Pope Francis has a penchant for slinging insults at people who have the temerity to think differently from him. Now you too can berate people just like Pope Francis! Mahound’s Paradise brings us the details:
One of the most annoying things about the Francis pontificate is how the mainstream perception of his personality and style are so at odds with the reality.
Exhibit A is “Who am I to Judge?” Francis is different (so goes the mainstream perception). Unlike most of his predecessors and the vast majority of priests and bishops in the Church’s 2,000 year history, he takes a nonjudgmental, mellow, live-and-let-live attitude. He’s not there to preach from on high about how others are sinners or about how some people are so wrong about this and that or whatever. What a breath of fresh air.
That is of course almost a complete inversion of the truth.
No pope in living memory has been such an inveterate judge, scold, lecturer, niggler and nag. Hardly a homily goes by without a nasty poke at one group or another for not being sufficiently loving or merciful or spiritual or God knows what all else including not putting one’s recyclables in the correctly colored bag. And the target of his nasty but often insipid or weird barbs is usually (though not always) Catholics or Christians.
Even if Francis were a paragon of doctrinal wisdom (which he oh so obviously is not), this would be troubling. His big thing is pastoral care, but no pastor worth his salt consistently insults his flock and makes them feel like schmucks compared to . . . their pastor. In a sane Catholic world Bergoglio would have flunked Pastoral Care 101 and been kicked out of seminary. I guess he could have then pursued his first vocation as a butcher.
A few months ago we wrote about The Pope Francis Little Book of Insults, a creation of the brilliant blogger at The Bones You Have Crushed May Thrill. Now a friendly party has taken those positively Shakespearean darts and put them into a Random Insult Generator. Every insult generated is from a documented Pope Francis homily, address, writing or similar. The citations can be found at The Bones.
To give you the flavor of it, I’m going to use it right now and record the first four results. The results are real and I will not edit them or redo it in any way. Hopefully we’ll get some good ones.
Ready?
Little Monster!
For another insult, refresh the page.
Pickled pepper-faced Christian!
For another insult, refresh the page.
Proud, self-sufficient, detached from the people, intellectual aristocrats, who closed their doors and resist the Holy Spirit!
For another insult, refresh the page.
Pagans with two strokes of Christian paint, so as to appear like Christians, but pagans nonetheless!
There, don’t you feel better? Doesn’t it get the blood going? Oh, heck, let’s do another:
Children! Afraid to dance! To cry! Afraid of everything!
Go here to read the rest, you self-absorbed promethean neopelagian you!
Caiaphas the High Priest presided over and even deliver insults to and torture of Christ Himself. It is par for the course that the current Pontifex Maximus should preside over and ever deliver insults to and torture of the Body of Christ. The Occupier of the Seat of Moses could twist Scripture around to suit himself. So can the current Occupier of the Sedes Petri.
So if the faith of others includes raping girls/women to get them to Allah (or some other god), that can’t be insulted?
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I think I like those ol’ time sexist pig Triumphal Popes. The ones were thought the Church was the Real Deal and people needed to convert. Women didn’t have to worry about being raped or sold into slavery
When the defenders of the “Francis effect” get into high gear, these will become Francis’s misunderstood attempts at “welcoming sinners.”
I have to take the contrarian position on this. I looked up some of the quotes, and I don’t see a problem with the things that Pope Francis was saying. I’ve only rarely seen personalized criticism from him. Most of the comments seem to be directed at very common behaviors that deserve to be called out.
The overall effect is one that’s hard to take, I realize. He calls for love and non-judgment in the same speeches as he delivers the barbs. He seems to lack self-awareness on the matter. But look, is there no clericalism in the Church? No vanity? Is there a complete lack of rigidity and superficiality? Saints called out their listeners on these kinds of weaknesses.
There’s a very common problem that shows up most clearly on the internet, but exists in our day-to-day lives as well. It’s a type of confirmation bias, wherein we jump to conclusions about the other person’s arguments based on keywords. We’ve all seen that political discourse in this country has broken down (which is not to say that it’s always been ideal in this country or in any country – but there’s definitely something wrong happening these days). It’s true in religious matters as well. I know that if someone complains about rigidity, I’m going to assume he’s an enemy, because I’ve seen that angle used to attack some things I hold dear. But if you take the stuff that the Holy Father has said and look at the context and the overall meaning, all but the pettiest are criticisms of attitudes and actions that deserve criticism.
Because you have to realize that raping young boys, beheading Christians, flying jumbo jets into tall buildings, denying Christ’s Incarnation and Resurrection, insulting the Holy Trinity, and mutilating female genitals are just a part of their culture.”
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Someone once told His disciples to “Go forth and make disciples of all nations.” The same man, late in St. John’s Gospel, told His interrogators that, “No one is good except God.”
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Of course, the World has a different agenda than Christ’s (He told us). Only problem: worldies shouldn’t be running (into the dirt) the Vatican.
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“Oh Magoo, you’ve done it again!” comes to mind when I see a picture of the current Pope.
“One of the prime ways people with narcissistic personality disorders is to dump their shame on others through blame, criticism, name-calling, and projection.”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/stop-walking-eggshells/201201/shame-is-the-root-narcissistic-borderline-disorder
Pope Francis is a very disturbed individual who should be seeking help rather than displaying his symptoms and spreading scandal. Let us pray for him.
.So how did he get there?
I wish he would simply take the approach of St. Peter. I have never heard anything remotely like this from him.
Acts 2:38-41
Peter [said] to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit. For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.” He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day.
PINKY, thank you so much for all those good words!!! You are so right on!!! D. McClarey, try some love in your heart. You would have more and better to offer the church that way, starting with respect for Pope Francis. Your lack of understanding is astounding and painful to read. Get a Christian life together!!!
“Your lack of understanding is astounding and painful to read.”
Well, linred, reading of TAC is voluntary. As for me getting some “love in my heart”, I assume if I do, like you presumably, I can then tell people to “get a Christian life together”?
Your comment about the pre-Vatican II Church are unsurprising considering this comment you left on this blog earlier this year:
“All Christians have the same chance for salvation, keeping in mind salvation is not a written exam. The Catholic Church has no monopoly on the Holy Spirit. Catholics should not regard themselves as the biggest, and, therefore, the best in the world wide church. Such an attitude does not give glory to God and does not foster evangelization.”