Thursday, December 12, 2013

Liberal media discovers source of false reports that Pope is changing everything about the Catholic Church

The liberal media is now beginning to react to the almost universal misrepresentation of the Pope as someone bent on the wholesale change in Church dogma and practice. When he was installed as Pope, we began hearing that Francis was going to overturn all prior Catholic Church precedent that came before previously. 

In addition to changing a whole lot of things it believed in the past antecedent to the present.

So for months we have been subjected to reports that the Pope is doing things the Church has never, ever done before in the history of existence. Not even once.

Such as helping the poor. Reaching out the underprivileged and downtrodden. Empathizing with sinners.
And preaching the gospel.

The Catholic Church? Preaching the gospel? Who woulda' thunk it?

But through what must have been some pretty involved sleuthing, the liberal media has now discovered, not only that the Pope has not repudiated the Church's past beliefs—not only that the things he is saying have actually been said and done before, but it has also discovered who is responsible for the widespread belief that he has.

That's right: The liberal media has finally isolated the source of the erroneous reports about the Pope. The perpetrator of these falsehoods is ...

... Now let me just verify this here just to make sure its is accurate ... hmmm. Now this is interesting. The source of the mis-portrayal of the Pope, according to the liberal media, is ... The liberal media!

That's right.

The Atlantic Wire runs a Reuters report that takes Time Magazine to task for perpetuating the myth that the Pope is engaging in a wholesale makeover of the Church in its article naming the pontiff "Person of the Year":
Francis, a socially conservative religious leader, was chosen as the most influential person on Earth in the same year as a landmark Supreme Court decision throwing open the doors for equal marriage rights in the U.S., a right that Francis, and his church, officially oppose. In a just few short months since his election, the new Pope has transformed how many people, including the media, talk about the Church — without actually modifying what the church believes. 
... The Pope's tenure so far includes a series of highly symbolic moments and quotes that seem to challenge and sometimes rebuke Church tradition. ... The power of those symbolic moments dwells in anticipation of what the Pope might do in the coming years. His most media-friendly moments haven't translated into the reforms many on the left seem to assume are around the corner. There have very few official pronouncements from his office, and none have deviated greatly from previous Popes. And chances are, they won't. 
The report points out that Time had to issue a correction of its previous report: ""An earlier version of this post suggested that Pope Francis rejected some church dogma. He does not."

Well, I guess that's all cleared up. Now that the liberal media has discovered that Francis is actually just riffing off of what the Church has always done, they won't ever misrepresent him again. Ever.

Promise.


3 comments:

Lee said...

The only thing I'm curious about is that the Pope said, or was reported as saying, that atheists (under certain circumstances) might go to Heaven.

I spoke with my Catholic cousin, and told him, I guess that gives us Presbyterians some hope, eh?

Or maybe not. My cousin said, well, obviously you've accepted *part* of the message, but not all of it, so you've actually rejected the truth -- whereas an atheist might simply be ignorant.

JDH said...

Lee, what Pope Francis said was that Christ died for all, that his redemption reaches all ("Even the atheists!" the pope said with a grin). The Huffington Post, being confused on the theology, translated that as "Everybody's going to heaven!"

That being said, the Church teaches that people who respond positively to God's grace and do not resist it are the ones who go to Heaven. So, of course, God is able save someone who isn't visibly and formally within the Catholic Church, especially someone who comes to know and, openly and willingly, accept Christ in a Protestant denomination. To be guilty of rejecting the truth, a person must recognize it as the truth. Only God can see to those depths of a person's heart.

At the same time, the Church does hold that the fullness of the Christian faith and all that God has revealed subsists in the Catholic Church, so that's the best place to be. :-)

Lee said...

Well, happy to have that clarified, JDH.

As a Presbyterian, we still have differences with the theology even as clarified. But at least the Pope wasn't saying atheists can go to Heaven, or so it seems.