Sunday, November 10, 2013

Left behind

I loved this NYT story.
“It seems he’s focusing on bringing back the left that’s fallen away, but what about the conservatives?” said Ms. Kurt, a hospice community educator. “Even when it was discouraging working in pro-life, you always felt like Mother Teresa was on your side and the popes were encouraging you. Now I feel kind of thrown under the bus.” 
Good. Stay there, lady. I assure you that's where you belong. Ah, the schadenfreude. It sparkles like new snow. So Pope Francis is being mean to the, (ahem), mean people? Tch, tch, tch. So sad. 
They were shocked when they saw that Francis said in the interview that “the most serious of the evils” today are “youth unemployment and the loneliness of the old.” It compounded the chagrin after he said in an earlier interview that he had intentionally “not spoken much” about abortion, same-sex marriage or contraception because the church could not be “obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines.” 
Imagine that! The pope said something evil was evil, instead of saying that something silly, kind or helpful was evil. Wow! That must have driven a stake through the conservative "heart" -- and I use quotes there for a reason. These people don't have actual hearts.

They're shaking in their boots:
Steve Skojec, the vice president of a real estate firm in Virginia and a blogger who has written for several conservative Catholic websites, wrote of Francis’ statements: “Are they explicitly heretical? No. Are they dangerously close? Absolutely. What kind of a Christian tells an atheist he has no intention to convert him? That alone should disturb Catholics everywhere.” 
In an interview on Friday, Mr. Skojec said he was overwhelmed by the positive response to his blog from people who said they were thinking the same things but had not wanted to say them in public. He said he had come to suspect that Francis is a “self-styled revolutionary” who wants to change the church fundamentally. 
Let's hope so. But seriously, these people are totally crazy. You don't often hear Catholics speaking of "prophecy" -- but these gomers do:
Some conservative Catholics are sharing prophecies online that foretell of tribulations for the church. In one, an Irish woman predicted that Benedict would be held hostage. Others cite the German mystic Anne Catherine Emmerich, who wrote of a “relationship between two popes,” one who “lives in a palace other than before,” which some now see as a reference to Benedict, who resigned as pope early this year but still lives in Vatican City. During this time there arises a “false church of darkness.” 
I'll bet they cherish the "Long Island Medium" too. Francis, if you're irritating these specific people, you're doing a bang-up job. Enough from me. I have to go share some prophecies online now. Later.