Have you been on the internet this week? Just in case you haven’t, here’s what you missed:
Anyone who’s been paying attention for the past 4 months knows that Pope Francis is nothing at all like his predecessors. In fact, he’s finally modernizing the Catholic Church’s teaching, taking “huge steps forward” with his “radical changes”!1 After millennia of bigotry and backwardness, the 1.2 billion-member-Church is finally becoming relevant to the modern world. Check out the pontiff’s outrageous new doctrines:
1. Catholics should love gay people.
Cool Pope: “If a person is gay and seeks the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge that person? The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this point beautifully but says, wait a moment, how does it say, it says, these persons must never be marginalized and ‘they must be integrated into society.’ The problem is not that one has this tendency; no, we must be brothers, this is the first matter.”2
The Old Guard:
It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church’s pastors wherever it occurs. It reveals a kind of disregard for others which endangers the most fundamental principles of a healthy society. The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in word, in action and in law. -Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)3
[Homosexual persons] must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. –Catechism of the Catholic Church 2358
2. Catholics should love sinners.
Cool Pope: “How much do I love the church? Do I pray for it? Do I feel part of the church family? What do I do to make the church a community where everyone feels welcomed and understood, everyone feels the mercy and love of God who renews life?”4
The Old Guard:
[The Church] must do everything possible so that [those who are divorced and remarried] feel loved and accepted, that they are not ‘outsiders’ even if they cannot receive absolution and the Eucharist. They must see that they too live fully within the Church. -Pope Benedict XVI5
The Church, however, clasping sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of penance and renewal.” All members of the Church, including her ministers, must acknowledge that they are sinners. –Catechism of the Catholic Church 827
3. Unbridled capitalism is bad news.
Cool Pope: “A savage capitalism has taught the logic of profit at any cost, of giving in order to get, of exploitation without thinking of people… and we see the results in the crisis we are experiencing.”6
The Old Guard:
The entirety of the encyclical Caritas in Veritate –Pope Benedict XVI
[The Church] has likewise refused to accept, in the practice of “capitalism,” individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human labor. Regulating the economy … solely by the law of the marketplace fails social justice, for “there are many human needs which cannot be satisfied by the market.” –Catechism of the Catholic Church 2425
4. Jesus died for atheists.
Cool Pope: “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!”7
The Old Guard:
Did the Lord not die for all? That Jesus Christ, as the Son of God made man, is the man for all men, the new Adam, belongs to the fundamental certainties of our faith. -Pope Benedict XVI8
The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: “There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer.” –Catechism of the Catholic Church 605, quoting the regional Council of Quiercy
5. All people should care for the poor.
Cool Pope: “Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of the poor and the hungry.”9
The Old Guard:
Opulence and waste are no longer acceptable when the tragedy of hunger is assuming ever greater proportions. -Pope Benedict XVI10
Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs. –Catechism of the Catholic Church 2446, quoting St. John Chrysostom
If these brand new dogmas aren’t enough to convince you, consider how popular Francis is with the youth: 3 million people traveled to Rio to celebrate this past week’s World Youth Day. In contrast, only a few thousand went to Benedict’s celebration in Madrid in 201111 while slightly more attended John Paul’s World Youth Day in Manila in 1995!12
Want more? Here’s some photographic evidence of how much more approachable Francis is than standoffish Ratzinger, who was the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog before he engineered his successful papal campaign.
So take heart, people of the world. He loves gay people, he loves the poor, he believes in mercy and compassion…in short, the Pope is Catholic!!
Oh, and he can forgive your sins through Twitter, too.
</sarcasm>
In keeping with the above, check out this NY Times Quiz on the differing positions of our recent 3 popes. And these ten quotes that prove the Pope is a liberal.