John Allen speculates that the Pope simply does not like Americans:
At one stage, Pentin asked Fellay about the pope’s repeated denunciations of “doctors of the law” and “fundamentalists,” wondering if Fellay takes those jibes as directed at his society or traditionalists generally. In response, Fellay said he’s asked around Rome what the pope means by that language.
“The answer I got most was ‘conservative Americans!’” Fellay, who’s Swiss, laughingly told Pentin. “So really, frankly, I don’t know.”
One might suspect Fellay was deflecting, except for this: He’s absolutely, one hundred percent right about what one typically hears in Rome on the subject of who leaves this pope cold.
By now, it’s clear that one defining feature both of Francis’ personality and his approach to governance – which shouldn’t be at all surprising, when you think about it – is a distinct ambivalence about the United States and about Americans.
Go here to read the rest. My guess is that Allen is probably correct. As a Latin American the Pope likely shares the traditional antipathy that many people in that region feel towards the Colossus of the North, even as so many of them disobey our laws to get into the country. Argentina, a State blessed by God in material wealth, and cursed by Man with appalling leadership, has long had a bitter antipathy to the United States that dominates the world stage, while Argentina barely receives notice. As a leftist, especially one who has had many Marxist friends, he may look askance at every American who is not a liberal Democrat as beyond the pale politically. As a Church radical, the prelates of the Church in America probably are under suspicion by him, no matter how much they abase themselves.
Oh well, for a nonjudgmental loving type of Pontiff, the current Pope seems to have a long list of groups on his “I Can’t Stand” list, and if most Americans are on that list, that is his problem and not ours.
Praying?! Francis looks like he’s sleeping through the National Anthem! He acts like he really doesn’t want to be here. Well, if he’s still around after 11/20/17, perhaps the next POTUS can make that possible by declaring him non persona grata!
glad some one with a forum is finally saying this. been obvious for a while that he has a simplified and negative view of the US and Americans.
I would be disappointed if Jorge Bergoglio does not like true, authentic, patriotic, conservative Christian Americans. In fact, I do not want to be liked by him and his kind, and trust me, I don’t like him and his kind right back. Pagan light show on St Peter’s Basilica, happily receiving a commie crucifix, tacitly allowing the Eucharist to adulterers, hop-hobnobbing with the likes of Bernie Sanders….the list is endless.
“As a Church radical, the prelates of the Church in America probably are under suspicion by him, no matter how much they abase themselves.”
Most American prelates are no different than the pope when it comes to matters of economy and immigration. Just look at the outlandish things individual American bishops say and the annual Fortnight for Freedom (Operation Define Religious Liberty Down to the Abyss of the Meaningless)when it lists certain states immigration laws as violations of religious liberty alongside the HHS contraception mandate. If the Pope looks down on the American episcopate it’s because he is jealous that they are outdoing him in the anti-Americanism department!
. The Pope is also horrified that the militarily strong USA in many states has the death penalty which probably over 90% of Popes affirmed throughout history due to Romans 13:4 which was made canonical as the epistles were after several more partly pacifist centuries of the early Church ( Origen, Tertullian, Hippolytus). Some early saints felt like leaves on a turbulent river called the Roman empire and some probably thus over identified with physical insecurity as being part of the essence of Christian life. Francis may see himself as early pacifist saint like Cyprian and the US as Rome and as center of arms dealers like Raytheon and others. I’ve given Catholic alms my whole life but I can rack a pump action shotgun with one hand like Shaw in Person of Interest if you set off a window alarm in my home. Yes I went too far with one burglar in a street fight after tracking him carrying my blue athletic bag from the house…and God gave me a gentle but real warning afterwards ( not the first time I went Bronson) and I could be shot any month from a passing car by that burglar especially if he bonds with Hoover Street Crips in jail. But…that’s life on the NY harbor. I fear NJ highway driving far more than I fear a drive by…literally. In any event, Pope Francis may be a fan of early pacifists like Hippolytus who wanted Church membership to hinge on leaving the military….which military in those days though included pressure to participate in idolatry. With Marcus Aurelius after 163 AD, Catholics had their own Thundering Legion in the Roman army….Tertullian was not happy. Francis has all the ideas of an early Catholic pacifist faced with the Roman empire. But he likes that metaphoric life a little too much.
I’m not exactly fond of him either.
Socialism/Capitalism, Capitalism/Socialism. Each is not fulfilling to societies in the end.
Distributism is the means out of the maze, I wish this Pope would speak clearly on that.
Of course, I wish he would speak clearly on a great many things…
Doesn’t like Americans? I’d love to be wrong, but I get the impression that he doesn’t much like Christians.
i agree Mike R. The U.S. has been a leader of Christian nations and people- the logical target for someone who wants to upset the applecart.
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Bill Bannon, I like your comment about Shaw and Person of Interest. It’s one of the very few TV shows I have liked in the past few decades. A great POI storyline would be The Machine identifying the current Pontiff as a perpetrator. Maybe the Pontiff is behind Samaritan.
The current Pontiff is every bit the narrow minded nasty man the Rorate Caeli post from 2013 says he is. I do not believe he thinks the USA is full of hardliners…he does listen to the Wuerlybird, who got Cupich appointed to Chicago, when better candidates such as Zubik and Tobin, two former auxiliary bishops under Wuerl, were passed over.
No, it really isn’t that,but rather the antipathy Argentines have against the United States. Argentina is a big fat nothing on the world stage. It has a basket case economy, a military that could not stop a troop of Girl Scouts selling cookies, it whines over the Falklands when it can’t govern itself and it let in Nazis during the end of WWII. Eichmann was found by the Mossad in Buenos Aires
I have pointed out that Poland has surpassed Argentina in several economic factors. Bet the Pope doesn’t like that either.