Monday, January 20, 2014

The Media's Pope



If you check out this article we wrote for Unam Sanctam, you'll find our take that the popular image of Blessed John XXIII is a fabrication. The notion of Pope John as the patron saint of dissent, heresy, and schism that has been propagated is the furthest thing from the facts. His own writings provide proof aplenty of this.

However, we've been left with the media's fake Pope John since 1965 as the most widespread view of the man.

The press seeks to do likewise with Pope Francis.

We've pointed out here before things like the selective quoting of Evangelii Gaudium and the wholesale blind-eye turned to Lumen Fidei. Consider these recent headlines as new evidence:

Pope, after conservatives' criticism, calls abortion "horrific"

Because, of course, Pope Francis was donating money to Planned Parenthood until "conservatives" forced him to condemn abortion. Maybe they were too busy calling the Holy Father a Marxist to read this part of Evangelii Gaudium:

Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenceless and innocent among us. Nowadays efforts are made to deny them their human dignity and to do with them whatever one pleases, taking their lives and passing laws preventing anyone from standing in the way of this. Frequently, as a way of ridiculing the Church’s effort to defend their lives, attempts are made to present her position as ideological, obscurantist and conservative. Yet this defence of unborn life is closely linked to the defence of each and every other human right. It involves the conviction that a human being is always sacred and inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of development. Human beings are ends in themselves and never a means of resolving other problems. Once this conviction disappears, so do solid and lasting foundations for the defence of human rights, which would always be subject to the passing whims of the powers that be. Reason alone is sufficient to recognize the inviolable value of each single human life, but if we also look at the issue from the standpoint of faith, “every violation of the personal dignity of the human being cries out in vengeance to God and is an offence against the creator of the individual”.

Or maybe that was compelled by evil conservatives holding the Pope at gunpoint? We must again ponder why journalists who write this kind of garbage aren't openly mocked.

Just make sure when you hear something that relates to the Vicar of Christ that it's the real one and not the media substitute.

8 comments:

dave b said...

It would have been more honest for the cardinals to just elect Barack Obama to the papacy. After all, what you got was just a white clone of Obama who speaks Spanish. Same ideology. Same focus on pandering to the media and not listening to the people. Its like they were separated at birth.

Throwback said...

Obama defends the life of the unborn?

You seem to have missed something.

dave b said...

Francis defends the life of the unborn? That's why it took him 10 months before he even made one lame half-hearted statement on the subject.

Throwback said...

He's made several such comments before this.

Is it really necessary for the Pope to announce his opposition to abortion? John Paul II did so on a regular basis. Pope Benedict did as well, albeit probably not as frequent. Should Pope Francis have said something sooner? Maybe. Is it all that earth shattering that he didn't? Probably not. People who want to question the Pope's position on abortion are worthy of mockery but not much else.

You seem to be falling prey to the exact narrative mentioned in the post.

dave b said...

What about his claim that "everyone is redeemed, everyone, including atheists"? Do you give him a pass for his deliberately deceptive language on the guise that "popin' ain't easy" as if its possible to make an error that big by mistake?

Throwback said...

To say there was an error would mean one of two things. Either (a) you think that redemption is the same as salvation or (b) you subscribe to some of the blasphemous Reformed doctrines of limited atonement by not believing that Christ died for all men.

In whichever case, the Pope isn't the one making the mistake.

dave b said...

He is, inasmuch as he made these comments not to a collection of theologians but to the news media. He should know the same two points you just mentioned. This means he is purposefully deceiving people.

Throwback said...

I'm quite sure he knows the points I mentioned. You don't have to be a theologian to know them. Simply being Catholic would be enough, I think.

For the entire history of the Church, most of the Pope's comments on anything are to non-theologians. While I would be in favor of fewer papal statements to the media (and anyone else), there isn't much that will fix this. The media did the same thing with Pope Benedict's comments re: condom use. That was even less a matter of theology than this item.

Ultimately, bad spin is going to happen no matter what.