Pope Francis feels quite free to lecture the world about the supposed need for nations to limit their sovereignty in the face of carbon dioxide, a component of the atmosphere that amounts to less than one percent, one that plants convert into their biomass through photosynthesis.
The pope is also quick to repeatedly bash those whom he calls “fundamentalists” but who seem to include people who take the tenets of their faith, including (if not especially) those of Catholicism, seriously.
Yet, Francis refuses to comment on the sinfulness of contraception or homosexuality. To him it is a greater sin to uphold one’s faith and nation as distinct from all others than to commit carnal sins that separate us from God.
Certainly one can take nationalism and dogmatism to unhealthy levels, but in his drive to water down national and religious distinctions, Francis isn’t simply condemning the very extremes of fanaticism, he is undermining the distinctions themselves.
via Life Site News via the National Catholic Reporter:
[. . .]
Recounting a meeting he had participated in that focused on what kind of world we are leaving our children, the pope said someone there had asked: “But are you sure that there will be children of this generation?”
“We are at the limit,” said Francis. “We are at the limit of a suicide, to say a strong word.”
But he added: “I am sure that almost all who are in Paris … have this awareness and want to do something.”
“I have trust; I have trust that these [leaders] will do something,” the pope continued. “Because I would say I am sure they have the good will to do it. And I wish that it will be so, and I pray for this.”
[. . .]
Francis also faced a question about the church’s teaching prohibiting use of artificial contraception from a journalist who asked if the church should consider changing its stance on the issue — particularly on the use of condoms — given the continuing spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa.
“The question seems too small to me,” the pontiff responded. “It seems to me also like a partial question.”
“The morality of the church is found on this point, I think, in front of a perplexity,” he said. “Fifth or Sixth commandment? Defend life, or that sexual relations be open to life? This is not the problem. The problem is bigger.”
“This question makes me think of what they asked Jesus one time: ‘Tell me, master, is it licit to heal on the Sabbath?'” Francis continued.
“Malnutrition, exploitation of persons, slave work, lack of drinking water,” he said. “These are the problems.”
“I do not like to descend into reflections that are so casuistic when people are dying,” he continued. “I would say to not think if it is licit or not licit to heal on the Sabbath. I say to humanity: Make justice, and when all are healed, when there is not injustice in this world, we can speak of the Sabbath.”
Francis also spoke out strongly again against religious fundamentalism, saying that fundamentalism exists in all religions and should be combatted with efforts at friendship. He said he prefers not to speak of having tolerance for other religious, but “living together, friendship.”
“Fundamentalism is a sickness that is in all religions,” said the pontiff. “We Catholics have some — and not some, many — who believe in the absolute truth and go ahead dirtying the other with calumny, with disinformation, and doing evil.”
“They do evil,” said the pope. “I say this because it is my church.”
“We have to combat it,” he said. “Religious fundamentalism is not religious, because it lacks God. It is idolatry, like the idolatry of money.”
On a similar line, Francis also defended Islam, saying that Muslims have many constructive values.
“I even have the experience of friendship — it is a strong word, friendship — with a Muslim,” said the pontiff. “We can speak. His values are mine. He prays. I pray.”
“You cannot cancel out a religion because there are some groups, or many groups in a certain point of history, of fundamentalists,” said the pope, adding that Christians have to ask forgiveness for the many times wars have been perpetrated in the name of their faith.
“Like everything, there are religious people with values and those without,” he said. “But how many wars … have Christians made? The sacking of Rome was not done by Muslims, eh?”
Read more at National Catholic Reporter.
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