Pope Francis will not allow himself to be adopted by partisans on the Left or Right
Is it suspicious that Pope Francis has become the new darling of the commentariat? An eyebrow is rightly raised when His Holiness is affably mentioned by the partisan mass media machine which has a track record of calumny and detraction when covering the Church. No, there hasn’t been a conversion of formerly spiteful opinion editorialists. There’s just as much pre-selected data emphasised as ever when it comes to the Vatican.
The Holy Father’s reminders to the faithful of the venerable and traditional relationship our Church has with the lowliest of society (originating from the works of mercy) are ruthlessly amputated from Catholicism, sanitised, deodorised and made palatable to specific groups of politically minded bravos. Francis’s papacy has been spun into one of two things by the press: a referential slogan for bleeding-heart liberals or a melancholic sigh for dyed-in-the-wool conservatives.
Don’t let either veneer fool you. This Pope, like the two before him, demonstrates to the world the apolitical beauty of Christ’s Church. When after being “reprimanded” for not confronting the political hot topics of the day, such as abortion and gay marriage, he responded that “the teaching of Church for that matter was clear and I am a son of the Church”. He means he is not up for adoption by either political wing.
The Pope’s rich comments on the beauty of living an ordered and Christocentric life are purposefully overlooked by the ravenous media and we’re presented with a sweet old inert man full of Lefty one-liners. We miss gems such as this: “…if we do not profess Jesus Christ, things go wrong. We may become a charitable NGO, but not the Church, the Bride of the Lord.”
Something will eventually be said about abortion and gay marriage. When they are, be ready for disappointed editorials from the Left, hopeful headlines from the Right and the battle to have one side’s flag raised over St Peter’s, which has been reduced to a gambit.
