Showing posts with label eponymous flower. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eponymous flower. Show all posts

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.