CAL THOMAS COMMENTARY MAY 21, 2024
IN A RARE ONE-ON-ONE INTERVIEW SUNDAY ON “60 MINUTES” POPE FRANCIS CRITICIZED AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE CATHOLICS. HE TOLD NORAH O’DONNELL: “CONSERVATIVE IS ONE WHO CLINGS TO SOMETHING AND DOES NOT WANT TO SEE BEYOND THAT. IT IS SUICIDE.”
THAT COMMENT REMINDED ME OF WHAT BARACK OBAMA SAID ABOUT SMALL TOWNS SIXTEEN YEARS AGO: “THEY GET BITTER, THEY CLING TO GUNS OR RELIGION OR ANTIPATHY TOWARD PEOPLE WHO AREN’T LIKE THEM.” WHILE I AM NOT A CONSERVATIVE CATHOLIC, I DO KNOW QUITE A FEW OF THEM. MANY WHO ARE SAVED ARE INSTRUCTED BY SCRIPTURE. THEY ARE NOT BITTER, BUT THEY ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE LIBERAL DRIFT IN THEIR CHURCH. THIS POPE SEEMS TO BE RUSHING TOWARD THE WORLD’S WAYS AT LIGHT SPEED. I THINK IT IS FAIR TO SAY THAT POPE FRANCIS HAS USED “INCLUSION” TO INCLUDE MANY PEOPLE WHOSE BEHAVIOR AND SINS ARE DENOUNCED IN SCRIPTURE.
I RECALL SOMETHING THE LATE COLUMNIST JOSEPH SOBRAN, A CATHOLIC, ONCE SAID: “I’D RATHER BELONG TO A CHURCH THAT IS 500 YEARS BEHIND THE TIMES AND SUBLIMELY INDIFFERENT TO CHANGE THAN I WOULD TO A CHURCH THAT IS FIVE MINUTES BEHIND THE TIMES, HUFFING AND PUFFING TO CATCH UP.”
I’M CAL THOMAS.
You are correct in lamenting the leftist swing of Pope Francis. The problem is that Roman Catholic theology stated in the Council of Trent that they are not bound by the Bible. Accordingly it is difficult to understand how conservatives in that church have any recourse against a pope who goes rogue.
Well said