Jerry and some of his conservative Catholic brethren are unhappy with Pope Francis and, apparently, the feeling is mutual.
The pope summarized all this anger toward him in a recent private meeting with Portuguese Catholics:
"You have seen that in the United States the situation is not easy: there is a very strong reactionary attitude,” he said. “It is organized and shapes the way people belong, even emotionally.”
Francis said being backward-looking “is useless and we need to understand that there is an appropriate evolution in the understanding of matters of faith and morals,” noting that concepts of morality change over time.
He gave a few examples:
"Let us get to specifics. Today it is a sin to possess atomic bombs, the death penalty is a sin. You cannot employ it, but it was not so before. As for slavery, some pontiffs before me tolerated it, but things are different today. So you change, you change, but with the criteria just mentioned."
And he went on to issue a warning to U.S. conservatives:
"Those American groups you talk about, so closed, are isolating themselves. Instead of living by doctrine, by the true doctrine that always develops and bears fruit, they live by ideologies. When you abandon doctrine in life and replace it with an ideology, you have lost, you have lost as in war."
Those poor ideologues. Here's a link to the full article: https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/pope-francis-conservatives-united-states-rcna102452
The pope summarized all this anger toward him in a recent private meeting with Portuguese Catholics:
"You have seen that in the United States the situation is not easy: there is a very strong reactionary attitude,” he said. “It is organized and shapes the way people belong, even emotionally.”
Francis said being backward-looking “is useless and we need to understand that there is an appropriate evolution in the understanding of matters of faith and morals,” noting that concepts of morality change over time.
He gave a few examples:
"Let us get to specifics. Today it is a sin to possess atomic bombs, the death penalty is a sin. You cannot employ it, but it was not so before. As for slavery, some pontiffs before me tolerated it, but things are different today. So you change, you change, but with the criteria just mentioned."
And he went on to issue a warning to U.S. conservatives:
"Those American groups you talk about, so closed, are isolating themselves. Instead of living by doctrine, by the true doctrine that always develops and bears fruit, they live by ideologies. When you abandon doctrine in life and replace it with an ideology, you have lost, you have lost as in war."
Those poor ideologues. Here's a link to the full article: https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/pope-francis-conservatives-united-states-rcna102452
