The ‘c’atholic Left turns more and more against Pope Francis

A few days back the Vicar of Christ, Pope Francis, gave an interview to Il Messaggero.

There wasn’t much of interest in it. The Pope is becoming a little bit more careful, it seems. Rush Limbaugh and Michael Sean Winters were momentarily excited about his mention of Communism.  Ho hum. The only thing noteworthy in the interview was the additional blow Francis gave to the now-stale hopes of radical feminists everywhere.

The interviewer, a woman, raising the specter of misogyny, asked the Pope questions about the role of women in the Church.  The Pope essentially dodged them and made a couple jokes. I wrote about it HERE.

Liberals and feminists are not amused.

Remember, the holy grail of liberals and feminists is the ordination of women, something Pope Francis has firmly rejected.  “That door is closed,” quoth he.

His Holiness also warned women religious about “female machismo”, using with them the less-than-sweet Italian word “zitelle”.

Francis isn’t letting feminists run over him.  He isn’t knuckling under.  Their games of intimidation, to which they inevitably resort, won’t work with him.  Il Messaggero‘s interviewer surely expected Francis to quail at the mention of “misogyny”.

Instead, he laughed.

Liberals and feminists are, therefore, now turning on Pope Francis, both inside the Church (e.g., HERE … sort of inside, that is) and outside (e.g., HERE and, more recently, HERE).

At Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter), the featured female writers are openly turning on Francis (e.g., HERE and HERE).

Another example of the great liberal turning against Francis comes from another of the Fishwrap’s featured columnists, our old pal Phyllis Zagano.  She read a translation of the interview in Il Messaggero and had a bit of a meltdown.  Not sharing Pope Francis’ sense of humor, she took time off from her MOOS for the ordination of women, to tell the world about how benighted the poor, old male cleric is:

I’m sure Pope Francis did not mean to insult half the human race the other day. [In other words, she thinks he did.] In his first-ever interview with a woman journalist, he “joked” that women are taken from Adam’s rib and that women have power as rectory housekeepers.

OK, so he’s old, he’s tired, and he’s got a million things on his mind. But, hello, Holy Father — the world is watching.

[…]

And she continues with another one of her obsessive attacks on males, especially clerics.

I will always happily give Phyllis props for her solid pro-life position, but when it comes to clerics, she seems to have a vindictive streak that never ends.  Not even the Pope is exempt.

In the final analysis, her shot at Christ’s Vicar is insignificant in that it is cliché: poor old man, tisk tisk, another woman-hating priest.  Ho hum.

The more important point is that this is yet another example of how the catholic Left is starting to turn on the Pope.

They are so predictable.  The word “misogyny” raised in the interview is feminist catnip.

Pope Francis, whose style is out of step with his predecessors, is not going to overturn doctrine.  And, just watch, he is not going to approve of Holy Communion for Catholics in objectively irregular marriages.  He is not going to distribute condoms or approve of abortions.  He is not going to open a door to the ordination of women.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in Francis, Liberals, The Drill, Throwing a Nutty, You must be joking! and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

14 Comments

  1. Nicholas says:

    Breaking News!

    Pope actually Catholic!

    Humanae Vitae, part II.

  2. cwillia1 says:

    It was inevitable that the left would turn on Pope Francis. He does, however, need to get control of the message. This is one of Pope Benedict’s great virtues. [Slow down, there. Benedict had his bad media moments, too.]

  3. ajf1984 says:

    I like the title of the Salon article, about the Pope’s “Liberal Reformer Image” being “all Smoke and Mirrors.” Would that image, do you think, be largely the creation of the liberal media? Maybe not out of whole cloth, given His Holiness’ predilection for imprecise/colloquial/off-the-cuff speech and a general disregard for some of the more visible signs of papal conservatism (protocol, a high liturgical style etc.) with which Pope Emeritus Benedict (re)acquainted us.

    But certainly, the ‘media-darling’ Francis who was going to overturn the centuries of patriarchal oppression, re-write doctrine (and maybe Sacred Scripture too?) to promote the Culture of Death/Culture of the Now and being ‘with it’…isn’t the very “liberal reformer image” that Salon is lamenting as being a false creation their creation? And now that His Holiness doesn’t conform to the pattern they have cut, of course it’s all Francis’ fault. Puh-lease. Anyone at Salon take a look in the mirror lately? The Pope is no more and no less who he was before the latest interview, nor have his positions (I should think) changed drastically. But it’s becoming harder and harder to square the real man in those black shoes with the reformer they trumpeted and lauded back in March 2013…and for that I say Deo Gratias! The only smoke involved, I think, is the smoke of Satan…and you know who was blowing that this whole time! I don’t think it was Padre Bergoglio…

  4. Massachusetts Catholic says:

    I wish someone would ask the Pope on record his thoughts on women as deacons. That whole push is getting really old.

    [Wanna place any bets?]

  5. Gerard Plourde says:

    I think Pope Francis was sincerely making a joke. I also think that the joke recognizes an underlying truth, i.e. the sometimes unacknowledged existence of a form of “soft power” that can be exerted by our friends, families, acquaintances and people we respect. Maybe one of the reasons it caused such stir was the fact that it, as C.S. Lewis would say, “hit too near the mark.”

  6. nfp4life says:

    Too bad for the ‘c’atholics! (You can use Thom Peters’ “catholyc” too.)

  7. Bosco says:

    “Francis: The fact is that woman was taken from a rib … (he laughs strongly). I’m kidding, that’s a joke…”

    To be perfectly honest, it appears that Francis had amused himself with the thought that Genesis might be taken literally in respect of Eve being fashioned from Adams’ rib. (An amusement I don’t share and which might easily be read as papal for scorn for that particular Creation account.)

  8. kbf says:

    I was just wondering Fr, did Phyllis ever get round to writing that piece about you being part of a secret Opus Dei underground sleeper cell without the knowledge and permission of your bishop or any faculties? [We are still waiting for that one.]

  9. acardnal says:

    “Zagano Watch!”

  10. maryh says:

    @Bosco I think your question is serious. My take on it, perhaps to be confirmed or denied by those who understand Italian, is this:
    Reporter [paraphrased]: Can’t you make out misogyny at the base of this?
    Pope [paraphrased]: Of course. After all, woman was made from a rib.

    He’s jokingly agreeing with the common feminist viewpoint that misogyny can be connected with the bible story about woman coming from a rib. He’s not implying that the rib story isn’t true, but that it isn’t misogynistic.

    That’s the way it looks to me anyway.

  11. marcelus says:

    http://nypost.com/2014/01/31/meet-the-new-pope-same-as-the-old-pope/

    On deacons I remember a post that shows exactly how Francis feels about that. Will look for it. But it went like this: he told the anecdotes of priests in Argentina always trying to clericalize . So he said priests would come to him and say: eminence, this man is sick a good Catholic , why don’t we make him a deacon? He replies: is free a good Catholic? c priest said he is, yes. Pope Replies: he should continue as such. ” forget about women deaconss,not under Francis.

  12. marcelus says:

    Sorry must be read as ‘ this man is such a good Catholic”

  13. Bosco says:

    @maryh,
    I went by the translation linked to Father Z.’s article.
    While I appreciate your imaginative ‘he mighta said this and he mighta meant that’ take on this, I myself am mortally weary now from all the tortuous Rorschach tests served-up by Pope Francis since he became Bishop of Rome (his chosen moniker).

Comments are closed.