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Saturday 14 March 2015

Poor Little Professor, First That Pope, Now This One

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Learn to live with disappointment...
Poor Candida Moss, author of Oh Those Silly Christians Insisting On Being Christian , (soon to be followed by, Oh Those Silly Christians Insisting On Being Christians, Volume II: The HHS Years,); is shocked, shocked, I tell you.
Pope Francis is Catholic. He may actually believe in some unchanged and unchanging Church teaching.
What the Francis?!??#??!?!!?
He is not "as liberal as his image suggests"!!!!!! To be fair to Miss Moss, it was the headline writer who said that.
But "his image'? really? by "image," do you mean the way the chattering classes have insisted on portraying him on very little evidence?
So, you fabricate and promote a concept and then pshaw and moan that um,... it's not true, as if it were Reality's fault for not consulting you before it decided to be?

Because before she was shocked by this, only a few months earlier she was shocked by traditionalists, or conservatives, or some bogeymen of hers, "calling out the Pope [Francis,] when he’s not Pope-y enough."
And they were going to go into schism! No, really! They MIGHT! Well, they could.... Well, prolly not but you never know, (crossing fingers and wishin' on eyelashes and clovers and shooting stars...)

Look, I get it. When you earn your bread and butter quinoa and grapeseed oil by writing Things, it's an absolute necessity to have Things.
You know, to write about.
So sometimes, out of necessity you might just have to make Things up, right?
Cardinal George Pell unnecessarily reminded his congregants not only that Pope Francis is the 266th Pope, but also that “history has seen 37 false or antipopes.” Antipopes? Does Cardinal Pell intend to hint that Francis isn’t a true Pope?
I dunno, DOES he?
Not according to the report to which you had actually linked in that earlier piece.
“The role of the successor of St. Peter has always been vital to Christian and Catholic life, especially as the touchstone of doctrinal fidelity and as a resolver of disputes, pastoral as well as doctrinal,” the cardinal wrote.
“The church is not built on the rock of Peter’s faith,” he wrote, “but on Peter himself, despite his faults and failings.”
“Pope Francis is the 266th pope and history has seen 37 false or antipopes,” he wrote.
“The story of the popes is stranger than fiction,” the cardinal wrote, and today “we have one of the more unusual popes in history, enjoying almost unprecedented popularity. He is doing a marvelous job backing the financial reforms,” he wrote
Cardinal Pell concluded his written remarks with a prayer “I was taught as a child: May the Lord preserve the Holy Father, Pope Francis, and give him life. Keep him safe on earth and deliver him not up into the hands of his enemies.”
Ya know, I think maybe if you make your name by writing Things, sometimes you ought to read Things.

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