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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 11, 2023

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It should be noted that he is firing Bishop Strickland for insubordination -- Strickland accused Pope Francis of having a program to undermine the deposit of faith, Strickland signed on to a letter that called Pope Francis a heretic, and then when Strickland was initially subject to a disciplinary investigation he doubled-down rather than apologizing. Catholic bishops are not allowed to criticize the Pope that way, calling the Pope a heretic undermines people's faith. Any boss in the world would fire a subordinate for such a behavior.

It is true though, that the Pope does seem excessively lenient toward the German bishops. Part of this may be that German bishops have been a bit more subtle in not directly picking a fight with the Vatican.

Overall, Francis has not actually betrayed or revoked the deposit of faith or Church dogma. In his own writings, he has upheld Church teaching on the disordered nature of homosexual, the invalidity of "gay marriage", and the impossibility of changing one's sex/gender.

It is true that in more informal settings he has made ambiguous statements that seem to wink at a more progressive, or even heretical view on key issues. Also, I do agree that his choices of which disciplinary battles to fight do reveal a progressive bent. The most charitable explanation is that he is trying to put a spin on things that the progressive media will find palatable, and thus give the Church more cover. The least charitable explanation is that he wants to change the Church teaching, but doesn't want to boil the frog too quickly so he walks right up tot he line of heresy without crossing it. Or for believers, he walks up to the line but cannot cross it because the Holy Spirit is still protecting the office of the Pope.

he has made ambiguous statements that seem to wink at a more progressive

I was about to make a comment about the pope because of recent politics and statements, apparently he warned against the "little adolphs" of the world, referring to a politician running for president in Argentina. He's more than winking progressive, he's a left-wing politician.

Strickland signed on to a letter that called Pope Francis a heretic.

This one? The one that says the plain meaning of Francis’s statement in Desiderio Desideravi:

”The world still does not know it, but everyone is invited to the supper of the wedding of the Lamb (Re 19:9). To be admitted to the feast all that is required is the wedding garment of faith which comes from the hearing of his Word (cf. Ro 10:17).”

contradicts canon XI of session XIII of The Council of Trent:

”CANON XI.-lf any one saith, that faith alone is a sufficient preparation for receiving the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist; let him be anathema. And for fear lest so great a sacrament may be received unworthily, and so unto death and condemnation, this holy Synod ordains and declares, that sacramental confession, when a confessor may be had, is of necessity to be made beforehand, by those whose conscience is burthened with mortal sin, how contrite even soever they may think themselves. But if any one shall presume to teach, preach, or obstinately to assert, or even in public disputation to defend the contrary, he shall be thereupon excommunicated.”

because yeah, it does. Actually, forget “is the pope catholic?” Can the pope read? I’ve seen some bad interpretations of Revelation, but this one might take the cake. Here’s Revelation 19:9 in context:

6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. 9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

It’s literally the opposite of what Pope Francis was saying. What the actual fuck?

”The world still does not know it, but everyone is invited to the supper of the wedding of the Lamb (Re 19:9). To be admitted to the feast all that is required is the wedding garment of faith which comes from the hearing of his Word (cf. Ro 10:17).”

The charitable interpretation of is that "wearing the wedding garment of faith" of course entails the things that faith in Christ and faith in the Catholic Church entails, that it entails righteous deeds, following Church discipline, purification, repentance, etc. It seems silly to require the Pope to explicitly say everything that faith entails every single time he talks of the importance of faith. Certainly Saint Paul did not so do. And yes, a bishop is required to interpret fellow Catholics charitably and only make accusations of heresy as a last recourse.

Now, in context, is this statement easy to misinterpret? Yes. Did Pope Francis purposely state things in an ambiguous way to try to nudge bishops into being less strict about denying communion? Perhaps. But as a bishop, Strickland needs to interpret the letter charitably and limit is criticism to warning about possible misinterpretations of the letter -- he should not straight accuse the Pope of teaching heresy. If you care, you can listen to a more thorough analysis of these letters from Michael Lofton.

The charitable interpretation of is that "wearing the wedding garment of faith" of course entails the things that faith in Christ and faith in the Catholic Church entails, that it entails righteous deeds, following Church discipline, purification, repentance, etc.

That's more charity than the Salvation Army provides in a year, though.

It is true though, that the Pope does seem excessively lenient toward the German bishops. Part of this may be that German bishops have been a bit more subtle in not directly picking a fight with the Vatican.

This is because the German bishops are unpopular among the faithful, and Strickland is very popular among the faithful. Pope Francis is a corrupt argentine with declining approval numbers and an increasing dependence on even more corrupt, incompetent, and unpopular figures, whose initiatives have largely failed and whose opponents have managed to convince the mid-rankers that putting fringe groups in charge would be a significant improvement.

It’s not a mystery why he lashes out at popular conservatives while ignoring elderly, out of touch liberals.

On 'the gay stuff', he's orthodox. The whole "who am I to judge?" line was cherrypicked out of a discussion with the press on board the papal plane about a specific case.

He's much more lenient when it comes to things like divorce and remarriage, because he has a very strong view of the pastoral role (to find and bring back the lost sheep rather than banging the rule-book on the table).

Benedict was 'my' pope rather than Francis, I think he's made some ill-judged comments and has moved in some ways that are not great. But he's the pope.

He's a South American Jesuit, yeah he's going to lean 'progressive'.