Pope Francis - Papal Train Wreck

In a recent post, I argued that Pope Francis was effectively ignoring both the rights of Westerners to determine the fates of their respective nations and - even worse, the symbiotic relationship that allowed Western Culture and the Western Church (including Protestantism) to develop in the manner that they did.

I made the following remark in the post linked below:

I am beginning to come to the belief that Pope Francis has all the makings of a train wreck; not the old-fashioned type mind you, but one that involves high-speed trains.http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2013/09/pope-francis-bringing-church-western.html

Today, a contributor sent me a link to an article that covered yet another interview with Pope Motor-Mouth, and this time His Holiness, inexplicably, outdid himself.

To sum up Francis' comments, he used the term "conscience" in the modern secular sense. This aberration leaves out any admission that feelings that truly that arise from one's conscience are a direct result on the Natural Law and thus cannot go against God's will. He also made the following remark concerning the making of any effort to bring someone to Christianity  - "Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense".
He also made what I assert is a plainly sinful claim that the greatest problems in the world today are "youth unemployment and the loneliness of the old." Euthanasia, abortion, the destruction of the family, mass sexual crimes against innocents, murders, and war were left out of the Pope's top two.

The Pope's idea of Christian love is one that can safely ignore the responsibility of the believer to act as a representative of the Faith, be it primarily by word or action.

Jesus clearly loved the woman caught in adultery, but he also directed her to "go and sin no more". No Gospel, epistle, or any great Christian writer would give the impression that love without instruction and correction is sufficient in any way.

God have mercy on us - the man who sits on the chair of Peter seems to be little more than a moral relativist who has a very low appreciation of  true evil and the core message of the Gospel - sin, redemption, and a call to personal holiness.

Here before is is proof positive that Catholics are not bound by declarations of the Pope that do not concern definitive statements on faith and morals. Pope Francis is speaking as a private theologian in this case, and very badly so. He statements may and should be dismissed, but I fear that too many of the faithful of today do not have the understanding of what should be accepted when the Pope speaks and what should not.

As a devout Catholic, I find that it is a sad day when I have to acknowledge that the Southern Baptists are thinking far more rightly than is a leader of the Church.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/pope-francis-stirs-debate-yet-again-with-interview-with-an-atheist-italian-journalist/2013/10/01/9e7a6790-2acb-11e3-97a3-ff2758228523_print.html

"....A top official with the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, took the unprecedented step of rebuking Francis, writing that the pope’s interview was “a theological wreck” and that Francis was dabbling dangerously in relativism.

“What these interviews seem continually to do is what evangelical theologian Carl Henry warned Protestants of in the 20th century, of severing the love of God from the holiness of God,” wrote the Rev. Russell Moore, a past dean of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and head of the convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. “We must speak with tenderness and gentleness, but with an authoritative word from God.”....."

When word broke that a Jesuit had been appointed Pope, I had grave concerns. The Jesuits of today are as foreign to the society that was founded by Ignatius of Loyola as animists are to Jews. Friends and colleagues were quick to assure me that this particular Jesuit was one of the few good guys in the Society of Jesus and that things would turn out fine. While noting that God certainly saw this tragedy long before we did and that nothing done here can stop His plan, I still maintain that I do not have to take this lying down. We are not predictors of the future, and we are not allowed to do nothing while God works. If your child has an illness, you do everything in your power to assist him in recovering. One of our primary jobs is to do what we can to oppose wrongdoing, and I will continue to speak the truth and publicly note when Church leaders do and say wrong.  

The full interview can be read here:

http://www.repubblica.it/cultura/2013/10/01/news/pope_s_conversation_with_scalfari_english-67643118/