Opus 2016-155: Discernment Watch: Is the Pope a Catholic?

Every once in a blue moon I click on the button at the top of the blog that says “next blog”.  Many of the offerings that turn up have been abandoned by their creators.  That is what I got today.  On a whim I looked at the blogs he had linked and clicked on one called Bad Catholic.  It was still active so I read a post dealing with Pope Francis. 

I got the impression he felt Pope Francis was misunderstood by liberals and conservatives.  As I read quickly I came across a statement that I thought bears repeating.  The topic was the Pope seeming to be soft on divorce and remarriage.  The Pope called for mercy.  The post then came to a defense of the Pope in called for mercy.

“...the gaze of mercy either presupposes the actual failure of the recipient of mercy, or else it is no mercy at all. This is missed by a culture that conflates mercy with allowance and forgiveness with acceptance: An increase in mercy is an accentuation and not a cloaking of moral ideals.”

The point is that the Pope is not speaking from the point of view of our post-modern world but from the point of view of the traditional Christian world-view.  In that view mercy is only extended when there has been sin that needs to be forgiven.  Also assumed is repentance and a desire to be forgiven.

It is a good reminder that the culture is practicing deconstruction, a philosophy that says there is no absolute truth.  Our culture keeps redefining words to mean what they want instead of what they mean.  Thus the world does not need real forgiveness because they reject the standard that says they are guilty of sin.  They want to be accepted as they are, not expected to become what they should.

The Bible has standards.  The author says the Catholic church has standards and that Pope Francis is in agreement.  I know the first is true.  I hope the second is also.

homo unius libri