Friday, March 29, AD 2024 2:00am

PopeWatch: Slap in the Face?

PopeWatch2-199x300

 

Breitbart tells us that our graceless President continues to be a leftist boor:

 

In a stunning show of political indecorum, Obama has invited a series of individuals who publicly flout Catholic teaching, including a pro-abortion religious sister, a transgender woman and the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, along with at least two Catholic gay activists.

The White House was illuminated in gay pride colors on June 26, 2015, after the Supreme Court legalized gay same-sex marriage.

One of the invitees, retired Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, made history by becoming the first openly gay episcopal bishop in 2003 and subsequently the first to divorce his gay partner in 2014, after having previously separated from his wife of 14 years. He has attended a number of religious events with the Obama administration, offering a prayer at President Obama’s inauguration in 2009 and taking part in the 2014 National Prayer Breakfast.

Mateo Williamson, a cross-dressing woman and former co-chairman of the Transgender Caucus for Dignity USA, has also received an invitation to the White House for Pope Francis’ visit. Williamson says that though she now thinks of herself as a man, she continues to be attracted to males. “Today I identify as a gay man and before that was difficult to understand because I thought that in order to be transgender, in order to be a transgender male that I had to be attracted to females but I never have throughout my entire life.”

Though Pope Francis has said that he doesn’t believe in judging persons and is ready to welcome anyone in Christ’s name, he has also said that Catholics do not accept the modern mentality of transgenderism and once said that gay marriage is the devil’s “attempt to destroy God’s plan.”

“The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift,” Francis wrote in his encyclical letter on the environment, “is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation.”

Earlier this month, the Vatican officially prohibited transgender persons from being baptismal godparents posing as the opposite sex from which they were born.

In its response, the Vatican Doctrinal Congregation said that “transsexual behavior publicly reveals an attitude contrary to the moral imperative of resolving the problem of one’s sexual identity according to the truth of one’s sexuality.”

Another White House invitee for the Pope’s visit, Sister Simone Campbell, is the pro-abortion executive director of the social justice lobby NETWORK. Campbell fought against the U.S. bishops when Obama’s Affordable Care Act was originally being debated, in an attempt to undermine their abortion and conscience concerns.

Go here to read the rest.  For any other Pope this would be a slap in the face.  For Pope Francis, who knows?  It isn’t as if Obama asked Cardinal Burke to the ceremonies.

Update:  Apparently the Pope does regard this as a slap in the face:

 

On the eve of Pope Francis’s arrival in the U.S., the Vatican has taken offense at theObama administration’s decision to invite to the pope’s welcome ceremony transgender activists, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop and an activist nun who leads a group criticized by the Vatican for its silence on abortion and euthanasia.

According to a senior Vatican official, the Holy See worries that any photos of the pope with these guests at the White House welcoming ceremony next Wednesday could be interpreted as an endorsement of their activities.

The tension exemplifies concerns among conservative Catholics, including many bishops, that the White House will use the pope’s visit to play down its differences with church leaders on such contentious issues as same-sex marriage and the contraception mandate in the health care law.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
39 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Father of seven
Father of seven
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 4:43am

Who knows? I think we know. This is the same pope who allowed a Communist dictator thug to drape the pope with a symbol of atheism and mass murder in his recent visit to Bolivia. When the Vatican and its company men were finally scandalized by this pope, he doubled down and said he wasn’t offended. A few transgenders and an abortion loving nun? No worries. No offense taken.

DonL
DonL
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 4:43am

Quite a contrast to the manner in which Christ was required to be covered up so as to not insult our “Christian ” president when he went to Georgetown–a once Catholic university.

Well, if our pope can accept a desecrated Marxist crucifix…..

Philip
Philip
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 5:29am

We get to witness,publicly, what salt looks like trampled underfoot. Unless!…unless the Pope can muster up some courage and teach from the depths of our faith what True Mercy looks like. I hope for the latter, but feel the tasteless coming on.

Prayers. Always prayers for him.

Shawn Marshall
Shawn Marshall
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 5:53am

birds of a feather?

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 6:26am

Who is being slapped! Again. Jesus.
First under the high priest ( that year de facto two- Caiphas and Annas) – andt then the government.

there can be seen a parallel, having a retired pope….
At any rate there seems to be no one in a position to do anything about the ongoing tragedy of the torture and abuse of His Church

DonL
DonL
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 6:52am

I can’t imagine this diabolical game even being tried if this were again, the late pope JPII and his accomplice for Christ, Mother Theresa.

Times have indeed changed, but then, there were but just a few days between Christ’s grand entrance into Jerusalem and His crucifixion.

Ken
Ken
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 8:04am

Perhaps Obama is playing late night talk show host; tonight’s guest line up-the Pope, a gay Episcopalian, a tranny & a wacko nun. What about a dog that performs tricks? One thing this papal visit and late night talk shows have in common is that I won’t pay attention to either.

However, I will make one easy prediction; Pope Francis is going to say something incredibly stupid/antagonistic that is going to further diminish his popularity among everyone, not just conservatives.

Elizabeth Fitzmaurice
Elizabeth Fitzmaurice
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 8:05am

Sadly, I don’t think this Pope will have any problem whatsoever with Obama’s invitees.

Philip
Philip
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 8:12am

DonL aptly calls it a diabolical game.

True!

A game of the black cat toying with the Holy mouse…the bait of course are the guests.
If the mouse wishes, he could man up in defending the Church and love neighbor by stating the facts of sinful actions and the contrition sought by God from the repentant sinner. Or he can be toyed with, slapped around by a flea infested cat.

Diabolical game indeed.

William P. Walsh
William P. Walsh
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 9:19am

I remember something my wise mother used to say as a caveat to various situations. “Come into my parlor, said the Spider to the Fly”.

Stephen E Dalton
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 9:33am

A slap in the face? This foolish Pope is getting the audience he deserves, but it’s a pity the Papal office is being dragged down by this!

Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 10:25am

The fish rots from the head down, but Obama shows little evidence of adding much to the vectors at work in the Democratic Party. He is who they are . This is what they are, that’s what they do. Richard J. Daley is dead.

Dale Price
Dale Price
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 11:35am

Meh. I’m not going to be offended on his behalf. I strongly doubt the Pope will take it as an insult. After all, he took a hammer-and-sickle “crucifix” in stride.

Clinton
Clinton
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 1:22pm

I agree with Dale Price: meh.

I imagine His Holiness is eager to dialogue with these people from the peripheries.
He’s already made clear his contempt for self-absorbed promethean neo-pelagians
like myself, breeding like rabbits and making spiritual bouquets. Now if Obama had
invited members of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, then there would
be howls of protest from the Holy See…

Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 1:36pm

I imagine His Holiness is eager to dialogue with these people from the peripheries.
He’s already made clear his contempt for self-absorbed promethean neo-pelagians
like myself, breeding like rabbits and making spiritual bouquets.


Mr. McClarey needs to call up Sam the Eagle. I do not expect ever to see a more concise summary of this papacy.

Ronald Sevenster
Ronald Sevenster
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 3:17pm

This Pope has undermined Catholic teaching more than anyone of his recent predecessors. Now the chicken come home to roost. Notwithstanding that Obama is an evil genius, this would never have happened if the Pope had been courageous in defending the doctrinal and moral teachings of the Church. But because of his laxism he now deserves what he gets.

Philip
Philip
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 3:23pm

Cardinal Burke will be enjoying the show with a fresh bag of popcorn and a corn dog.

Seems like a fitting meal for this gathering.

Oh….and a bottle of Blatz…lite.

Phillip
Phillip
Thursday, September 17, AD 2015 4:00pm

I have no problem with Pope Francis meeting these people as long as he, like Christ, tells them to go and sin no more.

Sadly, I don’t think that will happen.

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 2:45am

One would suspect the folks in question have not come to wash Pope Francis feet with tears of repentance. Rather they have come to celebrate self indulgence with our permissive Pope who only disdains those who make a point of taking Christ’s message seriously. Perhaps Pope Francis should consider today’s epistle:
1 Tim 6:2c-12.
Beloved: Teach and urge these things. Whoever teaches something different and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the religious teaching
is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes. From these come envy, rivalry, insults, evil suspicions, and mutual friction among people with corrupted minds, who are deprived of the truth, supposing religion to be a means of gain.

DonL
DonL
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 3:38am

“One would suspect the folks in question have not come to wash Pope Francis feet with tears of repentance. …”

Best line of the week!

It is not their actions I’m interested in….it is the reaction (of this insult to God) of Pope Francis, for which I hold great trepidation and fear.

Jeanne Rohl
Jeanne Rohl
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 5:54am

??

Missy
Missy
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 6:06am

I’m so glad you’re all here, I don’t feel so alone. Living 30 minutes from DC makes it hard to politely suffer the “you seriously don’t want to go see the pope?!?!?!?!?!?!” from both Catholic & non-Catholic friends. Even my hubby got the email regarding the 4th degree knights (wives are invited) needed in Philly to attend the Mass, but he’s busy that day. It’s almost embarrassing that we aren’t dropping everything to go.
I think I’ll be fasting & praying while the Pope is here.

D Black
D Black
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 7:05am

All the sodomites will probably pose for a picture with Pope Francis with Obama by his side. Then back to Rome later this month to consult with new democrat operatives he invited to sit on the Synod of the Family – Cardinal Timothy Bravo Dolan, and America’s little Francis Archbishop Cupich who went in all of six months from being an unknown bishop in little Spokane all the way to Rome to “advise” about the Catholic family and marriage. The man who says abortion is on the same level with feeding the homeless and clothing the poor. The man who refused to let his priests participate in pro-life marches. Lord Jesus Christ look down on your church and protect her because the current crop of “protectors of the faith” are trying to their best to destroy her.

Philip
Philip
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 7:42am

Are we our brothers keeper, or are we to accept behavior from our brothers that is defined as disordered, and instead of admonishing their behavior, embrace them and welcome them in just as they are?

If we do not lovingly speak the truth are we assisting them in their sin?

What can we take from Our Holy Father that will enable the behavior, or will he speak Truth with love, and send a true teaching throughout the world. We will soon see.

Dale Price
Dale Price
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 7:55am

According to the Wall Street Journal, there are rumblings that the Vatican is not happy with the guest lineup. So, I may have to eat my words, which would not be so grim this time.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/vatican-disputes-white-house-guest-list-for-papal-visit-1442533549

James
James
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 8:26am

Slap in the face? We will see. I’d hate to believe its a mutual handshake, but I’ll have to be disabused of that notion by Pope Francis. I’m not holding my breath.

JTLiuzza
JTLiuzza
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 8:58am

I won’t hold my breath but wouldn’t it be nice to hear the Pope deliver a speech to such an assembled group that denounces now and forever the hideous sins of modernity and fruits of the “enlightenment” like glorification of sodomy, “transgenderism,” contraception, abortion…?

Goodness know the world needs to hear it.

c matt
c matt
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 9:37am

So let me get this straight – “Mateo” is a genetic female who thinks she is a male, but is still attracted to males (because she is really a female) and therefore believes herself to be a gay male trapped in a female’s body? I am so confuse.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 10:01am

According to the Wall Street Journal, there are rumblings that the Vatican is not happy with the guest lineup.

The guest list includes a lineal descendant of Sister Boom-Boom and the alcoholic clown pooftar who was the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire. One would hope there would be some irritation at the optics and all.

mkbara
mkbara
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 10:10am

My question: in diplomatic circles, isn’t it normal to have the guest list approved by all parties? Would the Vatican not have to have approved this?

Clinton
Clinton
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 11:02am

Mkbara, I believe you are correct– the guest list would be vetted and approved by
all parties. Naturally, that would have happened well in advance of the trip, so under
normal circumstances it would be absurd for the Holy See to act as though it is
only now getting news of the guest list.
.
That said, this administration has a long history of botching diplomatic protocol.
Recall the gaffes surrounding the Obamas’ state visit to the UK during his first term,
or the ridiculous, grammatically incorrect “reset” button with the Russians. I’m not
sure if the amateurishness in this State Department is due to incompetence or
indifference, but it is possible that’s behind what we’re seeing here.
.
When one has contempt for the people one is dealing with, there’s little incentive
to observe the niceties.

Charlie
Charlie
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 11:46am

Pray for the Holy Father & those “dignitaries” who will figuratively – and knowingly – mock him, spit on him, strike him with reeds and pluck hairs out of his beard. I pray Pope Francis will tell them their souls are in mortal peril.

James
James
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 12:02pm

Perhaps the guest of honor would see fit to tell his host to — “climb” — up a rope, and absent himself from the festivities. He frequently employs this disposition toward those among his flock who are faithful the Magisterium of the Church.

Penguin Fan
Penguin Fan
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 12:31pm

Obunbler disgusts me, and so do his supporters. I am surprised by nothing he does or says. He is a nauseating narcissist assad his followers and fellow travelers are idiots. This guest list is disgusting.
The Caudillo Pontiff is on the cover of People Magazine. That rag, like all other celebrity rags, succeed in destroying functioning brain cells and wasting paper.
Remember, we must pray, do penance, and persevere. Steel becomes stronger when heated, to burn out impurities. So does one’s faith.
Queen Isabel the Catholic, Servant of God, had to put up with the Borgias in the Vatican while she appointed bishops and Cardinal Cisneros to reform the Church in Spain.
Obumbler will pass from the scene soon, just not soon enough. The Caudillo Pontiff is from a screwed up order and a screwed up country. His blathering can be discerned by any knowledgeable Catholic and should be disregarded.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 12:55pm

grammatically incorrect

It was not gramatically incorrect, it was a mistranslation. The Russian foreign minister looked at it and explained that the word on it meant ‘overcharge’. What hits you is that Russian is an Indo-European language commonly taught on arts-and-sciences faculties. The institution I know best has only about 200 professors and lecturers but springs for a Russian department. But the frigging U.S. State Department assigns the task of producing this gew gaw to someone who makes an error a 2d year student likely would not. I’d at least like to think the perpetrator was a patronage employee placed there after working pr for the Democratic Party. (Jen Psaki, I’m looking at you).

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 12:58pm

it would be absurd for the Holy See to act as though it is only now getting news of the guest list.

I can introduce you to a liberal Episcopalian who thought it was an absolute amazement that any diocese would want Vicky Gene Robinson as their bishop. She said you listen to him for a few minutes and the man’s inadequacy and narcissism hits you full force. That was before his sojourn in the drunk tank and before his “divorce”.

Patricia
Patricia
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 1:09pm

A slap in whose face?
It could be that of the resisters of gradualism, if such a collection of people are approved to be at the table with the one that all the fans will be cheering and ‘loving’, and those who are also included in that ‘confirming’ slap. There will be derisive jokes at dinner not heard by the followers in the streets, who may be subject of the jokes. The word – holy – becomes common, and, most likely, misunderstood. The worried Vatican officials are concerned about photographs, not about any possibility of the visitor claiming abhorrence of the infanticide, sexual self-indulgence, and heretical practices and liturgy – perception of photographs with dinner companions. A headache (from all the noise) and needed rest (he recommends that confessors seeks prescriptions for pills) could be an out.
Just hope the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception will be filled with the intervention of heavenly Angels and Saints.

Patricia
Patricia
Friday, September 18, AD 2015 2:50pm

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/pope-francis-white-house-visit/2015/09/18/id/692202/
.
Well, the comment above was a personal perception based on recent history of both actors. There isn’t any hierarchical guidance to enhance understanding of situations, only “love is our mission’.

Discover more from The American Catholic

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Scroll to Top