Sunday, April 17, 2016

"What an unappealing man. A wise guy. A taunter. A soft sadist who enjoys diddling with people's faith. His hide and seek game is soft sadism. I just can't get past how sneaky and downright cruel he is."

"How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?"

Things are moving quickly. Let's review what has happened in the last week:
  1. Pope Francis releases an almost 60,000 word document on "love" or "sex" or "marriage" or whatever, that is so bloated and meandering that there is even a short discourse on wedding planning.
  2. Everyone knows that the proximate question at issue is whether the divorced and remarried could or should be admitted to communion. The answer to the question obviously has serious implications for how Catholics view such things as marriage, divorce, adulteryrepentancesin, the Real Presence and even the very authority of the Church itselfAnd at both the Synod on the Family and in the drafting of the document, the Pope chose to surround himself with those who focused incessantly on the question. 
  3. The text is technically ambiguous on the question with numerous passages and footnotes that suggest or imply answers without spelling them out explicitly.
  4. Some claim that the text is not ambiguous. Debate ensues.
  5. The Pope is later asked whether the document changes anything, or rather, in the words of the questioner, whether there are "new, concrete possibilities." He answers, "Yes, period."
  6. People then debate what he meant by "Yes, period" and what possibilities are being referred to.
  7. But not before the Pope himself explains that to get more than just a simple answer as to what he meant by "Yes, period" people should read another document--a 3,000 word analysis of the original 60,000 word document, which itself is technically ambiguous but also suggests or implies.
  8. Or not. That too might be debated.
  9. Meanwhile, we are told by many on all sides that in a sense the whole thing is a moot point because DOCTRINE CANNOT CHANGE.
  10. And the Pope himself chides the faithful for (he claims) obsessing about an issue that (he claims) wasn't really the focus of the document in the first place.  
An anonymous commenter on The Eponymous Flower writes of Francis:
What an unappealing man. A wise guy. A taunter. A soft sadist who enjoys diddling with people's faith. His hide and seek game is soft sadism. I just can't get past how sneaky and downright cruel he is.
I think that gets it exactly right.

14 comments:

  1. Reminds me of every modernist priest or bishop with whom I've ever had the displeasure of dealing.

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  2. The very best that can be said about Pp. Francis is that he is completely imprudent in both his speaking and writing.

    Other than that, he's obviously a Jesuit. Perhaps the Frenchmen were right!!

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  3. CHORUS (A snippet from the Kithri [tm] song book, Joy of Love: The Musical!! With apologies to Olivia Newton John)

    Please, Spirit, please
    Bring back B-16
    He was your pope he was our pope
    Now it's oh-oh-oh-ver
    Please, Father, please
    We don't know what Francis means,
    His yes ain't yes and his no ain't no again.

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  4. It's good to know obfuscation is alive and well in the Vatican. Pope Francis must be defended against clarity at all costs in order to support the contention and maintain the fiction that doctrine remains in tact while praxis can be flexible and contradict it. Lying and deceit is the name of the game and they play it very well.

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  5. I can't understand how so many people couldn't see through him from the very beginning. How many intelligent people kept willing themselves to believe in his simple, shrewd, peasant grandpa act. To me, he might as well have had the word "PHONY" tattooed across his face, and I knew he was a louse from the first moment I saw him.

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    Replies
    1. First synod his true colors becsme apparant to me, before then i had much hope. Now gnostocism has won the day and rome.

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    2. So long? My first clue, the minute I saw him, the feeling is hard to describe but imagine Charlie Brown's Halloween. All the kids got candy in their bags except for Charlie Brown who got rocks, "I got a rock" that rug-pulled feeling when you're expecting something good and get something bad and I curiously burst into tears. Had no clue who he was. Remember Luke 11 when the Lord said, "Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?" So what does that tell you? He's either not bad or not from God.

      The second clue, the Rosary bouquet business. I believe even back in my evilest, most mocking, most jaded atheist days, if people had cared enough to do something like that for me I would have curiously burst into tears in a reverse Charlie Brown "I expected a rock and got candy!" The only thing he burst into was sarcasm. Yeah he gave those grannies a smack down they'll never forget. What a jerk.

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    3. GracieLou, oh my! The same thing happened to me! I saw the new pope come out onto the balcony and I had the most eerie, gut-dropping feeling, like I had just received news of a airplane crash where all aboard had been killed. Quite strange, and I shook it off. I had never heard of the man before either.

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    4. Same with me GracieLou and Kithri! I remember saying to my H.....'something is wrong here', and he said 'maybe he's just shy', and I said 'Nope, something is really wrong'. How sad that my 'intuition' or maybe even an inner warning from the Holy Spirit was right on!!

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    5. I can't join your club. My usual discernment was out to lunch. I felt sorry for him, he looked rather intimidated when he came out. My heart went out to him.
      He has since left no doubt about his character and intentions. And I thought I couldn't wait for Obama's reign to be over.

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  6. He's like a lamb who can barely walk, bumbling against wolves in the darkness while bleating for his mother. If I ever meet him my impulse will be to run up and hug him and try and keep him away from everyone else in the Vatican.

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  7. My husband's email the day of Francis' election:

    From: wewjude
    Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2013 11:12 PM
    To:
    Subject: Letter #46: Pope Francis

    Weird/bizarre/troubling first impression. I can't deny what I felt in my soul though....I hope/pray that I'm just misreading..however:

    Not one mention of Jesus Christ!

    Not one sign of the cross blessing with the hands!

    No uplifting words of hope for the soul....I'm sorry, I think he came across as exceptionally stiff/scared/cold???

    I hope the wolves haven't won....perhaps we now know what that great sign of lightening hitting St. Peter's was portending!

    God bless and long live our suffering Pope (Emeritus?) Benedict XVI!

    wewjude

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  8. Found this at Lutheran Satire & thought you might like it (?)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93QPAl7f9v0

    (too bad it is not easy to post a YouTube at blogspot...)

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