Pope Francis Advocates Atheism Over Hypocrisy… But Not “Repentance”?
VATICAN CITY, January 2, 2019 – Pope Francis addressed a crowd of faithful with some jarring remarks during his first Wednesday Audience of 2019. Speaking in the Paul VI Audience Hall, this morning, the pope focused on two recurring themes of his pontificate: hypocritical Christians and the “revolutionary” nature of the Gospel.
“How many times do we see the scandal of those people who go to church and stay there all day or go every day and then live hating others or talking badly about people? This is a scandal – it is better not to go to church: better to live as an atheist,” the pope admonished. Click here to read more
Comment:
How many popes in history have advocated living as an atheist rather than being a hypocritical Christian? You know what I mean. Aren’t we all hypocrites at some time or another, in some way or another? Why can’t he exhort us all to repentance and point out that we are showing a very bad example to atheists, who might otherwise be attracted to Christ’s Church? Oops! No need, I forgot, they’re going to Heaven anyway even if they don’t believe in God! In which case, so are all of us Christian hypocrites whom he exhorts to become atheists. In which case, in turn, why bother with the Church at all?
It goes without saying (although I’m about to say it) that we, each of us, should be making every effort to overcome our lack of charity, to stop being hypocrites – and bloggers are invited, sincerely, to offer some practical tips on how to overcome this awful sin of lack of charity (I, for one, will welcome any suggestions with open arms).
However, giving up the Catholic sacraments-based spiritual battle to conquer our inner selfishness in order to join the ranks of those who refuse to even acknowledge the existence of God, the first of the four Truths necessary for salvation, is not the answer to our sinfulness and weakness, our hypocrisy… Is it?
Comments (35)
It is a shame! how can a pope advance such an argument?
Lionel,
Pope Francis doesn’t offer “arguments” – he just opens his mouth and says the first thing that comes to what passes for his mind.
Je veux bien le croire! / I wish to believe!
It’s not an argument, Lionel, it’s just another vicious harangue from a Pope who thinks that Marxism and Christianity are a perfect match made in Heaven. Apparently his atheist friend Scalfari is a model of virtue who doesn’t hate anyone.
I suspect, however, that there is some fine print in his reference to “hating others” – namely, those who reject the idea of a mass Muslim invasion of Europe are guilty, according to Francis, of “hating others.”
As for the alleged “revolutionary nature” of the Gospel, this is just his “god of surprises” cloaked in different shabby rags.
But let’s talk about the hypocrisy of the Vicar of Christ, who disgraces and soils the Chair of Peter on a daily basis, abusing his position by turning it into a moral bully pulpit, while he surrounds himself with, promotes and defends an endless succession of ecclesiastical perverts and crooks. Sure, Francis, you occupy the moral high ground all right…in your dreams.
Here’s a good commentary from Toronto Catholic Witness on this latest scandal:
https://torontocatholicwitness.blogspot.com/2019/01/sorry-pope-francis-atheism-is-not.html
The Pope needs a work up at St. Luke’s Hospital. That is not being uncharitable …
Mary Anne,
I doubt very much if it’s remotely possible to “be uncharitable” about Pope Francis!
RCA Victor,
I could be wrong, but I have a memory of meeting a man in our tearoom whom, I’m almost certain, runs that blog or the Vox Cantoris – i.e. he’s a closet Scotsman.
Anyway, that being the case or not, his analysis is very good, concise and hard hitting. Even if he’s NOT a Scot!
Incredible!
As we have said on here or asked is The Pope a Catholic. Also I think that it’s really time he kept his own council the Man is now a complete Embarrassment to himself not to The Catholic Faith. Any of us of the Catholic Faith now don’t even take him seriously and where is his ” Who am I too Judge ” Mentality here. Also for a Man of his age NEVER to have heard the saying ” Bring The Body and The Mind Will Follow ” astonishes me . He now is striding out of his Complete False Humility and as long as it’s Faithful Catholics he’s Bullying he seems to see himself on the correct road . Et Tu Brutus .
FOOF,
As many others have said very often, it’s no longer funny to use the old irony: “Is the Pope Catholic?” – meaning, it’s obvious the pope is Catholic. No more, sadly. Now, any number of Protestants and even non-Christians would sound, at least, more “Catholic” than Francis the First – and, we sincerely hope, the Last…
The Gospels tell us that we are all sinners to some degree, and that our Lord came not for the (spiritually) healthy, but for the sick. Better a baptized sinner, I would say, open to conversion (very much a work in progress for the baptized and requiring great patience) and inserted into the Church and the life of grace, than an atheist who, by definition, denies the very existence of God and, therefore, of salvation by divine grace. Besides, hypocrisy means generally a lack of coherence between saying and doing. In the case of the baptised, this is perceived to be preaching without practising, denying the creed we profess by the lives we lead, but what is it in the atheist? What exactly is his ‘creed’, the objective standard against which his doing can be judged? The natural law? But many atheists–perhaps the majority today–deny the existence of the natural law, so what atheists are we talking about? When it comes down to it, the creed of many atheists amounts to little more than an affermation of the self. And if I am the criterion of my moral action, I can basically do anything and not be open to a charge of hypocrisy.
I remember a very fine old priest in my younger days telling me that, in the spiritual life, the best is the enemy of the good. He was, perhaps unconsciously, quoting Voltaire (Confucius renders the same idea as “Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without,” and Shakespeare as “Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well”), but the lesson is a fundamental one and has to be learned early if one is to make any progress on the path of holiness. (To this I would add CS Lewis’s line about, in the moral life, experience being very often the mother of illusion.) We all have some defect or other (often more than one) which we have to work on in our striving for perfection. But this does not mean that God’s love for us is lessened becaue of our faults, as Francis himself has said repeatedly. We are, let it not be forgotten, historical beings. We may be hypocrites today, but that is not to say that we won’t be great saints tomorrow. The important thing is that we are fighting the spiritual combat and striving for perfection by cooperating with God’s grace.
As happens not infrequently, we know what Francis is getting at, or at least trying to get at–in this case the radical nature of the Christian vocation–but the temptation to seem original and grab a headline gets the better of him. Francis, we know, loves to shock and has something of a penchant for atheists and atheism (old Pinko that he is) which is why in this pontificate an impartial observer could be forgiven for thinking that the Church and the world are basically singing out of the same hymnal. But the irony in all of this, surely, is that one of the best icons for a repentent hypocrite is Peter himself. Not only, but one of the functions of Peter in the New Testament, I have always thought, is to put us on our guard against the temptation to conceive of the Church as only for and of the perfect.
How much more difficult it is, but how much more rewarding, to expound the beauty of the Christian mystery than just to emit moralistic thunderbolts from the Olympian safety of the anti-Christian liberal consensus. But remember: where beauty is, not only goodness but also truth will follow. Perhaps this is what Francis is unconciously afraid of, for he often gives the impression of believing that truth is an impediment to goodness.
Prognosticum,
I agree with your observations, that “we know what Francis is getting at”… and “the temptation to seem original and grab a headline gets the better of him.”
Exactly. For any one of us to say, as an aside in a private conversation with like-minded Catholics that I (or, if I’m being uncharitable, perish the thought, So & So!) would be better off joining the atheists since coming to church doesn’t seem to be working, is one thing. Hyperbole. Pure exaggeration to make a point. But for a Pope to say the same thing, without any sign that he is exaggerating to make a point, is outrageous.
I especially love your concluding words: that “[Francis] often gives the impression of believing that truth is an impediment to goodness.”
In the proverbial nutshell. That is IT – brilliantly put.
Pope Francis Advocates Atheism over Hypocrisy…But not “Repentance”? An apt title for this thread. And, I agree with what has been said already. It also reminded me of an article that appeared around April 2018 – that Pope Francis appears to have said that “Hell does not exist – What exists is the disappearance of sinful souls”.
A pity cannot keep a guard on his tongue when speaking in public.
http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/no-hell-for-pope-francis/
Theresa Rose,
Well, at least he believes in disappearance. If only he would practise what he preaches 😀
Editor,
I agree. Remember he also said that his papacy would be short? It’s about five years too long in my opinion!
I found it interesting to read on the Rorate Caeli blog that Robert de Mattei has made a connection between the EU and the rise of homosexuality.
https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2019/01/de-mattei-dare-monsignore.html#more
If the Catholic bishops of Europe had shown some moral courage, we would be in a very different situation today, with no such crime as “homophobia” and no same-sex “marriage”. They should be hanging their heads in shame.
Editor, off topic, but I must say I’m beginning to understand why you are closing the blog. nine out of fifteen comments on the sidebar are from you, just before I post this. You must feel as if you’re talking to yourself, a lot of the time, LOL!
Josephine,
Thank you for that link – will read it right through later, but the first section is extremely interesting.
Regarding your off topic comment – I’m fine with the sidebar. Would be much harder to stick to our decision to close if we find ourselves suddenly inundated with regular comments over a lengthy-ish period of time! So, as Pollyanna would say, there’s always something to be glad about!
I prefer, though, that no more be said about this issue. Let’s simply make the very best use of the blog while we have it, knowing that bloggers contribute when they can. It’s not the 7th commandment of the Church to contribute to the CT blog, after all! So let’s appreciate what we have, while we have it, and thereafter, our Guardian Angels will take us to where we might do some good in cyberspace.
Nice piece
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Editor: welcome, sunstev. I’ve released your post despite there not being any contribution to our topic discussion. Please comment on our topics from now on – if you think you can use us merely to advertise your own blog, think again! We’re a wholly Catholic group and we aim to educate ourselves and our readers about the true nature of the crisis in the Catholic Church – which is diabolical; the scandals we are witnessing, come straight from Hell. So, join in our chats – and be assured, you are very welcome.
I really don’t have the time just now to trawl through all the comments and links, and I hope this is appropriate for this link, but can anyone explain this?
http://eponymousflower.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-pact-between-pope-francis-and-society.html
Crofterlady,
If you read it right through, the meaning is clear. It’s been a claim around for ages that the Pope wants to get rid of traditional groups altogether. That’s the base line. If you read it, you will see that that is all it is really about..
We did read it right through and it seemed to us that it was being said that the Pope was scheming with the society to get rid of the traditional groups. Seemed unbelievable to us or was it a bad translation we wondered?
Crofterlady,
No, you read it correctly. The idea being touted is that since the Society is not keen on the other traditional groups, because they essentially stem from the Society and so lack something, are not entirely kosher, so if the Pope can use the excuse that he only wants the Society offering TLMs, then it will be easier to get rid of them, as one group, once the others have been eliminated. Far fetched, in my view, but – unless I’ve misunderstood the whole theory – that’s the word on the street…
https://www.rd.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/06-Short-Jokes-Anyone-Can-Remember-nicole-fornabaio-rd.com_-1024×683.jpg
Pope Francis really doesn’t believe in advocating virtue, does he? Here he is, telling parents that it’s OK to fight, just don’t let the children see or hear it. Goodness me! How that contrasts with the sermon we had this morning for the Feast of the Holy Family – there was no mention there of parents with two faces! Incredible.
https://lfpress.com/news/world/pope-to-parents-its-ok-to-fight-just-not-in-front-of-kids/wcm/131aacfb-6df9-4d76-979a-0f05d9a0f1df
Editor,
The fractured in-fighting amongst the hierarchy – i.e. sort of the parents of our Church family – would seem to indicate that they have already obeyed Francis’ “vision” and put it into practice. Though I should add that they have for the most part stopped “parenting” us sheep long ago, and left us at the mercy of the world, the flesh and the Devil. Now, in fact, they are actually inviting us to eternal ruin, by making their abandonment sound pastoral, benevolent and wise. Thus, “open borders” also has a personal dimension: let down the guard of your Faith and be happy! After all, the Church let down her guard at Vatican II, and look at the new springtime that resulted! It’s a dream come true!
(I hereby dub this pontificate as the culmination of the 2 + 2 = 5 mentality.)
In stark contrast to Francis’ incoherent, evil psychobabble, we had a wonderful sermon this morning for said Feast – all about how each spouse can imitate the marriage between Our Lord and His Church. Thank God for our little oasis of Catholic sanity….
RCA Victor,
I was shocked at the Pope’s words to married couples, just as I was shocked when he asked a mother in Ireland who was surrounded by her large family, if they made her angry. What a stupid man he is! Instead of focusing on her fidelity and the reward of a large family from God, he has to show the “human” face, as if parents of only one child won’t sometimes get annoyed or angry with that child if he or she is disobedient.
I hope I don’t get told off for this next question, being off topic a bit, but I know you are an American and I’m wondering what you think of Trump’s shut down of government, given that people are losing their pay over it. I justify this question because of your mention of Pope Francis and open borders, he is an open borders man!
Nicky,
It seems that all sense of the supernatural has been stripped from this Pope, in order to make him a perfect tool of the atheist globalists. His anti-Catholic worldview is the logical and inevitable outcome of liberation theology, of which he is a zealous groupie. He certainly doesn’t appear to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. In fact, if I remember correctly, one of his Jesuit superiors long ago recommended that he not be ordained!
As for our government shutdown, those of us who follow real news closely know that it is the Democrats (better known as the DemocRATS) who are responsible for the shutdown, due to their refusal to protect our country, with a border wall, from the assortment of criminals, terrorists, drug dealers, gang members and other dregs of Latin America and beyond, who want to enter America and wreak havoc. Some of them actually want jobs, but almost none of them are real “asylum” cases, so no matter how you examine the DemocRAT argument it is patently fraudulent. All the DemocRATS are after is more votes from those whom they can convince are “disenfranchised.” They care nothing about the safety of real Americans.
The most ridiculous part of this scam is that numerous US Bishops, who have been in bed with the DemocRAT party for almost two generations, are making public statements in support of these so-called migrants and against Trump. Perhaps they are trying to score brownie points with Pope Francis, or perhaps they are trying to recoup some credibility as they are being swept away by their own homosexual corruption, but all they are doing is making themselves look even more despicable. Case in point: Cardinal “Nighty-night, Baby” Tobin released such a statement the other day.
There are now some protests from allegedly Federal workers over losing their pay, but it would interesting to find out how many of these are really on the Federal payroll, and how many are on George Soros’ payroll as professional malcontents and thugs.
There was a protest in this area last week by alleged IRS workers – 100 of them, according to the press, but it looked more like 30 – a ragtag scraggly bunch if ever there was one. One old fellow even wore a hat that said “Make America Gay Again,” as an insult to President Trump’s well-known motto. What is even more amusing about that protest is that it was supposedly by IRS workers – and the IRS is probably the most despised Federal agency in America!
RCA Victor,
Thank you for that brilliant reply. Just what I thought about the DemocRATS!
Here’s my suggestion for Trump. If I were him, I would say, well, I promised to build a wall and I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to keep my campaign promise but the Dems won’t let me, so, rather than leave people without pay, I’m going to leave that idea and make it a central plank in the NEXT election.
If you prefer to vote for the Dems, when it’s obvious they do not respect the electorate, as they have demonstrated over this wall, then so be it. My conscience is clear. If, though, you vote for me next time, then there can be no way the Dems will prevent me from building that wall.
Might it work?
Nicky,
I think that plan might end up backfiring, since this wall has been postponed and postponed again over the years, and the Republicans, many of whom are responsible because they are not really Republicans but Deep State castrati, will suffer the consequences…again. Americans are sick and tired of all the waffling and postponing. That’s why Trump was elected.
I’m thinking maybe the millions of Federal employees might start pressuring their DemocRAT representatives to finally agree to the $5.4 billion so that they can keep receiving their paychecks.
RCA Victor,
I must say, I thought Nicky’s suggestion was a very good one, although you’ve put a different perspective on it.
I’ve recently discovered that CNN is listed on my news channels (although not Fox News) so earlier I tuned in and, honestly, I thought our news reporters and presenters were thick as the proverbial mince. The CNN staff really are a bunch of nutters. At least the ones on offer this evening.
They were discussing among themselves a newspaper report where President Trump has been accused of working with the Russians or, more accurately, working FOR the Russians. Naturally, they wanted to ask the President for a response which he gave them, essentially saying it was an insulting question (to ask if he were spying for Russia!)
Their reaction? Well, it really had me open-mouthed. The female presenter just kept repeating words to the effect that “who would believe it, a President actually having to say he doesn’t work for the Russians” – umpteen versions of that, and they eventually faded to the adverts.
Imagine someone asking you if you were a spy for Russia or any other enemy State. You’re amazed at being asked the question but you oblige with an answer – a denial. Then you watch – in disbelief – as the numpties sit around expressing astonishment that RCA Victor actually had to deny being a spy for Russia. What times we live in…. !
Downright hilarious. Nobody, but nobody, surely, can take that daft (non) news channel seriously – do they?
Editor,
Only leftists who hate Trump take CNN ( = Counterfeit News Network) seriously, as it provides them with echo chamber material with which to attack him…until said material proves to be false, and then they move on to the next lie Ever since he was elected, their full-time mission is to engage in a nonstop smear campaign against him. They are paid liars and propagandists, not journalists, and they are really just embarrassing themselves. Apparently that doesn’t matter, though: orders are orders….careers are careers….paychecks are paychecks….
CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post have all taken up the same mission, which is to attempt to destroy any anti-globalist/pro-sovereignty movement in the USA. Facebook and Google are also in on this effort.
RCA Victor,
You give an excellent summary of what is clearly going on in the world of “counterfeit news”!
I forgot to mention that the first time I tuned in to CNN I had to laugh – they were broadcasting from the Westminster Parliament and who was speaking at the time, but the leader of the SNP who was – as usual – blethering on about how Brexit will damage Scotland. I thought to myself, goodness, can’t get away from them even if I tune in to an American news (with a question mark) channel!
It really is odd that these big gun media platforms are so anti sovereignty and pro-globalist. It really is strange. Has to be power and money in it for them, of course, but I still find it very strange.
Editor,
(The reply columns are getting narrower…narrower….) Reminded me of the trash compactor scene from Star Wars IV (ff to about 2:50):
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U3Oti2L8S4&w=845&h=356%5D
It’s really not strange at all: the globalists control the mainstream media and therefore all their “messages” (which aren’t news, except for sports scores and the weather). If you want a job in that sleazy profession, you have to do and say what you’re told. So when they tell you to jump, your only acceptable answer is “How high?”
Everybody…FACE LEFT!
RCA Victor,
You are right, it’s not really strange at all.
I’m just SOoooooo charitable. Can’t believe people could just be downright stupid! 😀
Editor,
How incredible! With fighting/arguing always comes sin, for example anger, bitterness, resentment etc. Hardly something anyone should be promoting, nevermind a pope!
As a married man I know that any fighting between a husband and wife impacts children, whether they hear the arguing or not. It creates a bad atmosphere in the home which children can sense.
Petrus,
Too true. Anyone who has been brought up in a home where mum and dad fight, know that it is frightening for kids. It’s plain stupid to say “as long as they don’t see or hear it” – does Pope Francis think we all live in castles or ten roomed houses? When did it become OK for anyone to fight anyway?
The man is an idiot. Sorry, but he is.
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