Learn more about Pope Francis rather than criticize

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JReducation said:
Did anyone see today’s homily at Santa Martha? It’s beautiful. VIS has pieces of hit. The one piece that struck me the most is a point about which we have spoken on different threads. It tells a great deal about him.
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The Bishop of Rome also referenced the First Letter of Peter, which defines the Christian style of preaching; “humility, service, charity, fraternal love. But—‘Lord, we have to conquer the world!’ That word, ‘conquer’, doesn’t belong. We have to preach to the world. The Christian cannot be like the soldiers who, when they win the battle, make a clean sweep of everything. The Christian announces the Gospel by his witness more than by his words, and this goes two ways…: a great spirit is not frightened by great things, of going forward toward unending horizons, and the humility of being aware of the little things.”**

It’s a point well made. There is a tendency in some not to do anything to evangelize and then there is the tendency in others to want to go out there like a soldier in a state of war.
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I think we have to interpret it in light of his previous sayings. It would be to do injustice to think that the Pope is saying the best way to give reasons for someone to convert is by living a good Christian life. That would in a sense put the Pope in contradiction with previous teachings of the Church itself. Rather, it would be more correct to say that witness plays a key part in the evangelizing process. It can open people up to listen to the Church. But then, you or someone else must instruct the person in the faith and answer their doubts and questions. So Pope Francis is not saying by any stretch that best way to convert others is by just doing good works. Good works and good Christian lives help open DIALOGUE. Dialogue is of course, full of words. And Dialogue of course is NECESSARY to convert someone. In that context, witness can be a very vital aspect of the evangelizing process.

About your last comment of being a soldier rather than a messenger, I agree very much that those people can take it too far!
 
I liked this part from Pope Francis’ homily today, the subject is how life is a journey of preparation for Heaven.

“Prepare a place means preparing our ability to enjoy the chance, our chance, to see, to feel, to understand the beauty of what lies ahead, of that homeland towards which we walk,” he remarked."

…He explained that life is a journey of preparation that involves expanding our eyes, minds and hearts. It means “beginning to greet him from afar. This is not alienation: this is the truth, this is allowing Jesus to prepare our hearts, our eyes for the beauty that is so great. It is the path of beauty and ‘the path to the homeland,’” he preached."

ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/Vatican.php?id=7532

I think it’s important to understand this big picture view of life, it keeps things in our lives in perspective.
 
JReducation said:
This is how ecumenism works. He says something to Catholics within earshot of non-Catholics. He’s not going after the non-Catholic directly. It’s a very clear, yet diplomatic style of preaching.

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This is very Jesuit. Here is where I have been harping for weeks. Many people have been objecting to his simplicity, because allegedly it is not appropriate for a pope. I have been harping that this is a Jesuit pope. Here we have a very Jesuit statement and a very Jesuit approach to ecclesiology that needs to be implemented in driven home. Only a Jesuit can do it justice, because only Jesuits fully understand what Ignatius had in mind when he said this. Terms such as “hierarchical and Catholic” do not translate the same Jesuit theology as they do in mainstream theology. Men like Ignatius, Francis, Robert, Alphonse Ligouri and Louie de Montford had a vocabulary all their own, which is very difficult to understand unless one is a student of theirs.

I won’t even dare to try to unpack Ignatian ecclesiology and suggest that others do not try to do so either. Let the Jesuits unpack it for us or other scholars who are experts in Ignatian ecclesiology, which are very few in today’s world, probably under 200. The cardinals themselves will have to go home and read Ignatius and Robert Bellarmine.

He’s being very specific. He’s not being pushy with those who are not Catholic. But he is pushing Catholics to become Christocentric in a very Jesuit way. By bringing up Ignatius’ statement, it forces the hearer to go back to Ignatius and his sons to look at the entire context of that statement. You can’t just take a quote from Ignatius and run with it, unless you know more about the whole. He’s throwing down a challenge to those who are listening, which happen to be Catholics.

This is what I mean by gentle with non-Catholics and rattling Catholics.

This is pure Ignatian ascetical theology. This I know about. Ascetical theology is my area. Ignatius’ times were not very different from our own. There was much going on. Much of it was good, but embedded in the good, there was dissent, heresy, materialism, concupiscence of the flesh, laziness, indifference in matters of morality (especially when money was involved), and governments that had run amuck. There was a spirituality in Spain that was similar to our New Age stuff. There were people who thrived on penances, hardships and other exaggerated forms of asceticism. In reality, they were not looking to do penance, but to feel good about their penance (consolation). Kind of a “look at me, I’m so Catholic,” or “I thank God that I’m not like the rest of men.” Ignatius and Teresa of Avila were very strong opponents to such nonsense spirituality. Theirs was a very practical approach to the spiritual life. “Stick to the Gospel and follow the Church’s lead.”

Here he’s pulling from St. Paul of the Cross. St. Paul stressed the importance of not avoiding the Passion in one’s journey to perfection.
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Has it ever occurred to you, just saying, that you might fall in to confirmation bias? If you try looking at things too hard and try to fit it in to different things, you will see those things.

So I think its good if all of us take a step back and follow actual teaching as a whole than pick and choose what we like.
 
McCall1981 said:
I liked this part from Pope Francis’ homily today, the subject is how life is a journey of preparation for Heaven.

“Prepare a place means preparing our ability to enjoy the chance, our chance, to see, to feel, to understand the beauty of what lies ahead, of that homeland towards which we walk,” he remarked."

…He explained that life is a journey of preparation that involves expanding our eyes, minds and hearts. It means “beginning to greet him from afar. This is not alienation: this is the truth, this is allowing Jesus to prepare our hearts, our eyes for the beauty that is so great. It is the path of beauty and ‘the path to the homeland,’” he preached."

ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/Vatican.php?id=7532

I think it’s important to understand this big picture view of life, it keeps things in our lives in perspective.
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This comes from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. I love it. It’s a very wide angle view of the spiritual journey. All too often we try to snuff the Holy Spirit and look at the spiritual journey according to our limited mind. But Ignatius invites us to let God open our minds and hearts so as to see the breadth and scope of what He has in store for us.
Oneofthewomen said:
Thanks for sharing this Br. Jay. I love it!
Especially this, I can see the smirk on his face as he said this!! 😃
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I loved this line. This man has a great sense of humor and is very simple too. He called the bishop of Argentina or maybe he wrote them. The Argentine Bishop’s Conference is having a big meeting. Cardinal Bergoglio was the president of the Bishops’ Conference. He contacted them to apologize for being unable to attend the gathering, because he was “tied up in other affairs in Rome.” :rotfl:
 
clem456 said:
Thought this was a thoughtful article on Pope Francis:

osv.com/tabid/7621/itemid/10828/Pope-Francis-take-on-the-religious-sense.aspx
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but we now have a whole range of new distractions, from television and the Internet to Facebook and trivial texting. We have become absolute masters of divertissement.**

:compcoff: CAF anyone? 😃
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Cardinal Bergoglio said that the Church was too inward-turned, too preoccupied with its own life.**

I sometimes wonder if our obsession with externals is not part of this syndrome.
 
Fr. Barron reminds us that Pope Francis
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insinuated that the agent of the New Evangelization should be close to his people, especially in day- to-day struggles. To be sure, part of that struggle is for economic and political justice, but no disciple of Msgr. Giussani would forget that a deeper part of the struggle is for meaning, purpose and spiritual beauty. **

I’d like to share something that happened in my life that helps me understand what the Holy Father is saying. Today, two dads to whom we minister and I went to a park in a very poor neighborhood. I had never been there before. I didn’t even know that such a neighborhood existed. I was amazed when we got there. It was 12:00 PM. There were at least 25 to 30 men sitting here and there in the park.

We walked around and chatted with them. They’re all unemployed. All are immigrant poor. Many have children, a few are expecting children and others will soon become fathers, if they don’t change their behaviors or they’ll catch and spread some disease. Needless to say, there is a pressing need for the Gospel of Life there.

These men tend to sit in clusters ranging from 3 to 5. It’s rather interesting. You can feel the isolation. The clusters are always several hundred yards from each other. It was sad to see. I started to choke up. Don’t take that too seriously either. I choke up at commercials during the Super Bowl. Nonetheless, the feeling of isolation was very palpable.

My two dads and I stopped and prayed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy right there in the park. Then we pulled out our pamphlets, cards and other goodies and started to make the rounds. The men were so kind to us; even the ones who did not want to speak to us were very kind.

As I said, I think we approached about 25 or 30 men. Six of them asked where they could go to talk again. Of course, we gave them the address, telephone number and offered to pay for their bus fare if they go to our center. I have no idea where I’m going to get the bus fare money. It just slipped out of my mouth. I figure that the Immaculate will have to come up with it.

One young man said to me, “You need to come at night. The park is full of men whose girlfriends are pregnant and who have several girls.” I pointed out that the park sign said that it closes at 8:00 PM. To which he answered, “Don’t worry. The police don’t come in here at night. They don’t bother us. If you come and you wear your robe, we recognize you and you’ll be ok.”

I felt that I was one of them, one of the voiceless; the untouchables whom even the police won’t bother. It was incredible to see how quickly they understood that we were not there to hurt them. One man said to me, “You’re Franciscan right?” I nodded. He continued, “I know Franciscans from my homeland. Together with Jesuits and Christian Brothers they built a church and a school for the people of my town. All of them, Jesuits, Franciscans and Christian Brothers were good men of God.” It was so incredible that I was on a high all day.

I think this is what Pope Francis means.
 
JReducation said:
Fr. Barron reminds us that Pope Francis
**
insinuated that the agent of the New Evangelization should be close to his people, especially in day- to-day struggles. To be sure, part of that struggle is for economic and political justice, but no disciple of Msgr. Giussani would forget that a deeper part of the struggle is for meaning, purpose and spiritual beauty. **

I’d like to share something that happened in my life that helps me understand what the Holy Father is saying. Today, two dads to whom we minister and I went to a park in a very poor neighborhood. I had never been there before. I didn’t even know that such a neighborhood existed. I was amazed when we got there. It was 12:00 PM. There were at least 25 to 30 men sitting here and there in the park.

We walked around and chatted with them. They’re all unemployed. All are immigrant poor. Many have children, a few are expecting children and others will soon become fathers, if they don’t change their behaviors or they’ll catch and spread some disease. Needless to say, there is a pressing need for the Gospel of Life there.

These men tend to sit in clusters ranging from 3 to 5. It’s rather interesting. You can feel the isolation. The clusters are always several hundred yards from each other. It was sad to see. I started to choke up. Don’t take that too seriously either. I choke up at commercials during the Super Bowl. Nonetheless, the feeling of isolation was very palpable.

My two dads and I stopped and prayed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy right there in the park. Then we pulled out our pamphlets, cards and other goodies and started to make the rounds. The men were so kind to us; even the ones who did not want to speak to us were very kind.

As I said, I think we approached about 25 or 30 men. Six of them asked where they could go to talk again. Of course, we gave them the address, telephone number and offered to pay for their bus fare if they go to our center. I have no idea where I’m going to get the bus fare money. It just slipped out of my mouth. I figure that the Immaculate will have to come up with it.

One young man said to me, “You need to come at night. The park is full of men whose girlfriends are pregnant and who have several girls.” I pointed out that the park sign said that it closes at 8:00 PM. To which he answered, “Don’t worry. The police don’t come in here at night. They don’t bother us. If you come and you wear your robe, we recognize you and you’ll be ok.”

I felt that I was one of them, one of the voiceless; the untouchables whom even the police won’t bother. It was incredible to see how quickly they understood that we were not there to hurt them. One man said to me, “You’re Franciscan right?” I nodded. He continued, “I know Franciscans from my homeland. Together with Jesuits and Christian Brothers they built a church and a school for the people of my town. All of them, Jesuits, Franciscans and Christian Brothers were good men of God.” It was so incredible that I was on a high all day.

I think this is what Pope Francis means.
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Thanks for sharing this 🙂
 
Pascal complained further that most human beings spend their time pursuing divertissements (diversions) in order to distract themselves from the hard and pressing questions that alone give their lives purpose. In his time, that meant gambling, hunting, eating and drinking, pursuing frivolous relationships, etc. In our time, all of those still function as diversions, but we now have a whole range of new distractions, from television and the Internet to Facebook and trivial texting. We have become absolute masters of divertissement.
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One of my favorite diversions goes like this:
I like to read about and discuss the faith. The faith can become a self-centered “hobby”. I may not call it entertainment, but discussing the faith at bible studies, attending meetings, reading, coming to the internet, can all be done for the intellectual stimulation and self-expression, rather than to further the glory of God.

One of the driving forces for this is the satisfaction of my own sense of justice. It can become a full time diversion, trying to right the wrongs of the world.
I have Christian friends, or fellow Catholics, who I “”“know”"" are wrong about something, and they are firm in their beliefs. It’s hard to let that go. The question that comes to mind is, “If I don’t make this error right, who will? If my separated brother is in error, isn’t it my responsibility to correct him?” (charitably of course :rolleyes: 'If I see confusion or contradictory Church teachings, isn’t it on me to demand clarity?" “If I let this go, who is going to make it right?” .

The answer to that question is, God will make it right, in his time according to his will. I am not in charge of justice and it is arrogant for me think so. My job is to do what I can, let it go, and trust. Trying to police the world ruins my peace and unleashes the ugly in me. Policing people’s correctness is not in the scope of my responsibility or expertise, and it distracts me from the vocation that is right in front of me.
 
Another good message from Pope Francis today on the “true Christian virtue of shame”, and the need for confession:

en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/04/29/pope:_shame_is_a_true_christian_virtue/en1-687330

This is a good section: “But, Lord, look … this is how I am”, we are often ashamed to tell the truth: ‘I did this, I thought this’. But shame is a true Christian virtue, and even human … the ability to be ashamed: I do not know if there is a similar saying in Italian, but in our country to those who are never ashamed are called “sin vergüenza’: this means ‘the unashamed ', because they are people who do not have the ability to be ashamed and to be ashamed is a virtue of the humble, of the man and the woman who are humble. "

Pope Francis continued: “ we must have trust, because when we sin we have an advocate with the Father, “Jesus Christ the righteous.” And He “supports us before the Father” and defends us in front of our weaknesses. But you need to stand in front of the Lord “with our truth of sinners”, “with confidence, even with joy, without masquerading… We must never masquerade before God.” And shame is a virtue: “blessed shame.” “This is the virtue that Jesus asks of us: humility and meekness”.

"Humility and meekness are like the frame of a Christian life. A Christian must always be so, humble and meek. And Jesus waits for us to forgive us. We can ask Him a question: Is going to confession like to a torture session? No! It is going to praise God, because I, a sinner , have been saved by Him. And is He waiting for me to beat me? No, with tenderness to forgive me. And if tomorrow I do the same? Go again, and go and go and go … He always waits for us. This tenderness of the Lord, this humility, this meekness … "

This confidence, concluded Pope Francis “gives us room to breathe.” "The Lord give us this grace, the courage to always go to Him with the truth, because the truth is light and not the darkness of half-truths or lies before God. It give us this grace! So be it. "

I really like the bolded where he says going to Confession is going to praise God 👍
 
clem456 said:
One of the driving forces for this is the satisfaction of my own sense of justice. It can become a full time diversion, trying to right the wrongs of the world.
I have Christian friends, or fellow Catholics, who I “”“know”"" are wrong about something, and they are firm in their beliefs. It’s hard to let that go. The question that comes to mind is, “If I don’t make this error right, who will? If my separated brother is in error, isn’t it my responsibility to correct him?”
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There is always that urge, but would your speaking out to your brother actually result in him changing his ways, or would it drive him away from you? There is no point in telling someone that they are wrong if by doing so the result will be counter-productive. People don’t like to be told that what they’re’ doing is wrong and are under no obligation to listen to you or heed what you say. The best form of evangelisation is through showing an example of Christian living through our behaviour and our dealings with our fellow man,
 
McCall1981 said:
Another good message from Pope Francis today on the “true Christian virtue of shame”, and the need for confession:

en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/04/29/pope:_shame_is_a_true_christian_virtue/en1-687330

This is a good section: “But, Lord, look … this is how I am”, we are often ashamed to tell the truth: ‘I did this, I thought this’. But shame is a true Christian virtue, and even human … the ability to be ashamed: I do not know if there is a similar saying in Italian, but in our country to those who are never ashamed are called “sin vergüenza’: this means ‘the unashamed ', because they are people who do not have the ability to be ashamed and to be ashamed is a virtue of the humble, of the man and the woman who are humble. "

Pope Francis continued: “ we must have trust, because when we sin we have an advocate with the Father, “Jesus Christ the righteous.” And He “supports us before the Father” and defends us in front of our weaknesses. But you need to stand in front of the Lord “with our truth of sinners”, “with confidence, even with joy, without masquerading… We must never masquerade before God.” And shame is a virtue: “blessed shame.” “This is the virtue that Jesus asks of us: humility and meekness”.

"Humility and meekness are like the frame of a Christian life. A Christian must always be so, humble and meek. And Jesus waits for us to forgive us. We can ask Him a question: Is going to confession like to a torture session? No! It is going to praise God, because I, a sinner , have been saved by Him. And is He waiting for me to beat me? No, with tenderness to forgive me. And if tomorrow I do the same? Go again, and go and go and go … He always waits for us. This tenderness of the Lord, this humility, this meekness … "

This confidence, concluded Pope Francis “gives us room to breathe.” "The Lord give us this grace, the courage to always go to Him with the truth, because the truth is light and not the darkness of half-truths or lies before God. It give us this grace! So be it. "

I really like the bolded where he says going to Confession is going to praise God 👍
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👍 Here’s my favorite part, and now I understand why there is such a dwindling sense of shame in society:
"But Jesus in the confessional is not a dry cleaner: it is an encounter with Jesus, but with this Jesus who waits for us, who waits for us just as we are. “But, Lord, look … this is how I am”, we are often ashamed to tell the truth: ‘I did this, I thought this’. But shame is a true Christian virtue, and even human … the ability to be ashamed: I do not know if there is a similar saying in Italian, but in our country to those who are never ashamed are called “sin vergüenza’: this means ‘the unashamed ', because they are people who do not have the ability to be ashamed and to be ashamed is a virtue of the humble, of the man and the woman who are humble. "
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Lormar said:
👍 Here’s my favorite part, and now I understand why there is such a dwindling sense of shame in society:
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Yes, I think our culture teaches us to never have shame or guilt, which is very corrupting. Our culture emphasizes a false kind of self-esteem where we are suppossed to feel good about everything we do, but I think it leads people to a kind of manic defensiveness because deep down we know our self-esteem is a facade.

I think that’s why our culture has such as obsession with not “offending” people, and with relativizing the truth. It’s like a defense mechanism to prevents us from really seeing ourselves as we are.
 
McCall1981 said:
Another good message from Pope Francis today on the “true Christian virtue of shame”, and the need for confession:

en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/04/29/pope:_shame_is_a_true_christian_virtue/en1-687330

This is a good section: “But, Lord, look … this is how I am”, we are often ashamed to tell the truth: ‘I did this, I thought this’. But shame is a true Christian virtue, and even human … the ability to be ashamed: I do not know if there is a similar saying in Italian, but in our country to those who are never ashamed are called “sin vergüenza’: this means ‘the unashamed ', because they are people who do not have the ability to be ashamed and to be ashamed is a virtue of the humble, of the man and the woman who are humble. "

Pope Francis continued: “ we must have trust, because when we sin we have an advocate with the Father, “Jesus Christ the righteous.” And He “supports us before the Father” and defends us in front of our weaknesses. But you need to stand in front of the Lord “with our truth of sinners”, “with confidence, even with joy, without masquerading… We must never masquerade before God.” And shame is a virtue: “blessed shame.” “This is the virtue that Jesus asks of us: humility and meekness”.

"Humility and meekness are like the frame of a Christian life. A Christian must always be so, humble and meek. And Jesus waits for us to forgive us. We can ask Him a question: Is going to confession like to a torture session? No! It is going to praise God, because I, a sinner , have been saved by Him. And is He waiting for me to beat me? No, with tenderness to forgive me. And if tomorrow I do the same? Go again, and go and go and go … He always waits for us. This tenderness of the Lord, this humility, this meekness … "

This confidence, concluded Pope Francis “gives us room to breathe.” "The Lord give us this grace, the courage to always go to Him with the truth, because the truth is light and not the darkness of half-truths or lies before God. It give us this grace! So be it. "

I really like the bolded where he says going to Confession is going to praise God 👍
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McCall1981 said:
Yes, I think our culture teaches us to never have shame or guilt, which is very corrupting. Our culture emphasizes a false kind of self-esteem where we are suppossed to feel good about everything we do, but I think it leads people to a kind of manic defensiveness because deep down we know our self-esteem is a facade.

I think that’s why our culture has such as obsession with not “offending” people, and with relativizing the truth. It’s like a defense mechanism to prevents us from really seeing ourselves as we are.
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The Holy Father could have asked me. 😃 Yes we have a similar expression in Italian, “spudorato”.

Getting serious again.

You know how we go round robbin on how the Council Fathers were thinking and how everyone else thinks they were thinking?

This has happened with psychology and mental health as well. There is a neurosis of shame and guilt that is not healthy, because it cripples people and leads them to all kinds of anxiety. This is to be avoided.

People have over generalized the concept, maybe because the words are the same, even though the content is not. Neurotic shame and guilt and moral shame and guilt are not the same. Our modern society uses them interchangeably. I have done a great deal of counseling and therapy in my lifetime. I always find that even among professional therapists, some don’t discriminate between the neurotic and the moral.

Psychology did not create this hybrid, if you will. Society has simply lost it’s language skills. We forget that a word or expression often has more than one meaning. We hold on to the more popular meaning and lose sight of other meanings. This certainly is the case with terms such as “shame” and “guilt” in many westernized nations. I don’t see it as much in Asian cultures. From my experience with Vietnamese Catholic families, those homes still have a sense of moral shame.
 
John Paul 2 has a nice examination of shame in Love and Responsibility. I had always seen the word “shame” in a negative light, but he explains it so well, connecting it to the dignity of the person as always. It’s not inherently a bad thing.
 
Here is an interesting article on the Popes daily homilies. The author points out that Pope Francis has been able to avoid criticisms that his predecessors received while saying much of the same things.
The popularity of Pope Francis is due to a large extent this style of preaching and to the easy, widespread success of the concepts on which he insists the most - mercy, forgiveness, the poor, the “peripheries” - seen reflected in his actions and in his own person.
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It is a popularity that acts as a screen for the other more inconvenient things that he does not neglect to say - for example, his frequent references to the devil - and that if said by others would unleash criticism, while for him they are forgiven.
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On April 12, for example, speaking to the pontifical biblical commission, Pope Francis reiterated that “the interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures cannot be solely an individual scholarly effort, but must always be compared with, inserted within, and authenticated by the living tradition of the Church.” And therefore “this entails the insufficiency of any interpretation that is subjective or simply limited to an analysis incapable of accommodating within itself that overarching sense which over the course of the centuries has constituted the tradition of the whole people of God.”
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This salvo of the pope against the forms of exegesis prevalent also in the Catholic camp went practically unnoticed, amid the general silence of the media.
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On April 19, in his morning homily, he lashed out against the “great ideologists” who want to interpret Jesus in a purely human vein. He called them “intellectuals without talent, ethicists without goodness. And of beauty we will not speak, because they do not understand anything.”
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In this case as well, silence.
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On April 22, in another morning homily, he said forcefully that Jesus is “the only gate” for entering into the Kingdom of God and “all the other paths are deceptive, they are not true, they are false.”
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With this he therefore reiterated that indispensable truth of the Catholic faith which recognizes in Jesus Christ the only savior of all. But when in August of 2000 John Paul II and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger published precisely on this the declaration “Dominus Iesus," they were bitterly contested from inside and outside of the Church. While now that Pope Francis has said the same thing, everybody quiet.
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It may be that if he keeps this practice up for any length of time much of what this pope has to teach us will be in these daily Mass homilies. It is also useful to note that many of the attendees at these Masses are vatican employees who are invited by group for specific days. So much of what he says is for a specific audience.
 
AndyP2010 said:
Here is an interesting article on the Popes daily homilies. The author points out that Pope Francis has been able to avoid criticisms that his predecessors received while saying much of the same things.

It may be that if he keeps this practice up for any length of time much of what this pope has to teach us will be in these daily Mass homilies. It is also useful to note that many of the attendees at these Masses are vatican employees who are invited by group for specific days. So much of what he says is for a specific audience.
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Great article, thanks for posting. Ive noticed this too, Pope Francis has said a lot of things that would get villainized if said by Benedict or John Paul or anyone else for that matter.

In homilies so far he’s “condemned” those who would make the Church an NGO, those who dont go out to evangelize, those who wont accept Vatican II, those who bring ideology into the Gospel, lukewarm Christians, careerist Priests, etc

In the first month of his Papacy he’s had strong words towards schismatic traditionalist calling them foolish and stubborn, and has also renewed the LCWR reform. He routinely talks about the devil, says Jesus can only be found in the Church, talks about the reality of sin, the culture of death, the dangers of secularism and spiritual poverty, the final judgement of Christ, encourages Confession, says shame is a Christian virtue… And this list is off the top of my head.

Also there was the letter from when he was a Cardinal where he said gay marriage and such was a movement of the devil to destroy God’s plan. Can you imagine what the outcry would have been if Benedict had written that?

Im very happy he’s addressed all these things, but its strange how he somehow “gets away with it” in the eyes if the media and others.
 
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