1)
First off, the whole phrasing of “ God made me
gay” and “gays have the right to be in a family sounds so bogus and is such
facile theology I find myself really doubting this story. , I really doubt the Pope who has written
beautifully profound things like Laudato Si’ or, the one who gave us the
beautiful homily of hope in the midst of soaring death rates in the rainy dark
and empty St. Peter’s piazza, would say
such cheap sound bite things which show such a lack of understanding. I think these are taken out of context and
filtered through the documentary maker’s own all consuming world view on this
issue. I highly suspect him of propagandizing
for his fetish cause. Also, I can’t hear
or understand the statements myself because I don’t speak Spanish, so I can’t
tell you exactly what he said. I don’t
know how he edited things. I have to
rely on interpreters. So that gives me
another layer of questioning the actual statements.
2)
We’ve already heard from this guy (sorry too
lazy to look up his name!) last year.
This is the same interview but now since it’s in a documentary it is ‘news’
again. We’ve already been through this,
though. Are we going to repeat this one
interview and a couple of sentences somehow every year and act aghast all over
again? Which brings me to the next
point. We are gullibly at the mercy of
cynical and exploitative forces in the media.
3)
The media knows that anything controversial is
clickbait and means money to them.
Therefore their primary purpose is to stir up controversy. (Not that
they don’t do good at times but you definitely have to sift the wheat from the
chaff these days when it comes to trustworthy objective reporting of news). They also have an agenda of undermining Pope Francis
and the Catholic Church. This is easy to
do since the church has been dealing with corruption at high levels, all kinds
of sordid sin and is full of sinners, including the pope, who often say foolish
things or don’t exercise the prudence they ought to. We are such an easy target. And we are money for these folks. Bad combination.
4)
The media works to divide us and we now are
living in silos where we demonize the other side unthinkingly. We are
conditioned like Pavlov’s dogs to salivate and growl at every stimulus they’ve
trained us to respond to. Don’t be a
Pavlovian dog! Instead pray for the
fruits of the Holy Spirit. Exercise
patience, self-control, kindness, humility especially when talking about the
Holy Father. And do not spread untruths, gossip, scandal, detraction over the
internet. Do not post when you are
upset. Make that an absolute rule. Practice self-sacrifice by not indulging in keyboard
rage. Go off and pray, give thanks to
God for all his mercies and blessings.
Do something more important! (I am talking to myself here as much as to
anybody!).
5)
Read church history. The Church has always been
a mess. Judas started things off
badly! Peter goofed up repeatedly. “Look not on our sins but on the faith of
your Church.” There is a reason that is
a part of every Mass’s prayer! Read
church history to get a better perspective.
We’ve made it through truly horrible times and we’ll do it again! In spite of the fallen nature of man.
6)
Remember Pope Francis was giving a private interview. Learn your own Catholicism better. You as a Catholic should be able to
distinguish between when something is spoken magisterially and when it is an
off the cuff remark. Why don’t you know
your faith better? Ignorance means you
are easily manipulated. Take
responsibility!
7)
I really like, admire and trust in Pope Francis
in many ways, but I do think he can be sloppy and unclear at times. The media
and his enemies (the Enemy!) exploit this.
No one is perfect. Today is the feast of St. John Paul II. He is rightly revered, but he also had some
terrible glaring faults. Much sexual abuse
went on under his reign and in fact people tried to warn him and he turned a
blind eye. The Legionaries of Christ and
his explicit support of Marcial Marciel are a despicable legacy of JPII’s reign. There are people alive today who are the walking
wounded, having suffered severe trauma because of the Catholic hierarchy’s outright
complicit or negligent approach to the problem of sexual abuse by clergy. In fact, the guy who did the interview with
Pope Francis may be one of these walking wounded. The sin of abuse reverberates again and again
down through time. Yet we respect and
love JPII. Apply the same standard to
our current Holy Father. Or as St. Paul said, examine everything, take
what is good.
8)
I remember when gay marriage was becoming an
issue, there were people who supported the idea of a civil union because it
would be a secular, governmental thing and perhaps would keep us from redefining
sacramental marriage. I remember people
saying that marriage used to only be a church thing and it was the anti-Catholic French
Revolution that made it a secular thing.
I remember arguments like that coming from conservative and faithful
Catholics. I don’t think supporting
civil unions is anything but an attempt to keep civil authorities from imposing
on religious teachings. Or at least it can be construed that way. You may vehemently disagree with this and my
memory is a bit fuzzy but I do remember that there were a variety of approaches
to this issue taken by various conservative voices.
