When Steve Skojec heard that Jorge Mario Bergoglio had been elected pope, he got a queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He can’t say why, exactly — though he follows Vatican politics closely, he didn’t know much about Francis then. But as he watched the new Catholic leader greet the crowds on his office television in Manassas, Va., he was filled with dread.
“I felt a discontinuity,” he said. “A disruption.”
At first, he didn’t want to make too big a deal of it. Though Skojec blogs regularly about Catholicism at the Web site he founded, OnePeterFive (tag line: Rebuilding Catholic culture. Restoring Catholic tradition.), he mostly avoided the subject. “I wanted to withhold judgement,” he said.
Six months later, he was ready to judge. What really turned Skojec against Francis was the pope’s October 2013 interview in the Jesuit magazine America. Buried in the transcript was a comment, by Francis, that the world’s biggest evils are youth unemployment and loneliness.
“That’s a jarring statement . . . when you’re on the front lines of the culture wars, looking at the death toll of abortion,” Skojec said. “There was definitely a sense that this could be trouble.”
More
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
Heaven forbid the Pope should remind us of the message of the Gospel. Feed the hungry, help the needy, visit the sick and those in prison, spread the Good News. Anyone read the Book of James lately? It's that inconvenient one that reminds us "faith without works is dead."
ReplyDeleteFeed the hungry, help the needy, visit the sick and those in prison
ReplyDeleteI thought the pope was visiting obama in the white house
I like the Pope. I like it that he doesn't have to have a $1.5 million vehicle to ride around in; that he lives frugally (something the white house occupants should try for a change); and that he gets out among the people and isn't afraid. Why are people being so judgemental of him? Because he's not politically correct maybe? Be judgmental toward the one in the white house, not the Pope. No, I'm not Catholic.
ReplyDeleteThis "Feed the hungry" and "help the needy" has gone way too far and is to the point where those feeding and helping are sinning by doing so.
ReplyDeleteYou just don't feed and help indiscriminately. If someone's needs are caused by their own actions (drugs/alcohol) or by their inactions (laziness) then to help them is a sin. These 'do gooders' think they are paving their own Stairway to Heaven when in fact the complete opposite is the Truth. The Bible tells us this. The Bible tells us to enable someone to continue to sin is wrong and you are not a real Christian if you do so. You may think you are a Christian but God knows you aren't.
2 Thessalonians 3:10-15
For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed.
People not blinded by the Pope's celebrity status and holy aura are seeing instead a person who has totally bashed capitalism, saying it promotes inequality, that capitalism is the root of all evil, and he has totally bashed the western way of life. He is certainly not an advocate for democracy either. And giving to the poor, seems his inequality rants ought to be said in a mirror, reflecting the Catholic church and more so the Vatican. CIA estimates in 2011 $308 million in revenue. I am willing to bet the money coming in is "washed" and the accountability of it is known only to a very select few. Naysayers would be up in arms about Wall Street bankers doing the same thing....
ReplyDeleteBut most importantly, has he been critical of Islam as he has of capitalism and the way of life that supports the Vatican?
And yes, 7:55, he will be riding in a Pope Mobile.
But, ultimately, I am surprised he has been permitted to visit the Oval Office.
Yeah Yeah Yeah we know all that 6:24. That's old news. The Catholic Church has bigger issues that if he were a real man of God he would be addressing. The Planned Parenthood scandal for one. The killing of Christians in the Middle East. Christians in the US losing their right to be able to not participate in what they believe to be a sin i.e. same sex marriage.
ReplyDeleteWhen and until he decides to address these modern day problems he is nothing more than a coward, a fake man of God.