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Friday 23 January 2015

One Last, (or at least, so I hope....) to Tell Ya About the Rabbits, George...

A denizen of the combox over at First Things, (oh no!!!!! am I becoming a conservative??!??!?) brought up something that had not occurred to me before, about privacy (yes, ME, who inadvertently eavesdrops at confession!):
The Pope publicly condemned as "irresponsible" and a tempter of God an heroic woman who was having her eighth child by Caesarian. He specifically identified her as someone he had "rebuked" in a parish some months ago (i.e., not in the Philippines).
Worse, he publicly mocked her claim that she trusts in God, stating that God has provided NFP. He supplied enough identifiers to make it obvious to everyone who knows this woman that she was the object of the Pope's cheap shot. This is outrageous behavior for anyone speaking in public, much less a Pope who is portrayed as a tender and merciful pastor of souls (unlike his cold-hearted, law-bound, red-shoe-wearing predecessor).
How dare he? Furthermore, how does Francis know that the woman had not been observing periods of abstinence but that God has sent her another child nevertheless? Who is he to judge the woman's behavior and motives in public, during a press conference the whole world would hear? Saint Catherine of Siena was the 23rd of 25 children, born during the Plague that was decimating Rome. Was her mother "tempting God" and being "like a rabbit?"
I should add, the poster's name is vaguely familiar, in that, "I don't agree with that guy but I cant remember why" way.
But if you're right, you're right.
And I'm not going to do an Internet search because i don't want to know why I have, if i have, disagreed with him in the past.

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