Fr. Z's Blog

I hadn’t realized that Pope Francis was a Marxist until two weeks ago. This was when he issued his lyrical, compelling [poor translated] Gospel of Joy and was immediately described as a fellow travelling socialist by left as well as right; the former with delight, the latter with horror.

The truth, of course, is that all the Holy Father did was to bring Pope Leo’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum into the 21st century and condemn state socialism as well as “unfettered capitalism.” But the mingling of ignorance, malice, and absurd wishful thinking from media circles epitomized the way the man and his opinions have been misinterpreted since he was elected pontiff.

It was particularly noticeable, and exasperating, in the larger, left-leaning newspapers and media outlets throughout the English-speaking world. The BBC in Britain, the New York Times in the United States, and a host of others suddenly became interested in the Pope. It was trendy to be Catholic-friendly, at least for a few moments and in a certain way. The often hysterical but nevertheless relatively influential Bronwen Clune proved all this in The Guardian, the liberal conscience in Britain.

“I never thought I’d see the day when non-Catholic people (never mind socialists and atheists) would voice their approval of a Pope. But that is just what happened when Pope Francis, in his apostolic exhortation delivered last week, talked about unfettered capitalism as a new tyranny, attacked the idolatry of money, called on rich people to share their wealth, and laid out a vision for a decentralised church. Overnight, he became the left’s new pin-up.”

But just in case liberal Catholics out there think all is red and right about the world, the new comrade was quick to put matters right.

“There was a glimmer of hope in my ex-Catholic soul. Not so much that it changes anything for me now, [See my comments on The Francis Effect™.] or even realistically for many Catholics in the near future (it will take more than one man to break down 1,300 years of institutionalisation) but there is something appealing in realising that my faith, even though long lost, was not entirely rotten.”

Well, that’s nice of her.

The condescending and suburban nature of the piece aside, it demonstrates rather well the colossal ignorance amongst so many journalists concerning what the Church says and is. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?] Pope Benedict was just as critical of unbridled capitalism and consumerism as his successor, and said so for a longer period of time. And consider for a moment Clune’s statement that she assumed Catholicism to be “entirely rotten”. A sweeping generalization so clumsy that no teacher, let alone an editor, should have let it pass. Good Lord, even mass murderers are not entirely rotten! [Nope.  That category is only reserved for the Church.]

It’s this sort of nonsense that led Random House to ask me to write The Future of Catholicism (Signal Books), published earlier this month. My previous two books, particularly Why Catholics Are Right, had sold surprisingly well and even enormous secular publishing houses know a good thing when they see it.

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You can read the rest over there.

Coren is good.  If you haven’t read him, I recommend him.

Don’t forget HERESY: Ten Lies They Spread About Christianity.