#28 OF 45 - THIS UNHAPPY BOOK REPORT ON "THE POLITICAL POPE"

# 28 OF 45 - THIS UNHAPPY BOOK REPORT ON "THE POLITICAL POPE"

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - BLOGGER. CINOPS BE GONE - THURS. JAN. 10, 2020

George Neumayer - "The Political Pope" Center Street, N.Y. 2017, Excerpts

CRITICISM OF AMORIS,  173-176

    "The German philosopher Josef Seifert said that Jesus and Mary must be "weeping" over Amoris Laetitia. "Pope Francis, who does not even once mention the possibility of sacrilege or peril to the soul of a person who receives Communion unworthily, tells adulterers that in certain circumstances which are to be considered individually, it is possible for those who live in adultery or in other irregular unions to receive Holy Communion without changing their lives, and so to continue to living as adulterers," he wrote.

    The effect of the pope's exhortation has bee n an unfolding disaster, said Bishop Athanasius Schneider. It "has unfortunately, within a very short time, led to very contradictory interpretations even among the episcopate," he notes....

    "A few bishops, twisting themselves into contortions, tried to present the document as consonant with Catholic traditions, arguing that it hadn't explicitly condoned Communion for adulterers. But even those straining efforts became unsustainable after Pope Francis sent a letter to bishops in the Buenos Aires region in September 2016. The letter praised their guidelines, based on Amores Laetitia, that authorized Communion for adulterers in certain cases. "The document is very good," he wrote to them. "There are no other interpretations." Around the same time, the diocese of Rome also issued guidelines permitting Communion for adulterous.

Mixed Signals

    "The sending of mixed signals has been a hallmark of the pontificate. In 2016, Pope Francis called Emma Bonino one of Italy's "forgotten greats," odd praise given her status as one of the most radical pro-abortion activists in the country's history. After being arrested for performing illegal abortions. Bonino went on to become Italy's version of Margaret Sanger. "True," she has her critics, Pope Francis said. "But never mind," he continued before praising her activism in Africa.

    "Sometimes it seems as if Pope Francis is determined to purge all humor from the phrase 'more Catholic than the pope," said former Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes, commenting on this episode. "Is Pope Francis blind to the fact that his praise for Bonino will be used to throw the lustrous vestment of the Papacy around the shoulders of the whole abortion movement, in order to enhance the glamour of evil?"

    "Vatican correspondent Sandro Magister has reported that the pope is keeping his distance from the pro-life movement, illustrated by the minimal support that he has given the March for Life in Rome.  "It remains to be understood why Pope Francis cherishes such a dislike, although he has condemned abortion on several occasions," said Magister. "In the U.S., The March for Life [near] the White House in Washington is already a classic. But in Rome at St. Peter it is not. Pope Francis does not want it show up."

    According to Magister, the pope gives short shrift to pro-lifers, barely mentioning them in publications  under his control and in his audiences. March for Life attendees are used to the secular media ignoring the event. But they were surprised to see in 2014 that the pope's own newspaper ignored it too. "L'Osservatore Romano also practiced shunning the whole initiative not even dedicating a single line to it," said Magister. ...

    Pope Francis has also kept his distance from Catholic activism opposed to gay marriage. In 2016, when the press asked him to comment on gay civil-unions legislation under consideration in Italy, he dodged the question, saying disingenuously that he couldn't answer it "because the pope is for everybody and he can't insert himself in the speech internal politics of a country."

  On issues like climate change, illegal immigration, gun control, and the death penalty, he has had no problem inserting himself into the internal politics of countries. During the vote over "Brexit" in 2016, he angered its supporters by opposing it. One of his aides said that a vote to depart would not lead to a "stronger Europe."...

George H. Kubeck