A Question and Answer Session With an Americanist Papolater, by Jack Seney

This was written by a Facebook friend of mine. It is so good that I asked for, and graciously received, permission to post it. Thanks, Jack!

I'm in the mood for a question and answer session with an imaginary American Pope Francis loyalist-in-all-things, so I'll frame his questions in quotes and then give my answers. Here we go:

Q. "Don't you know how people elsewhere in the world suffer in poverty?! Don't you see how lucky you are to be an American?! How dare you criticize this country from your traditional Catholic point of view?!"

A. America can take back anything that it has ever "given" me, keep anything that it ever will "give" me, and leave me to die in the street, if only it will stop murdering babies in the abortion genocide. Many of the people who suffer extreme povery in the world do so in countries that do NOT mass-murder babies by abortion, and many of their people would agree with me. America's shibboleths about how wonderful she is are not going to cut it anymore, not after the genocide of 50 million innocents and counting by abortion.

Q. "But America gives you the right to protest these things! Why aren't you grateful for that?!"

A. Oh really? The American mass media allows much talk about abortion that does not support "pro-choice" causes? The media here give the same coverage to large anti-abortion demonstrations that they do to "women's rights" and "anti-gun" marches? Baloney! God gives us the ability to protest evil and there are enough millions of us doing so that America has not yet directly tried to stop us. But indirectly the government does everything in its power to stop us, including through its unholy marriage with the mass media.

Q. "The Novus Ordo Mass has reached out to countless people who couldn't relate to the Catholic Church! What is your problem that you rarely attend it, and go out of your way to attend the Traditional Latin Mass?!"

A. Your own statement shows that one goes out of one's way to attend the Traditional Latin Mass. What you should be asking is what it is about that Mass that has the power to draw people to do so who knew nothing of it and did not grow up in it. And what it is about the Novus Ordo that its mission of "bringing everyone in" has generally had an exact opposite effect according to all available statistics.

Q. "What is your problem with being accepting of people like homosexuals?! Didn't Christ sit and eat with sinners in defiance of the Pharisees?! Shouldn't you follow Pope Francis in doing the same?! Who do you think you are?!"

A. Christ ate with sinners with the goal of converting them. After saving numerous people in the gospels from sin, He told them to sin no more. He also warned that continuous sin would mean even worse consequences. Does anyone tell this to homosexuals and other pervasive sinners today? Are there many modern homosexuals who are prepared to sin no more? Or even make the effort? Does Pope Francis tell them to stop sinning, or just "reach out" to them and "try to be inclusive"? Or even worse mix the message and make them think they can be good Catholics and simultaneous active homosexuals? Having said all that, I believe homosexuals and others should be ministered to, but not in the liberal way that has become the norm.

Q. "But Pope Francis is as orthodox as anyone and we have his public statements to prove it! He is pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-family! Isn't your real problem that he questions the capitalist economic powers of the world and is on the side of the poor?!"

A. To the contrary, I question Wall Street more than he does. In fact in the final analysis I think Francis believes in the world economic system, whereas I do not, not on the capitalist nor socialist nor any other side. As for his values, I used to say such things about Francis as well back when I was defending him, as I did for nearly two years after he became Pope. But the confusion he has created by saying something pro-life one day, then removing all the strong pro-lifers from important Vatican panels the next, became too much at last. Actions speak louder than words. Incident after incident like the above combined with his dubious-at-best Amoris Laetitia controversy which Francis himself apparently cannot defend, combined even further with all sorts of clashes caused by nothing but Francis' actions, are what have finally led me to the suspicion that we have a bad pope, which anyone who reads Catholic history knows is not so unusual and which we will survive because the survival does not depend on us, but on the eternal God.

As for the poor - of whom my income is low enough that I might be counted among them as one of the working poor - the Church has always helped them and always will. Even under the "richest" popes and Vaticans this has been the case. Francis is not doing anything so wonderfully different or new by putting on a dramatic and sentimental show of washing people's feet and talking to "homeless" people who like to live off handouts as "free vagabonds" and don't like paying rent or going to work. Saint Paul said that the man who refuses to work should not be allowed to eat! But the namby-pamby "Oh let's feed everyone including the bums" ethos of the modern Church is far from such discipline and suffers accordingly.

Meanwhile, all of the Francis "tender love and gentle caring" goes right out the window when dealing with those who dare to question Amoris Laetitia. Questioning it is entirely legitimate given that Cardinals in good standing are doing it within Church guidelines. But Francis minions threaten to shut down conservative-leaning and Amoris-doubting EWTN or have Ray Arroyo fired from there, which is just one example of their temper tantrums.

I pray for Pope Francis that he will drop his confused apparent attempts at "big changes" and "evolution" and simply be the Shepherd of the Church. Shepherds do not worry about changing this or that, but live in the world under God and do what is best for the flock, without doing anything to confuse or mislead them as this cannot possibly be good for their safety. If Pope Francis is having trouble managing this, then he should perhaps become the first one to take his own advice of a few years ago, and make self-retiring popes a more common thing.