Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Philadelphia Archbishop Caput offers evaluation of Pope Francis

John Allen, Jr. "Right wing 'generally not happy' with Francis, Chaput says" (NCR, July 23, 2013):
Rio de Janeiro-- Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia is renowned for speaking plainly, which in part means he's often willing to say things out loud that others in his position may sense but are hesitant to acknowledge.

During an interview in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, for instance, Chaput bluntly tackled three questions about Pope Francis, his early record, and his current trip to Brazil:
  • The 68-year-old Capuchin conceded that last night's mob scene with the papal motorcade was a "frightening moment," hinting that perhaps Francis could listen a bit more to handlers charged with his safety and saying, "There has to be some distance between the crowds and the Holy Father."
  • Chaput acknowledged that members of the right wing of the Catholic church "generally have not been really happy" with some aspects of Francis' early months and said the pope will have to find a way "to care for them, too."
  • Chaput defended Francis on concerns in some circles that he's been silent on abortion, gay marriage and euthanasia, saying, "I can't imagine he won't be as pro-life and pro-traditional marriage as any of the other popes." He insisted the bishop of Rome "has to talk about those things."
[Hat tip to JM]

4 comments:

Ralph Roister-Doister said...

Francis's latest "reaffirmation" of the Catholic position regarding homosexuality shows about as much skin as possible without actually becoming bare naked acceptance.

Another shoe falls: this pope will tiptoe between ineffectual condemnation of sin, and borderline approval of "orientation." And what will he get in return from the gay lobby of North American and European bishops?

Anything he wants.

Anonymous Bosch said...

And now there's the news that Pope Francis is putting the lid on the Franciscans continuing to celebrate the TLM!

Mick Jagger Gathers No Mosque said...

Pope Francis is a liberal lunatic and we must daily pray for an end to his Papacy for if he lives ten more years he will eviscerate what little is left of Catholicism.

During VaticanTwo the MAJOR failure of the conservatives was not to align their own selves with the ultramontinists and walk out of the council - while telling Pope Paul VI and the modernists to go to hell - when they were being screwed by the minority of modernists who CONSPIRED, before and during the Council, to effect a revolution within the form of Catholicism so that what we have now is a clown like the Pope.

EVERY time conservatives deceive themselves they can cut a deal with these bastids, they rend the Body of Christ.

Integralism IS Catholicism (Fr Fenton) and a major modern error is loyalty to the person of the Pope over loyalty to Tradition which IS the rule of Faith for Catholics.

Positivism as Catholicism is a toe tag on the Body of Christ.

Put that in your compromise for the sake of unity pipe and smoke it.

Ralph Roister-Doister said...

The Grub Street neocaths will insist, with the unison of the Vienna Boy's Choir, that there is no space whatsoever between Francis's remarks and the traditional Catholic position on homosexuality. Their "moderate" boilerplate will be bought and paid for, as always. The USCCB majority will roll about like a dog with a new scent. This is the "beggin' strip" that many of them have been waiting for.

But think about it. If you say:

Who am I to condemn your orientation, there are many wonderful things about your orientation, after all. I only condemn your sin.

then you are:

-- coping an "I'm ok, you're ok" attitude, in which the homosexual "orientation" is reduced to a mere character flaw at worst, with many fine characteristics of its own.

-- implying that no special prayers are needed by homosexuals, since there is nothing essentially wrong with their "orientation," and it would be heinously unkind if not sinful to say or think otherwise

-- ignoring what has always been the traditional Catholic position, that in this case the orientation is clearly the father of the sin. And the more you approve the orientation, the more constrained you are to deny the sin.

Francis's remarks are beyond problematic. They are further evidence of a mind with a downright bizarre grasp of Catholicism -- witness as another example his goofy remarks about traditionalists as pelagian (pelagian!) heretics. Take the functional equivalency of nouvelle theologie and transcendental thomism, add a generous scoop of liberation theology and modernist reformulations of traditional anathema, and this Pope Polyglot I is the result. He threatens to be Pius IX turned inside out (which come to think of it, is what the last pontiff, with his teutonic murmurings of a need for an alternate, anti-syllabus, seemed to think was just what the Church needed).