What It Means to Be Catholic Now

[DonViejo]

By PETER MANSEAU MARCH 9, 2014

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — ONE year into his astonishingly popular papacy, Pope Francis has become the perfect divining rod for uncovering assumptions about the future of the Catholic Church.

After an interview last week, during which he responded to a question about civil unions with a discussion of how “secular states” used them “to regulate different situations of cohabitation,” some mainstream media outlets reported that he had signaled a new openness to same-sex unions. More cautious analysts countered that he had done nothing of the kind.

Wishful thinking is rampant where Francis is concerned, perhaps especially among those born into the faith who have grown distant from it. While a recent Pew poll suggests that church attendance in America has not risen with the pope’s steady stream of positive press, the image he projects of a kinder, gentler Catholicism has inspired many of the lapsed, the recovering, the former and the fallen to reconsider the possibilities of being Catholic without qualification.

Yet even as the pope appears to be opening a big tent, others in the church hierarchy ensure that it will not expand too far. Last July, in response to a question about gay priests, Francis famously uttered one of the lines that set the tolerant tone of his pastoral style, “Who am I to judge?” That same month, the Archdiocese of Detroit published a warning against “nearly a dozen churches” in its jurisdiction that “use the name Catholic, but aren’t.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/opinion/what-it-means-to-be-catholic-now.html?emc=edit_th_20140310&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=57435284

[Bluenorthwest]

1. Francis is a hyperbolic anti gay, anti choice activist

and the tactics used to promote him are frequently dishonest and aggressive.

[skepticscott]

2. The fact that people have to regularly misrepresent what he's said

is pretty sad, and tells you all you need to know about why he's so popular.

[trotsky]

3. He says the things liberals want to hear...

but his actions and policy are still the same as what conservatives want.

Pointing this out gets you labeled an "anti-Catholic crank," or worse, however.

[mr blur]

4. >

[skepticscott]

5. But you know what?

He's not even really saying what liberals want to hear. They're still having to morph what he's actually said to get it to where they want, in addition to ignoring a lot of other things he has said. The regular quoting of the phrase "Who am I to judge?" out of context is just one example. His alleged "support" for same sex marriage from last week (which was in reality nothing of the kind) is another.