to remove the man he described as “his enemy,” the conservative gadfly Cardinal Raymond Burke. To this end, he canceled the Cardinal’s Vatican stipend (said to be around 5,000 euros per month) and, worse, forced him to give up his 4,400-square-foot Vatican apartment.

But now that the pope is an unabashed “progressive,” they’ve flipped 180 degrees and are thrilled with every new papal encyclical denouncing the supposed threat of climate change. Some, like the editors of the Jesuit Magazine America, pretend that Pope Francis is neither a liberal nor a conservative but simply the pope, guiding the Catholic Church amidst the ideological storms threatening to tear the world apart.

There is some truth to this. Pope Francis himself has spoken strongly against abortion and women priests, and no one expects him to contradict long-established Catholic doctrines.

The criticism among conservatives, however, is that Pope Francis is naïve, a willing pawn in the same cultural war being waged surreptitiously by progressive activists in secular society. While Pope Francis himself may not act to overturn long-established doctrine and practice, he is actively promoting those who want to do just that.

His overt encouragement of gay rights activists within the Church—such as his fellow Jesuit Fr. James Martin—is seen by some as laying the groundwork, at least, for future change. Only time will tell if Pope Francis’s recent attempts to squelch conservative criticism will end up uniting Catholics or, more likely, cause the very disunity and resentment he claims to oppose.

It Will be interesting Who The Holy Spirit  chooses to be the next Pope.

[Geee]

2 hours ago, Valin said:

It Will be interesting Who The Holy Spirit  chooses to be the next Pope.

God please forgive me for saying that it can't come soon enough.