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Thursday 13 March 2014

"I don' thin' that word means what you thin' it means..."


Inigo Montoya, of course, was speaking of "incontheevable."

I am speaking of the word "secret."
Yahoo News tells us that there are people who "hate" Pope Francis "secretly.
Their evidence of this is quotes from.... erm, public statements and blog posts.
Not only is none of it "secret", but I must ask, why should this surprise anyone?
The Vicar of Christ, whoever takes up that task, has always been hated by some...
In fact, toeing the new party line instilled by Francis is proving to be the greatest challenge for conservative Catholics who are quite used to a prudent and predictable Pope.
Um... did you really mean to imply that the Holy Father is not just unpredictable, but imprudent? And that any Catholic would be okay with imprudence in high places?

The CBS Evening News had a similar story yesterday evening, although they mucked up their point with politics, and they had the usual conflation of "conservative" with "traditional."
And in the "casting" of their talking heads they managed, with a very sweet elderly woman with an agenda, to imply that reactions to Pope Francis are split along generational lines, as if the juice in the movement toward a more faithful Church is not from those tyring to clean up the boomers' mess.

One last thing, the Yahoo piece quoted laicized priest, (didn't identify him as such, of course,) Thomas Groome in an NBC piece:
Boston College theology professor Thomas Groome said it's easy to see why reactionaries would be on edge. While the pope hasn't messed with doctrine, a shift in priorities and pitch is clearly underway, he said"I think it will be a real test for conservative Catholics," he said. "They have always pointed the finger, quoting the pope for the last 35 years. Suddenly, will they stop quoting the pope. It'll be a good test of whether or not they're really Catholics.".

Isn't it awful the way the dissidents in the Church wants to require some sort of litmus test for who's "really" Catholic?


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