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PopeWatch: Impatient Lefties

VATICAN-POPE-AUDIENCE

Some of the Pope’s fans on the left are beginning to get impatient:

Spanish revolutionary, Harvard-educated public health specialist, abortion rights advocate and Roman Catholic nun.

These four labels seldom apply to the same person, but Sister Teresa Forcades, a 48-year-old woman from Barcelona, straddles many worlds.

In Europe she is the star of televised debates on feminism and religion, a leader of the Occupy movement in Spain who has taken on big corporate interests and a fierce critic of modern capitalism. 

She pulls no punches with her views. “I don’t think it is possible to have democracy and capitalism. They go against each other because the way we live capitalism is that we allow some corporations to have such power that they are able to influence government. And that’s the problem,” she told Al Jazeera in an interview.

Until recently, these controversial opinions might have led to her being reprimanded by the Vatican. But now, with a new leader in power apparently committed to fundamentally changing the church’s approach on social justice issues, she believes she’s merely taking some of Pope Francis’ ideas and running with them.

The new pope has invigorated the previously isolated social justice wing of the church, a change that many leading activists have welcomed. But at the same time, others are warning that his papacy has so far been more about a shift in tone than about substantive change on key issues such as abortion, women’s ordination and gay rights.

Go here to read the rest.  The Catholic left in Pope Francis hope they have the Pope they have dreamed about.  Still too early to be certain, but PopeWatch is becoming increasingly certain that they are going to be vastly disappointed by this Pope.

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DJ Hesselius
DJ Hesselius
Thursday, February 20, AD 2014 9:30am

Abortion rights advocate Catholic nun.
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More and more, I find myself thinking not “What would Jesus do?” but “What would St. Peter do/say?”

WK Aiken
WK Aiken
Thursday, February 20, AD 2014 1:23pm

I am finding “Harvard-educated” to be less and less as meaningful as it might have been a couple of generations ago. Perhaps “Harvard-indoctrinated . . .”

Pinky
Pinky
Thursday, February 20, AD 2014 1:26pm

I’m trying to imagine how much glue I’d have to sniff for this article to make sense. I frankly don’t have that kind of time.

WK Aiken
WK Aiken
Thursday, February 20, AD 2014 1:33pm

“Forcades said that while “in many cases the pope is right” when he calls abortion a sign of the world’s “throwaway culture,” she said a woman’s right to self-determination should supersede the rights of an unborn infant before it is able to survive outside its mother’s womb. Calling it “the argument of the lesser evil,” she said in some cases it is better to allow abortion than to force women into motherhood.”

Evidently, Pinky, she’s beat you to it.

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Thursday, February 20, AD 2014 6:23pm

How long ago did we learn that there is no lesser evil?
Also :
“I mean there are some of the church’s structures that will need to change to come closer to the poor” ??? I missed it- what church structures is she talking about.

“Francis’ misogynist interpretations of Scripture” reminds me that, like the young Wisconsin woman who spoke in defense of requiring Iowa State University to take Gideon Bibles out of hotel rooms, the misogyny is in the eye of the feminist.

They won’t be happy until the Catholic Church is no longer what it is.

Philip
Philip
Friday, February 21, AD 2014 4:51am

A Catholic nun normally has these “four labels;”

Obedience to the teachings of Holy Catholic Church and it’s magisterium.

Poverty

Chasity

Humility

One without the others and the structural integrity fails. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is compromised.
Possibly the dear Sister is filling herself.

Venerable Solanus Casey-
“God condescends to use our powers if we don’t spoil His plans with ours.”

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Friday, February 21, AD 2014 5:35am

Thank you for sharing Wisdom as it shone through the Simple Priest Father Solanus, We love him at our house! Tho the 20th cent was a pitched battle, God shed His Grace through some marvelous saints who walked their walk with us on this earth even during our lifetimes.

Philip
Philip
Friday, February 21, AD 2014 5:58am

Anzlyne-

Your welcome.
He is one of our favorites as well.
(Fr. Solanus.)

His humility is glorious! 🙂

Spambot3049
Spambot3049
Friday, February 21, AD 2014 6:29am

Liberal dissenters from Catholic teaching receive almost uninterrupted praise from the media, as al-Jazeera America has given Sr. Teresa Forcades. Don’t mean to pick on AJAM specifically, because I think they are typical of mainstream media coverage of the Catholic Church. A quick search of their website leaves little doubt about their agenda:
http://america.aljazeera.com/search.html?q=catholic
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From the article, AJAM is kind enough to note, “Catholics in Africa are said to support Francis, with 99 percent of Catholics there reported to be against gay marriage.” As far as I can tell, no one at al-Jazeera has ever taken the time to interview a Catholic woman in Africa, to understand her viewpoint well enough to publish an article on the suject, and give their readership her name and face. They know, they know that positive coverage of simple, pious Catholic viewpoints might sway some readers. So, none of the Catholics in Africa are treated as individuals, only as statistics. And the trend of increasing dissent among Catholics on prolife issues in America and Europe continues under the banner of ‘social justice’.
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The parallel we see is with political leaders and U.S. Supreme Court justices. Liberals are praised for their acumen and compassion, so once they start left, they stay left. (More broadly is Robert Conquest’s rule: Any organization not explicitly and constitutionally right-wing will sooner or later become left-wing.)
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I continue in my pessimism that the media will turn on Pope Francis this calendar year or any time soon. I think they will stick with the winning formula of positive coverage for now.

Mary De Voe
Friday, February 21, AD 2014 8:12am

“She (Forcades) pulls no punches with her views. “I don’t think it is possible to have democracy and capitalism. They go against each other because the way we live capitalism is that we allow some corporations to have such power that they are able to influence government. And that’s the problem,” she told Al Jazeera in an interview.”
.
Forcades has confused capitalism with fascism. Speaking to Al Jazeera and spreading her misconceptions, errors, is tantamount to treason.

Mary De Voe
Friday, February 21, AD 2014 8:16am

“I continue in my pessimism that the media will turn on Pope Francis this calendar year or any time soon. I think they will stick with the winning formula of positive coverage for now.”
.
The media will continue to abuse Pope Francis’ public persona until the media can no longer abuse Pope Francis’ public persona.

Jeanne Rohl
Jeanne Rohl
Friday, February 21, AD 2014 9:01am

Wasn’t she hired to drive for the “Nun’s on the Bus?” (I live only about 3 miles from the birthplace of Father Solanus) Love him too!

Timothy O'Brien
Timothy O'Brien
Friday, February 21, AD 2014 11:02am

I did not know you could still function as a nun while completely excommunicated.

2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.

slainte
slainte
Friday, February 21, AD 2014 1:10pm

Liberalism and Catholicism are not compatible. The issues Sister Teresa Forcades advances are collectively rooted in liberalism and its ideology of radical individualism and liberatation from all oppressive hierarchical authority, especially Catholic dogma and its priestly male hierarchy.
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Catholics who have grown up in liberal societies are so infused with liberalism’s tenets that they are unable to discern the difference between Catholicism and liberalism. I count myself among those who have conflated Catholic theology and liberal philosophy and find myself constantly trying to unwind the two.
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The laity’s inability to distinguish between Catholicism and liberalism largely springs from 50 years of not catechizing the Catholic faithful. I would suggest that Sister Teresa Forcades is a victim of this unfortunate abrogation. Sister’s Catholicism is so imbued with liberalism that the latter has caused her to evolve and become freed from the contraints of the very faith in which she is a consecrated religious sister. She remains unaware that she has effectively renounced Objective Truth in favor of a nature based ideology.
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Confused Catholics need help unwinding liberalism from Catholicism…they also need to be catechized.

trevor
trevor
Friday, February 21, AD 2014 3:14pm

greetings from New Zealand……..I take it she is a Catholic nun, not a roman catholic nun?? we have people like this in NZ.

Mary De Voe
Saturday, February 22, AD 2014 7:03am

trevor
“greetings from New Zealand……..I take it she is a Catholic nun, not a roman catholic nun?? we have people like this in NZ.”
.
A Catholic nun and a Roman Catholic nun are the same thing. Using small letters, I see you are in accord with a liar, a worshiper of the devil through human sacrifice and a blasphemer using God’s Name “I AM” in vain.

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Saturday, February 22, AD 2014 7:28am

roamin’ catholic

trackback
Wednesday, February 26, AD 2014 9:40am

[…] Pope: ‘Tyrannical Dominion’ Is Threatening Lives of Elderly – E. Pentin PopeWatch: Impatient Dissidents – Donald R. McClarey JD, TACatholic Pope Francis: Mass Every Sunday Very Important – […]

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