New York Times: Pope Says Church Is ‘Obsessed ‘ With Gays, Abortion and Birth Control New York Post: Pope: Stance on abortion, gays massive threat to church Rock Island Argus: Pope criticizes church emphasis on abortion, gays Bloomberg News: Pope says Church Should Stop Obsessing Over Gays, Abortion
On front pages across the United States that was the story. Certainly there was more to the Pope’s lengthy and wide ranging interview with a pool reporter for a collection of Jesuit publications. The entire interview is available here. And yes we appreciate the Pope’s frequent analogy of the church as a hospital for sinners. But is that all that it is?
Trauma care after the fact would seem to be a rather limited scope of practice for a church and totally inadequate for delivering “health” to souls. Is not health also related to prevention? Is the church not also charged to issue health warnings so to speak? Are not effective messages there not healthful in their own right?
The entire sentence from which the headlines across the world were pulled is “We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about the issues, we have to talk about them in context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.”
Given a spate of iconoclastic appearing statements in recent months from Pope Francis, and the press that resulted, it was entirely predictable that the portion that would be propagated and characterized would be the words from that statement. He is the Pope but he is not in charge of the world’s secular press (where most of the flock get their information) and in all humility must know that. For that reason we are content in good conscience to “reprimand” the Pope for allowing himself to be used.
Furthermore we are wondering either what country or maybe what planet he is referring to as regards the accusation of over talking the abortion or gay marriage or contraceptives issue? Seriously dear Pontiff, are you referring to the Western Church that you head? We cannot fathom serious objective Mass goers in the United states or Europe validating such a claim. It simply does not comport to the real world that people in the pews are constantly or even comparatively barraged with admonitions about any of those topics.
Just the opposite, there is a dearth of teaching on those subjects from the pulpit. Even in Respect Life month in the United States, from our ears to the ground, what most people get in the overwhelming percentage of parishes in an overwhelming number of diocese as regards that issue is perfunctory. The reality is that far more of what people hear in the pews is about “other issues.” In this country, matters related to immigration and social justice are what are “preached” to the near exclusion of the right to life or maintaining traditional marriage.
As regards informed general social criticism, the Pope’s statement is oblivious to the real world context of “those issues” in the United States and Western Europe. As regards the abortion issue in the United States there are a lot more woman helping / crisis pregnancy centers than there are abortion chambers. The largest growing element of the pro-life movement is of women who have had abortions and are now pro-life. That is the result of a welcoming movement for life. There is also a vibrant network to help woman and men aggrieved by abortion. Catholics provide much of this outreach.
Furthermore Western Europe and the United States effectively provide welfare for women period, no questions asked. What more does the Pope want? How much more needs to be demonstrated that no child has to die by abortion? That is the context in the United States and Europe. In Christian nations not as well off . . . abortion rates are lower . . . the Pope might want to reflect on that as well before popularizing misconceptions about what is at fault.
The matters he singled out are to a very real extent a result of the lack of teaching, a lack of talking about the implications and ethics of abortion on demand, irresponsible sex and the benefits of traditional marriage to society. It is a caricature that the Pope should know better about than to suggest that the problem with the acceptance of church teaching is too much preaching about those issues or negative aspects to them. There is very little preaching at all. R Mall
More reading on the Pope’s statement is available here. and here.
The effort to revise and extend his remarks, to clarify them is available here.
